I have not had a chance to even blog. It's been such a crazy semester so far. I'm actually looking back to AP American History in high school and wishing for something like that. That would be 10x easier!
This semester is Med Surg and Maternity. 2 classes would sound easy, but not when there are clinicals on top of it and a whole bunch of other crap they want you to do besides tests all packed into a death crazed short term of a summer. The good thing is that it's short. PAINFUL, but short.
Let's see.. for Med Surg, we have 7 tests, a final, and clincials. In clincials, they want us to go the day before and get a patient to write a careplan for so we can be prepared to take care of them the next day. This is annoying and time consuming, but I really see the use for this. You get to see the client's history, what meds they are taking, and a whole bunch of stuff that the nurse you are going to work with won't know. They don't have time to even look at the chart. They look at the orders, medications they have to give, and go off of report from the nurse on the previous shift. They don't really have time to browse through the client's chart and assess which religion he or she is. Personally, it is actually kind of nice to get a background on the client. We have clinicals, BUT apparently this semester we aren't doing enough hours because it is such a short semester, so we have to go into the lab and do these things called microsims. I haven't done them yet (doing the first 2 hours tomorrow!) but basically you need to do 6 hours worth. They are a simulation type thing on the computer where you have a client and you are taking care of them and then sometimes they will have complications and you have to figure out what to do before they die. Some of my friends have 'killed' patients... I'll probably do them same! ha. AND then as if we didn't have enough to do, we have to do 8 hours worth of case studies. I have yet to do this as well, but from what I've heard they aren't bad, it just takes a lot to get 8 hours in.
For Maternity we have 4 tests, a final, and clinicals. For clincials in this class, you don't have to go the day before and pick a patient. BUT before you even start clinicals, there are 3 careplans that have to be memorized. I haven't done that yet, but I'm waiting until next month when I actually have to be concerned about it. There are also quizzes for each unit but they aren't so bad. I think that may be it for the work load of maternity (I *think*... could be mistaken, there is just so much to do). Obviously maternity is the easier course. The thing that sucks about the tests though...is there are a couple of weeks where we have a Med Surg and Maternity test the same day.
I've been doing Med Surg clinicals. They are harder, but surprisingly I am enjoying them. You get to see all sorts of crazy crap. The nurses so far have been so nice and helpful. It's been good. Last week I got the sweetest guy. He was an older gentleman that was admitted to have all sorts of surgeries. It was cool. I got to see his HUGE abdominal incision.
The floor I was working on last week was really busy. The nurse I was working with was really stressed. I could tell. He was trying to convince me that it wasn't too late to stop nursing school and become something else. It totally caught me off guard! He was still funny. I did get to see him remove a rectal tube which is something I never knew exsisted. It's like a foley catheter only up the other way... No one on the floor knew how to take it out, and it was his first time to take one out. Honestly, totally disgusting. If I have one piece of advice for someone taking out a rectal tube, paper towels all over. Put them down. PAPER TOWELS. Don't forget it. Otherwise there will be liquidy bowel movement all over the sheets and floor and someone (probably a poor CNA) will have to clean it all up.
I've gotten to do some skills that I've learned last semester and this semester. I've been able to inject people with various drugs, take IVs out, take foley catheters out, and administer medications through an NG tube. It's been educational. Can't wait to see what the next floor will offer!
This semester is Med Surg and Maternity. 2 classes would sound easy, but not when there are clinicals on top of it and a whole bunch of other crap they want you to do besides tests all packed into a death crazed short term of a summer. The good thing is that it's short. PAINFUL, but short.
Let's see.. for Med Surg, we have 7 tests, a final, and clincials. In clincials, they want us to go the day before and get a patient to write a careplan for so we can be prepared to take care of them the next day. This is annoying and time consuming, but I really see the use for this. You get to see the client's history, what meds they are taking, and a whole bunch of stuff that the nurse you are going to work with won't know. They don't have time to even look at the chart. They look at the orders, medications they have to give, and go off of report from the nurse on the previous shift. They don't really have time to browse through the client's chart and assess which religion he or she is. Personally, it is actually kind of nice to get a background on the client. We have clinicals, BUT apparently this semester we aren't doing enough hours because it is such a short semester, so we have to go into the lab and do these things called microsims. I haven't done them yet (doing the first 2 hours tomorrow!) but basically you need to do 6 hours worth. They are a simulation type thing on the computer where you have a client and you are taking care of them and then sometimes they will have complications and you have to figure out what to do before they die. Some of my friends have 'killed' patients... I'll probably do them same! ha. AND then as if we didn't have enough to do, we have to do 8 hours worth of case studies. I have yet to do this as well, but from what I've heard they aren't bad, it just takes a lot to get 8 hours in.
For Maternity we have 4 tests, a final, and clinicals. For clincials in this class, you don't have to go the day before and pick a patient. BUT before you even start clinicals, there are 3 careplans that have to be memorized. I haven't done that yet, but I'm waiting until next month when I actually have to be concerned about it. There are also quizzes for each unit but they aren't so bad. I think that may be it for the work load of maternity (I *think*... could be mistaken, there is just so much to do). Obviously maternity is the easier course. The thing that sucks about the tests though...is there are a couple of weeks where we have a Med Surg and Maternity test the same day.
I've been doing Med Surg clinicals. They are harder, but surprisingly I am enjoying them. You get to see all sorts of crazy crap. The nurses so far have been so nice and helpful. It's been good. Last week I got the sweetest guy. He was an older gentleman that was admitted to have all sorts of surgeries. It was cool. I got to see his HUGE abdominal incision.
The floor I was working on last week was really busy. The nurse I was working with was really stressed. I could tell. He was trying to convince me that it wasn't too late to stop nursing school and become something else. It totally caught me off guard! He was still funny. I did get to see him remove a rectal tube which is something I never knew exsisted. It's like a foley catheter only up the other way... No one on the floor knew how to take it out, and it was his first time to take one out. Honestly, totally disgusting. If I have one piece of advice for someone taking out a rectal tube, paper towels all over. Put them down. PAPER TOWELS. Don't forget it. Otherwise there will be liquidy bowel movement all over the sheets and floor and someone (probably a poor CNA) will have to clean it all up.
I've gotten to do some skills that I've learned last semester and this semester. I've been able to inject people with various drugs, take IVs out, take foley catheters out, and administer medications through an NG tube. It's been educational. Can't wait to see what the next floor will offer!
BTW the picture above says--->STUDYING: the World's leading cause of spontaneous napping.
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