New faces and new places
Yep, you heard it correctly. This past week I started two brand new rotations. On Tuesdays, I am now at Berea again..literally a 30-second walk from my dorm. Goodbye, rising at 4AM! Let me tell you, I have done my time in Lexington and I could not be happier; it's so nice to be closer to home!!! I was on old stomping grounds actually; back on the Med/Surg floor. Instead of following our clinical instructor like we did last semester, I had the opportunity to follow a nurse who worked on the floor (she was a Berea grad!!!!!). It made me happy, because obviously graduating with a Berea College nursing degree really is possible. Anyway, we started with a general survey of the five patients she was assigned to care for. I later got the experience of computerized charting, which was incredibly foreign to me....eek. One of these days I am confident that I will get it right; in the meantime I will stick with my obnoxious green note pad and bug-eyed doggy pen.
And lo and behold, I actually DID STUFF. I can now add another set of vital signs, 2 more blood thinner injections via subQ route (if you don't know what that means, ask me and I'll explain it to you). Still waiting to start an IV...maybe when I'm in the ICU this week...fingers crossed! What I really enjoyed most was just talking to the patients; most of them just want somebody to talk to in all honesty. They don't care about what's going on with them or what's getting done; they're just lonely and want someone to fill those gaps of silence. Don't get me wrong, I love talking to patients, but in my opinion there's a line between chatting up a storm and not getting any work accomplished because you've got a chronic chatterer..haha. All in good fun and good learning though...all in good fun and learning.
Then came Thursday. Again, we are placed at a new facility in Lexington that's even farther than the first time...oh joy. The venue: Bluegrass...was in the name. This facility is for the more chronically mentally ill individuals. Some of these people at Bluegrass have been there for months...some even years if my information is correct. But the unique part of Bluegrass is that it is located on the grounds of Eastern State, the 2nd oldest mental facility in the US. Thursday consisted of a brief history of the grounds of the hospital, followed by a tour. A 3-hour long tour...to be exact. We walked through the entire facility, as well as the old and abandoned parts, which was REALLY cool!!!! If the walls could talk....man, what they could tell us about all the faces that have walked through those corridors.
I took TONS of pictures, but by law I am forbidden to share these photographs, unless I want to pay $5000...per picture. And I took 70 some odd pictures, so you do the math. Anyway, an interesting tidbit about this hospital was that part of it was filmed for a brief cameo appearance in the movie Seabiscuit, which I did not know either. Overall, a fascinating day, minus where we almost got electrocuted by a random spark burst of a not-turned on electrical outlet. Suppose we should pity the thing....tis an old building. Who knows what will go on next week. Only time will tell.
And lo and behold, I actually DID STUFF. I can now add another set of vital signs, 2 more blood thinner injections via subQ route (if you don't know what that means, ask me and I'll explain it to you). Still waiting to start an IV...maybe when I'm in the ICU this week...fingers crossed! What I really enjoyed most was just talking to the patients; most of them just want somebody to talk to in all honesty. They don't care about what's going on with them or what's getting done; they're just lonely and want someone to fill those gaps of silence. Don't get me wrong, I love talking to patients, but in my opinion there's a line between chatting up a storm and not getting any work accomplished because you've got a chronic chatterer..haha. All in good fun and good learning though...all in good fun and learning.
Then came Thursday. Again, we are placed at a new facility in Lexington that's even farther than the first time...oh joy. The venue: Bluegrass...was in the name. This facility is for the more chronically mentally ill individuals. Some of these people at Bluegrass have been there for months...some even years if my information is correct. But the unique part of Bluegrass is that it is located on the grounds of Eastern State, the 2nd oldest mental facility in the US. Thursday consisted of a brief history of the grounds of the hospital, followed by a tour. A 3-hour long tour...to be exact. We walked through the entire facility, as well as the old and abandoned parts, which was REALLY cool!!!! If the walls could talk....man, what they could tell us about all the faces that have walked through those corridors.
I took TONS of pictures, but by law I am forbidden to share these photographs, unless I want to pay $5000...per picture. And I took 70 some odd pictures, so you do the math. Anyway, an interesting tidbit about this hospital was that part of it was filmed for a brief cameo appearance in the movie Seabiscuit, which I did not know either. Overall, a fascinating day, minus where we almost got electrocuted by a random spark burst of a not-turned on electrical outlet. Suppose we should pity the thing....tis an old building. Who knows what will go on next week. Only time will tell.
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