Ain't no Mountain High enough!
Another triple weekend, during Easter of all weekends!!!! I must say though it was one of the BEST weekends clinical wise! I learned so much about caring for patients and learned a thing or two about myself along the way. After this weekend I am CONFIDENT that this is where God wants me to be! Friday was relatively uneventful; I started with my new preceptor (old one relieved me last week while she went on vacation!). I actually enjoy the triple weekends because usually that means I get at least one patient that's the same. The last triple weekend I had I think I had the same patients...but I don't really remember. Anyway, since Friday and Saturday are sort of a blur I'm going to just delve mostly into yesterday. I had one patient who I had had all weekend and one that was admitted Saturday afternoon, after my first patient got transferred up to the floor. The only interesting tidbit of Friday/Saturday was my patient who got transferred. She was a sweet lady admitted after a hernia repair. She was complaining to me on Saturday morning that she hadn't "passed gas" yet. She told me, "I just wish I could fart." A few seconds later, she got a bit embarrassed and said "sorry. I shouldn't have said that around you." I laughed and said "honey, around me, you can say fart anytime you want to." Good memories.
Anyway, onto yesterday. Yesterday as you all should know was Easter Sunday. I wasn't particularly happy about being there on Easter Sunday, mostly because I had to miss church. Again. I don't like missing church. But I was there. I started my assessments on my patients and my one patient's wife was there. (What I enjoyed about her was that on Saturday she divulged to me that she too was in nursing school and was studying for a test on/off throughout the day. On her off times she'd come in and check on her husband. She told me she was a bit confused about interpreting ABG's. My preceptor got wind of this and spent over 30 minutes one-on-one going over different tips and strategies. That's when you KNOW you have a good preceptor!!!!!) Now that I've gone way off topic, I said hi to her and told my patient Happy Easter, even though he was intubated and on Fentanyl and Versed. Hey, treat them like your family! So while that went on, I also had my other patient who was admitted Sat. afternoon for alcohol withdrawals. He really wanted to go home since he was his girlfriend's primary, scratch that, only caretaker. She had a hullabaloo of health problems and was about 10 years younger than him. Throughout the day I'd get asked "when's the doctor coming? When's the doctor coming?" I said I didn't know, because I honestly didn't know and reassured him that she'd come. Well, 4:30 rolled around and she still hadn't come and he was getting pretty ticked. Heck, I was too. So I went in to do my assessment and he just gave me this look. "Doctor's not coming, is she?" Again, I reassured that she would. When I walked out of the room I heard him say "that damn doctor better show her face around here." After that almost near blow-up, my nurse gave him some Ativan and I cracked open my Mountain Dew and sat at the nurse's station and retreated to my charting bubble. A few minutes later, she showed up and then the basketball game came on (Duke vs. U of L). All was right in the world again.
Right at about 3:30 in the afternoon, crap hit the fan again. My unit got slammed with a new admit who was sick as sick could get. He was on 3 pressors (meds to control your BP), a bicarb drip, had a pH of 6.9 and a colorful assortment of health issues including only one pretty shot kidney. Needless to say he was in pretty bad shape; the doctors weren't optimistic he'd even make it through the surgery he had. Anyway, my preceptor helped the nurse he was assigned with, leaving me with the two patients. By myself. I was a bit apprehensive at first but I was reminded of a story that was told to us earlier in the morning. The House Supervisor came in and told us about a story of an elderly man she had encountered. His wife was about to pass and he had a picture of her with him. She saw the picture and escorted the man to his wife's room in the Hospice unit so she could see his wife. That night she passed away.....and that day was their wedding anniversary. Her moral of the story was that the Lord works in mysterious ways, and in that case for the good. Sometimes we find ourselves in unexpected situations and God just puts us in a place or with a person for a particular reason. Sometimes we don't understand what the situation is, and sometimes we ask "oh God. Why me?" But then God gives us direction in ways we don't expect, and we get over what makes us squirm and what makes us uncomfortable. He gives us the willpower to shut off our minds temporarily and to focus on the present situation. That's what happened with me this weekend. I walked out of the unit on Sunday actually feeling like a real nurse, and not just a student nurse. I surprised myself that day. I don't know what my last day will hold, who knows? God does. My goal was to finish strong, and I'm going to.
# of days completed: 19
# of hours remaining: 12
Anyway, onto yesterday. Yesterday as you all should know was Easter Sunday. I wasn't particularly happy about being there on Easter Sunday, mostly because I had to miss church. Again. I don't like missing church. But I was there. I started my assessments on my patients and my one patient's wife was there. (What I enjoyed about her was that on Saturday she divulged to me that she too was in nursing school and was studying for a test on/off throughout the day. On her off times she'd come in and check on her husband. She told me she was a bit confused about interpreting ABG's. My preceptor got wind of this and spent over 30 minutes one-on-one going over different tips and strategies. That's when you KNOW you have a good preceptor!!!!!) Now that I've gone way off topic, I said hi to her and told my patient Happy Easter, even though he was intubated and on Fentanyl and Versed. Hey, treat them like your family! So while that went on, I also had my other patient who was admitted Sat. afternoon for alcohol withdrawals. He really wanted to go home since he was his girlfriend's primary, scratch that, only caretaker. She had a hullabaloo of health problems and was about 10 years younger than him. Throughout the day I'd get asked "when's the doctor coming? When's the doctor coming?" I said I didn't know, because I honestly didn't know and reassured him that she'd come. Well, 4:30 rolled around and she still hadn't come and he was getting pretty ticked. Heck, I was too. So I went in to do my assessment and he just gave me this look. "Doctor's not coming, is she?" Again, I reassured that she would. When I walked out of the room I heard him say "that damn doctor better show her face around here." After that almost near blow-up, my nurse gave him some Ativan and I cracked open my Mountain Dew and sat at the nurse's station and retreated to my charting bubble. A few minutes later, she showed up and then the basketball game came on (Duke vs. U of L). All was right in the world again.
Right at about 3:30 in the afternoon, crap hit the fan again. My unit got slammed with a new admit who was sick as sick could get. He was on 3 pressors (meds to control your BP), a bicarb drip, had a pH of 6.9 and a colorful assortment of health issues including only one pretty shot kidney. Needless to say he was in pretty bad shape; the doctors weren't optimistic he'd even make it through the surgery he had. Anyway, my preceptor helped the nurse he was assigned with, leaving me with the two patients. By myself. I was a bit apprehensive at first but I was reminded of a story that was told to us earlier in the morning. The House Supervisor came in and told us about a story of an elderly man she had encountered. His wife was about to pass and he had a picture of her with him. She saw the picture and escorted the man to his wife's room in the Hospice unit so she could see his wife. That night she passed away.....and that day was their wedding anniversary. Her moral of the story was that the Lord works in mysterious ways, and in that case for the good. Sometimes we find ourselves in unexpected situations and God just puts us in a place or with a person for a particular reason. Sometimes we don't understand what the situation is, and sometimes we ask "oh God. Why me?" But then God gives us direction in ways we don't expect, and we get over what makes us squirm and what makes us uncomfortable. He gives us the willpower to shut off our minds temporarily and to focus on the present situation. That's what happened with me this weekend. I walked out of the unit on Sunday actually feeling like a real nurse, and not just a student nurse. I surprised myself that day. I don't know what my last day will hold, who knows? God does. My goal was to finish strong, and I'm going to.
# of days completed: 19
# of hours remaining: 12
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