Clinical Insights

Today was day number two of our two-day clinical placement for Fundamentals.  My group was placed at University of Colorado Hospital on the Neuroscience floor.  I LOVED IT!  Even though we were doing the work of a CNA (which I am quite familiar with) we got to see patient care, medication administration and procedures from the viewpoint of an RN.  We had a lovely and smart clinical instructor originally from Belarus who challenged us to be very involved and allowed us to work closely with our patients and the staff of the unit.  We were able to observe a tracheostomy tube being removed by a respiratory therapist, and we got to feel a man's brain through his scalp because a section of his skull had been removed to relieve pressure after a head trauma. 

I DID have to remove my nose piercing as per clinical policy, and I decided that maybe it was time to just get rid of the thing and move on instead of trying to put it back in.  It feels so strange after seven years!

I think that hole might be there a while!

**Also, I will never leave the house in my black CU scrubs without a lint roller to remove the white dog fluff that seems to surround me constantly.

We were each required to do a physical assessment of our patient, and since it was a neuroscience floor and all of our patients had varying degrees of neurological injuries, we had to include a neuro assessment.  I was nervous, since I hadn't practiced assessment since last semester, AND had never practiced on a real patient.  Now I was expected to do one of the longest and most complicated physical assessments off the top of my head?? 

Well it went fine.  I remembered all but one thing, and was even commended by my instructor for what a thorough job I did assessing and communicating with my patient.  She actually said that if she had had time to bring the rest of the class into our patient's room, she would have asked them to observe my assessment because it was exactly what she was looking for.  I don't mean to boast, but her kind words made me feel very good and boosted my confidence in my skills so far.  I know that I am a good communicator, and I am blessed with a good memory which is incredibly useful in certain situations, but it always feels good for that to be reinforced.

It also reinforces my feelings that I am exactly where I'm meant to be.  I love working with patients.  The theory and practice of nursing that we learn in class and in lab is very interesting to me, but it is the patient care that I love.  My patient was a very interesting man who allowed me to be a part of his life for just a little while - just long enough to know part of his story and for him to become part of my lifelong learning experience.  However, for that little slice of life I am grateful, because it is the patients and the human-ness of this profession that make me want to be a nurse!

P.S.  Being on that unit for two days in the midst of nurses, medical residents, pharmacists and pharmacy techs, attending physicians, nurses, CNAs, respiratory therapists, and a myriad of other healthcare professionals, I realized just how important the role of a nurse is in the treatment and daily care of patients.  Everyone relies on cooperation and input from the nurses, but perhaps none so much as the residents and physicians!

After two days in the hospital, I took a turn for the nurse.  ~W.C. Fields