Med SURGE

Well we have jumped head first into the world of Med/Surg nursing. And I thought we were bombarded with information in Fundamentals! I AM loving the synthesis of all the information we have gathered so far though. This class is all about application of information to real life situation.

And just when I thought I was done with dosage calculation exams...I am not. We have a quiz on Friday, again requiring 100% in no more than three attempts. Welcome to week #1!

Tomorrow is my hospital orientation for clinical rotations. I am excited - my clinical instructor seems really nice, and I am SO ready to get into the hospital! I start my first shift on election day, and I'll be on the neuroscience floor again. I was really hoping for something different than I had already experienced, but I know that I will learn a lot on this unit, with a wide spectrum of disability and illness in the patients.

Before I start my rotation, I found a very appropriate blog post to help me prepare for the patient care experience on JParadisi RN's Blog called Let Me Tell You One More Thing You Already Know.  It's about therapeutic communication and patient-centered care which, as you know, are hot topics in the current nursing curriculum. After all, the patients are the reason that we are nurses, and student nurses, and CNAs, and healthcare professionals.  It's all about the patients. 

Please take a look at this blog post if you have time, and let me tell you one more thing you already know:  remember to listen to what your patients are saying.

Hot Wings and Nursing Research

What a fun weekend!  J. and I spent a lot of time with his family, including his funny and adorable niece and nephew.  We spent Saturday afternoon at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science...

Hello from the museum! What a pretty view!

 ...followed by dinner and games at Dave and Buster's.  Today, we had lunch with the fam at Dino's - a great little Italian restaurant on Colfax and Kipling with the best homemade spaghetti!  After lunch, we did some shopping at Colorado Mills outlet mall.  In the fitting room of Banana Republic (my favorite store) is where I determined that I really REALLY need to get back into the habit of working out (and cut down on eating out).  So I want to know if you all have any tips for squeezing a workout into a busy schedule.  And also, can someone teach me how to like running??  Because I can't seem to grasp this concept.

J. and I thought we should make a contest out of it - get a bathroom scale and have weekly weigh-ins to motivate us to get-movin'!  Has anyone else tried this "biggest loser" plan?  Though we both agreed that it was a good idea, it did not prevent us from making our first batch of homemade hot wings for Sunday night football (with a whole stick of butter - Paula Deen would be proud).  They turned out really good, and I had to eat a pear afterward to make myself feel better.

NOW, I am procrastinating this assignment for Nursing Research.  I think this is a very important class, especially in the context of evidence-based nursing practice.  I think it is important for nurses to be able to read, understand and critique research articles for their accuracy, validity and applications to practice.  I understand why we have to do this.  HOWEVER, I have a lot of experience with research.  Not necessarily nursing research, but research in general.  Between my liberal arts biology degree, my graduate certificate in clinical investigation, and my work experience in clinical research...I am really unmotivated to participate in this class. 

But I know I can always learn more, so I will try.  At least I chose a fairly interesting article to critique - about the effects of early mother-infant skin-to-skin contact on successful breastfeeding.  As it turns out, early skin-to-skin contact seems to have positive effects on successful breastfeeding habits as opposed to babies being taken for assessment and swaddling immediately post-birth and then being returned to their mothers.  Here is information for the article if you are interested in the details of the study:

Moore, E. R., & Anderson, G. C.  (2007).  Randomized controlled trial of very early mother-infant skin-to-skin contact and breastfeeding status.  Journal of Midwifery & Women's Health, 52, 116-125.

And now back to your regularly scheduled programming.

Fundamentals Covered

I have officially passed NURS 3002:  Fundamentals of Nursing.  Bright and early this morning I successfully completed incontinence care and a Hendrich II Fall Risk Assessment on my "patient".  Then I bought some new shoes to celebrate.

"When a man feels throbbing within him the power to do what he undertakes as well as it can possibly be done, this is happiness, this is success."
Orison Swett Marden

Salute to Tunes and Spoons

In my "spare time" I love to read blogs from other nurses and nursing students, but I also enjoy blogs from friends and family and about crafty things as well.  As I was taking a break from studying for my Interventional CPE I noticed a new blog post from Tunes and Spoons.  This post happens to include a giveaway that I would love to be a part of, but I am also motivated to celebrate and share with you all the love and creativity of the couple who created this fun site!

I know John from back home - his cousin is my very best friend, and his family (especially his Granny Marilyn,  Aunt Melanie and cousin Linsey) have been sort of a second family to me.  Although I have never met Rachel, I know that she is a lovely person, and I know that she and John are madly in love with each other. (See the most recent post for the romantic story of their engagement).  These two make such a fun couple and have so many entertaining stories and talents to share!  One of my favorite parts of Tunes and Spoons is the music of John and Rachel that is frequently featured.  Take, for example, the post where they dressed up and performed a cover of "I Wanna Grow Old With You" from The Wedding Singer.  So cute!

If you have some spare time or you're just trying to procrastinate, let yourself be romanced and entertained and informed by John and Rachel at Tunes and Spoons.  {See their blog button in the left margin.}

My Own Bigger Picture

If you have a chance, please read today's post of the AJN "Off the Charts" blog, No Explanation Required: A Preceptor's Tale .  It's about a preceptor and an intern in a critical care unit when they have to continue care for a patient who has died because the patient is an organ donor.  The post describes the difference in perspective between the preceptor, who enjoys the science of nursing in the process of organ harvesting and donation, and the intern, who prefers the art of nursing in caring for living patients with health problems.


"I prefer science; my intern does not. Or rather, she prefers more than science. She tells me she far prefers taking care of living patients and that, although she knows there’s a bigger picture out there, she’s just not feeling it and can’t explain why.
I think she’s finding her own bigger picture. No explanation required."

-Marcy Phipps, RN

But isn't that what we are all doing?  In our quest to prove that this life bears meaning and our existence affects the lives of others, aren't we all finding our own bigger pictures?  I think that is our charge.

On Monday, we start the second block of the semester - Med/Surg I for myself and half of my classmates.  Our very first assignment (as it has been for almost every class so far) is to complete a simple biosketch of ourselves and share it on an online discussion board.  The instructor asked us to respond to three prompts, one of which was to choose a song to represent us.  What a challenge!!!  The song I finally settled on is by John Mayer, called "The Heart of Life".  I believe that we will all face challenges and hard times, but the love of God, family and friends will see us through.  That is the heart of life, and it is good and deserves to be celebrated.  This is part of my bigger picture, and also part of why I chose nursing as a career.  Enjoy the song if you have time.

You Simply Have To Care

I hope everyone had a great weekend.  Just thought I would share this video, also shared by The Makings of A Nurse.  It's an encouraging message about the profession, the challenges presented, and the reason nurses stay nurses.  Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPbGgIg0NIY&feature=player_embedded

monday monday

Another Monday down, only one more to go in this block of the semester.  A week from today I'll take my final exam in Fundamentals of Nursing.  We have covered so much content in this class.  It has gone pretty smoothly for me - a good deal of it has been over skills and material I learned as a CNA.  What I appreciated about this class is the focus on Evidence Based Practice and why nurses do what they do, when they do it, and how they do it.  We had at least three articles per week to read, linking current evidence to current practice in nursing. 

After the final written exam on Monday, I will have my "Interventional CPE".  This CPE will be performed in the simulation suite, on a dummy, with my instructors watching behind a one-way mirror.  If nothing else, the feeling of being watched increases the level of anxiety.  What are they saying behind that glass?!

We covered a lot of material in class today, including respiratory interventions.  Speaking of anxiety-inducing...one of my biggest worries about being a new nurse in a hospital is my first code blue.  Will I remember what things to do and what order to do them in, or will I just freak out?  We will see.  I hope I don't freak out.

After that lecture that seemed to last for days, I came home and J. and I curled up on the bed and took a nap together.  So nice!  If finally feels like fall in Denver, and I just want to cuddle up and drink tea and read a book.  Only a real book...not a textbook.  Oh well, maybe two years from now...

We were feeling too lazy to make dinner so...

I just finished a quiz for my online Nursing Research course.  Now I am half-heartedly looking over material for tomorrow's weekly pharmacology quiz while J. celebrates his favorite TV time with Colorado Avalanche vs. Philadephia Flyers Hockey, New York Jets vs. Minnesota Vikings Football, and Monday Night Raw WWE Wrestling.

BTW, have you had a chance to check out any of the nursing blogs I recently added?  Also, check out Tunes and Spoons this week for a really creative use of some old (but pretty) handkerchiefs.

Back to Nursing

I realized in reviewing some of my posts that I have gotten a little bit away from my original intentions for the project.  Although I want it to be personal so that people are able to relate, I also want to focus on the nursing aspect of this part of my life and how it is changing my "everyday" and my perspectives on life.  So I have added some links to your left to various blogs from student nurses, new nurses, and experienced nurses. They are all great sites and I encourage you to take a look when you have a chance. Once I get a grip on all the new material I may reference some of the posts in this blog. That's all for today; my brain is burned out from studying the drugs used to treat asthma. I am dragging J. to see "Life As We Know It" with me...I hope it's worth the arm-twisting!

By the way...

On a separate, but not totally unrelated note, I just found out that

I GOT 100% ON MY DOSAGE CALC EXAM!!!

...which means that I don't have to re-take it. And that makes me happy.

Thoughts on studying

A few days ago I received a magazine from the National Student Nurse's Association (of which I am a member).  I came across an article containing study and wellness tips from nursing school graduates.  I pored over the article, hoping to find something helpful to keep me organized and on-track with my studying.  Don't get me wrong, my current study practices are getting me some very good grades, but if there is an easier or more efficient way to go about it, I'm all for it.  Here are some of my reactions to the article:

1.  What is the deal with notecards/flashcards/drug cards??  It takes me a lot of time to prepare these cards, and I never look at them again!  They obviously work for some people, because they are commonly recommended - but I don't buy.  Until if is a mandatory requirement for my clinical rotations.

2.  Studying immediately after class - I like this idea.  However, most of the time when I leave a class I find it hard to focus on the same subject for any longer.  Four to five hours is a lot!  I may try to implement this strategy however, maybe later in the evening instead of immediately after class.

3.  Studying with friends/classmates seems like a good idea, but honestly I find it more of a distraction than anything.  I like to spend extra time on the things that I don't understand, and I know it will not always be the same information as another person.

4.  Recording lectures is not something I ever really considered until now because I have always been able to rely on my memory.  However, with the incredible amount of information I am being presented with, I think that maybe this is not a bad idea.  One person suggested listening to recorded lectures while crocheting, driving, or doing another activity - which is really appealing to me.  Does anyone know a way to get a recorded lecture onto my iPod?

5.  A lot of people recommend studying with an NCLEX review book.  Any thoughts on this?  It seems like I have so much to read already...

I welcome any thoughts you might have on this subject.  I have been getting by with an iPod or Pandora radio, green tea, frequent dog walks and lots of reading.  If I can stay on top of things and read the material before class, the results are alway better and less stressful!

Just waitin' around

Oh how I hate waiting.  Patience is a virtue that I am trying very hard to acquire.  My Dad and my Grandfather are/were two of the most patient people I have ever met.  I think I did not inherit that trait.  However, I feel that it might be beneficial to my nursing practice to try try try a little bit harder. 

It might be nice for my PATIENTS for me to have a little PATIENCE...

 

Today, I am waiting on two things: (1) my clinical placement e-mail for the second semester of this block and (2) the grade from my dosage calculation exam - both very important to me.  I know that I have been placed at the University of Colorado Hospital for my Med/Surg I clinical rotation (my first choice - yay!).  What I am waiting for are the dates and times/shifts that I will be assigned.  Also, I am quite confident that I did well on the dosage calc exam, HOWEVER, we must receive 100% on the exam (in no more than three tries) to pass the class.  Now as I said, I am certain I did well, but did I get through a 50 question exam without making one silly mistake?  Not sure.  But I really don't want to re-take it.

So I will just wait, and try to be patient.  And keep on studying.

  

Rest

“Take rest; a field that has rested gives a bountiful crop.” Ovid

For the last couple of days, I have been resting.  I am halfway through the first block of this semester, and feel like I have a pretty good handle on school things.  (That is not to say that I don't need to study!)  Fall is my very favorite time of year, especially here in Colorado, and I needed to take some time to enjoy it this year.  On Wednesday I headed up to the mountains where Josh had finished hunting (sadly, with no success).  We took a well-known scenic drive to see the colors that were left on the trees.  I have never seen or felt anything as beautiful as a Rocky Mountain fall.  Plus I hadn't seen Josh in nearly two weeks!  What a wonderful way to spend some time together.

We ate cinnamon rolls in our favorite coffee shop and took a stroll through our favorite antique store.  We enjoyed the still-warm weather and beautiful sunshine.

**Nursing Connection For The Day**

On Friday, we came back to Denver.  I had to watch a video about the Tuskegee Syphilis Study for my Nursing Research class.  If you don't know about this study, it was a major turning point in the United States for the regulation and protection of human research subjects.  This tragic story, like so many others deserves to be told and understood for sensitivity and understanding in our healthcare and research practices still today.  There are many good sites for information about this and other human research atrocities, but here is a link to the CDC website that I found helpful:  http://www.cdc.gov/tuskegee/timeline.htm

And then I gave Josh a haircut.  Now, one-length haircuts with electric clippers are do-able, but don't ask me to do any more than that.  There is a reason I am not a stylist.

On Friday night, we treated ourselves to a night out at the Grizzly Rose to hear the Josh Abbott Band.  Now, if you've never heard of this band, let me share.  This is a young band from Texas that plays a newer style of country music (are you familiar with "Texas country"?).  The music is good!

 

Why do I know about this band?  The fiddle player, Preston Wait, is from my own little southeast corner of Colorado.  Baca County is one of the largest counties in the state, with the smallest population.  Therefore, the smalltown adage that "everybody knows everybody here" applies to our whole county.  And he's a great musician!

So now, after a full two days of rest, I am ready to hit the books.  The intracacies of foley catheters, bed-baths and HIV medications will not escape me!