Skip to main content

My legs are T-I-R-E-D!!!



Can I just say for a minute how seriously TIRED I am?  And not just my legs but me too.  I thought I was over dramatizing how busy the ER would be, uh no, it was BUSY.  So here's how my 2 days went.

First day I was assigned to a nurse.  I basically followed her around for the majority of the morning & observed, but that quickly got boring.  So then I started asking her if I could do stuff for her & she slowly started letting me try to start her iv's & do blood draws.  That was cool, although let's just say I wasn't very proficient at that.  Well by the afternoon I guess the nurses had gotten used to me being there so they all started asking me if I wanted to come & try to start their iv's, take out their iv's, do their blood draws, etc.  After that it was a lot more fun.  All in all I think I tried starting about 7 iv's that day and guess what?  I FINALLY got one!! My very last patient of the night was an iv start & I GOT IT!! I was really excited.  The hardest part for me wasn't finding the vein or getting blood return, but actually pushing in the catheter.  You'd think that part would be easy, but for some reason it just doesn't come very naturally. 

Then there was yesterday and whew, what a whirlwind!  First of all, the charge nurse decided not to place me with just one nurse but basically just told me to float around & go with the new patients.  So that's what I did. I liked that because almost every new patient needed either an iv or some blood work so I got to do LOTS of iv starts (which I got every one!!) and lots of blood draws.  There was only one person I wasn't able to get an iv on but that's because the nurse was standing over my shoulder & as soon as I didn't get it he just took over.  But that's cool, I know they're busy & in a hurry.  And boy were they busy! At one point in the afternoon though I just started feeling like the glorified tech.  When they got really busy they stopped coming to get me & so I was just kind of walking around looking for people to poke and running stuff to the lab, cleaning rooms, getting blankets.  It was ok but at that point I would have preferred to be with one person b/c then at least I could have gotten to do their stuff instead of getting lost in the shuffle.  But, all in all it has been a great experience so far!  I've gotten to see 2 codes and on the first one I actually got to perform chest compressions, very cool.  As the weeks go by I feel like the nurses will get used to me being there & offer to let me do more things, but so far so good.  I really like the ER, I am really hoping to get to float there at the hospital I work at. 

As for today, I am going to do a whole bunch of NOTHING!  Well, I may do some school work, but other than that a whole lot of nothing!! Unfortunately I do have to work tonight, but it's only for 6 hrs so that's not that bad. 

Anyway, hope everyone else is having a great weekend!! It's snowing here :D




Comments

  1. I'm glad to hear that you had a good time. Unfortunately, when the **** hits the fan, the time for teaching goes by the wayside. However, if you are floating around it gives you multiple opportunities to do other things. I would also suggest that you listen and observe the assessments of the patients by both the nurses and the practitioners. This is one skill that will take time to master. Listen to breath sounds of someone with asthma complications as opposed to someone in CHF exacerbation, for example. What questions would you ask them?
    Observe what roles everyone had in the codes. It seems like chaos, but there is actually organization there.
    Best wishes in your ER rotations. There is so much to learn and cool things to see!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I really didn't see a whole lot of assessing going on. It was very strange. It seemed like by the time the nurse got in there the doctor had already seen, assessed and given orders so the nurse basically just followed the doctors orders. It was interesting to say the least...

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

I'm still alive!! Tomorrow is the NCLEX!

So as you can see I have GRADUATED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Woohoo!!  I am SO happy that nursing school is over, but can we say holy terrified?  Tomorrow is the NCLEX & I feel thoroughly unprepared.  Fortunately our school provided us with the HURST Review  and even though I have been studying this for about 2 weeks now I still feel completely terrified to actually take the test.  Of my former classmates I know of one so far who has failed....so scary... The rest of them are chugging along & passing on a daily basis, hopefully I will be one of them! But to rewind, here are a few pics from graduation & my graduation party that my precious husband & sister threw for me: That's my baby girl to my right, she looks taller than me!   I seriously couldn't have been cheesing any harder!! My nursing bestie & his bf hiding in the back! My study buddy!   My inlaws, aren't they precious!! Definitely one of the best days of my life!

I feel so inadequate...

So today I was reading Sophia's blog over at All Things NP , she's a NP student at Penn State.  As I was reading about her interview process with Penn State & her rotations & her Sim Man day I started thinking, I am nowhere NEAR as smart as she is.  I still struggle with what lab values are correct, much less IF they're off then why??!!  I know that I don't put in as much time studying as some of my other classmates do and all of this makes me really doubt myself.  When will this stuff start to really click? When will I start to KNOW this stuff?  I wish I could spend more time studying than I do & in all honesty I probably could, but I also have a very busy life.  I know that's not an excuse as everyone has their own "stuff", but I was seriously thinking as I was reading over her blog that I really need to buckle down & start reading a bit more.  I definitely need to start studying more.  I mean, I'm doing fine in my classes but PERSON

MedSurg - Ortho Floor....

Ok can we say TOTAL snooze fest???  Today was our first official day on the MedSurg floor, but unfortunately since the professor figured we might be overwhelmed with over 15 pages of clinical paperwork due in one night, we weren't really able to do much (meaning no passing of meds).  We were basically put into the PCT roles.  So, pretty much it felt like last semester's clinical all over again, a bunch of elderly people, except for these ones have total hip replacements instead of just being old.   And let me tell you I can say with almost 100% assurance that working on the Ortho wing of the MedSurg floor is NOT where I see my future nursing self.  I mean maybe it was just my perception, but I saw the nurses basically in the same role as they were in the nursing home.  Going from patint room to patient room passing meds.  BORING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I hate that we don't get an ER rotation, I REALLY think that I would like that much more, except that as a new nurse I just don'