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
That sounds awesome!
ReplyDeleteIt was, I can't wait to go back.
DeleteI'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?
ReplyDeleteObserve 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!
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...
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