Nursling

(Here I am in my oh so lovely uniform - eagerly anticipating the shift before me)

(Oh my way to the hospital!)

When I arrived at the hospital I was surprised at how calm I was. I have learned that I am not so good with anticipating new things but I undoubtedly know that the months of prayer provided me with the calm spirit. Once my clinical group assembled we discussed the logistics of the day, such as partners, contact precautions, how to contact our instructor, what to assess for, charting...you know all the good stuff. We prayed (how cool is it to be able to pray as a group over the day ahead of us with our teacher?!) and hit the elevator. A nurse ending her shift giggled as ten of us filled onto the elevator after our instructor. "It's always exciting to see nurslings," was her comment to us. With a "good luck" we were on our way to floor two.

We stepped out of the elevator and reported to our nurses. This is the first thing she said to me, "I am so sorry you have to have Miss A as your first patient. She is very confused, cries at everything, and is very needy." *Ok it is never a good sign when you hear I am sorry. Ha. After report I suited up (my patient was on contact precautions for MRSA so every time I went into the room I had to wear a bright yellow gown and gloves) and walked confidently into the room. The first few minutes were fine. Miss A was very compliant and pleasant. Then something snapped. She started crying that her hair hurt. She needed pain meds (which I was not allowed to give her) and as I continued to preform the assessment she looked up at me and said "If you were a real nurse I would take my gun and shoot you." Shocked and caught of guard I tried not to let any emotion show and I said "good thing I'm not a real nurse eh?" I calmly explained that I had to keep assessing her and laughed to myself of course I would be the one to get the difficult patient the first day. Guess its just a glimpse of my future eh?

Granted I had to keep in mind Miss A was in a lot of  pain (she had had the screws in her femur removed because they had gotten infected) and confused, and just wanted to "go back to her people" at her nursing home. My mission was to stay calm, make her as comfortable as I could, and not take the insults or anger personally.

Highlights of my experience:

Helping the wound nurse change Miss A's dressing ( I thought I would be freaked out seeing a deep wound but actually it was neat to see the bone through the missing tissue)

Take Miss A's glucose reading with the glucometer (I thought I would have a hard time pricking someone but it was easy and I really enjoyed it as strange as that sounds)

Helping the nurse put the bed pan under Miss A (Miss A was in a diaper but she was able to tell the nurse sometimes if she had to go so to help her keep her dignity the bed pan was offered. I never realized what a daunting task getting someone on a bed pan can be. We must have rolled Miss A back and forth 10 times while roughly pushing the bedpan under to get the right position. Finally it was in place after urine had already gotten on the wet sheet! At least she got some in the bedpan and felt better!) 

Listening to Tyler's patient's bruit. (Tyler got a really nice patient. He was on dialysis and had a shunt thing in his arm and he patiently allowed each of us to listen to the bruit!)

Listening to Moriah's patient's heart murmur. (This man was 90 something and hilarious. When six girls walked in he lit up. He was loving the attention. He asked Tyler why he hadn't asked any of us out. haha. When I told him that I would be listening to his heart he was like "sure thing hunny" and began to lower his gown! Then as we were leaving he was like "hey hunny" and waved his finger in a circle at me. Too much!)

Although at the end of the shift my legs ached and trying to figure out charting on the computer left me frustrated and exhausted I realized that nursing is definitely going to be an adventure. I have to say that I am excited for next week!