Back in the Saddle Again!

Apologies for the delayed update but this term has been slightly on the crazy side.

This term of clinical brings us the wonderful world of adult medical-surgical nursing. The units I am on are primarily surgical units with emphasis on orthopedic surgeries and otolaryngology.

What has been really neat about this clinical rotation so far is watching my development as a nursing student on the verge of a practicum term and graduation into a real nursing position. I've definitely forced myself to overcome some fears in regards to providing care by myself and through this have strengthened my skills in providing top-notch care.

My primary patient this week is recovering from a total hip replacement and is pretty low maintenance care wise. Because of this I provided care for the other patients that my nurse was taking care of, so I got to do a lot of medication administrations, discontinuation of patient controlled analgesics, and IV locks and/or removals. These are fairly simple tasks, but it's awesome to finally be at a level of comfort where I can just go in and get the job done and not need to have someone watch or come with me.

A moment of excitement today occurred when I went in to give a patient a Heparin shot only to find him sleeping on the floor while his mother slept in the hospital bed. As this had never happened to me, I tracked down my nurse and let him know what was going on. Lesson learned: call a code. So, that was a bit of excitement for the day as I stood in the corner watching my first code response. In the end, the patient was fine and we aren't really sure how he ended up on the floor in the first place.

There are still plenty of weeks left of clinical, and who knows what adventures await me! I have to say, the highlight of the experience so far has still been the day my patient who had undergone massive otolaryngology surgery wrote me a note that said that I would make an amazing nurse because of my personality and gentle touch (drat those bedside urinals for dripping onto the notepad, otherwise I would have saved the note).

My biggest goal this term is to do my first blood draw and IV start. Fingers crossed big time on those ones!

Less than four months until graduation! Time to really hone that nursing knowledge before I enter the big, wide world of job hunting!