Here are some notes from along the way:
- We've actually started doing vital signs and, as of this week, passing meds! This was my first week of officially doing both on our clinical site and I realized I was slightly intimidated when I put the vital signs I Actually Took Myself into my patient's computer chart. It somehow made things way more official than they had been up until that moment! I also gave my first medication, after of course I triple-checked it and so did my instructor. It was Coreg, an anti-hypertensive, and I am guessing I will probably never forget it.
- I have also been practicing taking blood pressure on practically everyone I know. Luckily all of my friends and family have been pretty patient with this.
- I really can't imagine what the hospitals were like before the EMRs! I know, I know, everyone is going to call me a young whippersnapper but from a safety perspective, the level of error-checking is great. My instructor has told us about hospitals that have even more advanced systems than U of C, especially with regards to medication and preventing medication errors, and honestly they all seem like such good ideas that I wish all hospitals had them all. I especially like the one where you have to scan the person and the med before you give the med and it warns you if it's the wrong one. I truly wish all hospitals had that. Even the best doctor and nurse can make a human error, because no one is ever perfect, and having safeguards is never a bad thing.
- And oh! Our teacher held up a big magazine article about Dennis Quaid when we first started talking about meds. I got very excited and of course had to explain that he'd spoken at my former employer's annual conference.
- Our instructors have all made a big deal about starting study groups, but I tried to attend one and have found that it just doesn't match my style. I like discussing philosophies and hypothetical examples with my classmates, but when it actually comes to learning the material, I work much better alone. At first I wondered if I was doing things wrong, but I remembered that I've always been this way, so I decided not to worry about it any further.
- We've had our first two exams, and while my stress levels have gone through the roof I managed to get As on both. We also had our midterm clinical evaluations, which included some good feedback and that I am doing well on the skills-level but also included my clinical instructor asking if I was sure I wanted to be a nurse and telling me I could only answer that by looking into my own heart! It turns out she and I have very different styles so she interpreted my learning-mode-behavior as hesitancy and uncertainty. But I think we got it straightened out. As I'm sure you can imagine it was a rather alarming few minutes, though.
Really it's amazing. I know I have so much left to learn, and I feel like I have learned very little when I think about actually taking care of patients, but when I look back to my first week of classes it seems like a lifetime ago in terms of how far I've come. There's just so much to learn and so much change happening so quickly!
