Well, I made it through another week. It was a big one!
Tuesday we had clinicals and, since I had my OR trip last week, it was my first week this semester with a patient. I'm at the same hospital as last semester but on a new floor, and it was my first taste of how different each hospital floor can really be. I'd become accustomed to the floor we were on last semester and this one was a lot quieter, I'd say - but we'll see if I feel the same way after a few more weeks.
Of course I can't talk about my client, but I can say that I gave my first injection! It was a subcutaneous heparin injection. My instructor was there supervising, of course, and started quizzing me. "Do you aspirate a subq injection?" "No." "Do you massage after giving a subq injection?" "No." At this point the client joined in: "why not?" He didn't say this in a challenging way; rather, I'm pretty sure he knew the answer and just wanted to be part of the quizzing process. I was a bit flustered and answered something like "because it's a subq injection" (which, let's be fair, is of course how I memorized it for the test), but my prof came back with "come on, why wouldn't you massage a heparin injection?" at which point I had gathered my wits a bit and was able to reply "because it's a blood thinner and you could damage the tissue." Prof and client both satisfied, I gave the injection. It was a success! He even said it didn't hurt. And I don't think he would have said that just to make me feel good (although you never know).
Once everything was taken care of and we left the room to document, I actually did a bit of a bounce. I gave my first injection! It was really exciting for me. I was so apprehensive to begin with, just because it seemed so serious - sticking a needle in someone is not a small matter - but I did it and it was ok and he was fine and everything worked out. I feel like it's areal milestone of some sort. Hurrah!
We also had our first exam this week. I was quite apprehensive (new professor, new exam style!) but it turns out I got a 49/50, so I'm pretty happy. Hoo-rah! And that is after my cell phone/alarm clock turned off overnight before the exam and I woke up 5 minutes before I had planned to leave the house. (That is NOT a good way to start an exam morning. Let me tell you what. The level of adrenaline I had rushing through my body was intense. It was, however, a good review of the stages of stress that were on the exam.)
Showing posts with label injections. Show all posts
Showing posts with label injections. Show all posts
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Friday, January 21, 2011
Second Semester - Week One
This week was our first week of school, and even though we started on Tuesday instead of Monday I feel like it counted for a whole week. This semester I'm taking both Nursing 102 and microbiology, so it's going to be a bit busier than last semester.
The first day of school was a clinical day, but we weren't in the hospital yet. We were on campus and had 6 hours of lecture/administrative work, as well as a nursing critical-thinking exam. That was a bit confusing, I think, because we were told ahead of time that we'd have this exam but not why, or if it counted towards our grade, or what it was all about. It turned out it was a metric for the school, not for our grades, so after that I didn't really worry about it. Which served me well, since I got a 920/1000. I have no idea what a good score is but that sounds high so I'll take it.
I have a different instructor for my nursing class this semester, so I am also getting to know her style as well as a whole new set of classmates - only one of my classmates from the first semester is in my class, and he won't be in my clinical group. As always it's interesting to get to know a whole new group of personalities and see where we mesh and where we divide.
We had our first skill lab, too, and started learning to give injections! They are not starting us slowly, that's for sure. We managed to cover intramuscular and intradermal injections but didn't have time to cover subcutaneous, so we will cover that next week. We had real needles and dummy body parts on which to practice. It was quite exciting. Here's a picture from skill lab:
My microbiology class is proving interesting already - we've already had a lab and been assigned our microscopes to use throughout the semester. Mine seems good, which is a relief, and I like that we'll keep the same one so we get to know the instrument. Everyone told me that this professor really teaches you to use a microscope properly, so I'm hoping that in this class I'll finally learn how to not get headaches when I look through one for more than half an hour. I really enjoy microscopy and the nerdier aspects of science, so getting my brain on board with that would be nice. Plus, microbiology really is interesting, as a topic.
On the whole, while I'm anxious about the amount of time I'll need to study this semester, and the workload, I'm still excited and ready to go.
The first day of school was a clinical day, but we weren't in the hospital yet. We were on campus and had 6 hours of lecture/administrative work, as well as a nursing critical-thinking exam. That was a bit confusing, I think, because we were told ahead of time that we'd have this exam but not why, or if it counted towards our grade, or what it was all about. It turned out it was a metric for the school, not for our grades, so after that I didn't really worry about it. Which served me well, since I got a 920/1000. I have no idea what a good score is but that sounds high so I'll take it.
I have a different instructor for my nursing class this semester, so I am also getting to know her style as well as a whole new set of classmates - only one of my classmates from the first semester is in my class, and he won't be in my clinical group. As always it's interesting to get to know a whole new group of personalities and see where we mesh and where we divide.
We had our first skill lab, too, and started learning to give injections! They are not starting us slowly, that's for sure. We managed to cover intramuscular and intradermal injections but didn't have time to cover subcutaneous, so we will cover that next week. We had real needles and dummy body parts on which to practice. It was quite exciting. Here's a picture from skill lab:
My microbiology class is proving interesting already - we've already had a lab and been assigned our microscopes to use throughout the semester. Mine seems good, which is a relief, and I like that we'll keep the same one so we get to know the instrument. Everyone told me that this professor really teaches you to use a microscope properly, so I'm hoping that in this class I'll finally learn how to not get headaches when I look through one for more than half an hour. I really enjoy microscopy and the nerdier aspects of science, so getting my brain on board with that would be nice. Plus, microbiology really is interesting, as a topic.
On the whole, while I'm anxious about the amount of time I'll need to study this semester, and the workload, I'm still excited and ready to go.
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