4 Down, 6 to Go..

but not that I'm really counting how many more days are left in clinical. :)

I've survived the first two weeks, but I know it will get worse.

why? Because my first two patients were tube free. no chest tubes, no nasogastric tubes, etc. (all of my classmates in my clinical group have had tubes...somehow I've had none of it).

First day of clinical included orientation and I came home and wept. The teacher, who I've dealt with before, completely stressed me out. She's quick and pretty tough, but not all that organized, which naturally made me nervous. there was so much that i didn't know, and up to a point, I was so confused and stressed that I knew I had questions, but I didn't know what to ask.

At the end of the our orientation at the hospital, we received our assignments and I copied down everything I could. That night I reviewed dressing changes, meds, vitals, assessments, etc.

I didn't sleep well that night.

and on Tuesday, I found my patient (pt) had been moved to a new room due to an infection. Lovely.

I wish I could tell you what the pt's deal was, but I also don't want to post information that shouldn't be posted. Let's just say that my instructor wouldn't allow me to change my pt's wound dressings because of the pt's general behavior. and my instructor replaced that pt with another for the clinical group that meets later in the week. I did get to inject insulin though-twice!

This week was interesting: when I went to pick up my pt info on monday afternoon, I found out that the pt went to surgery and "may or may not return to the floor" and that I wouldn't know until 6:00ish that night. That doesn't leave a lot of time to prepare for the next morning (we begin at 6:30am). Long story, but I was reassigned to a pt who didn't have any tubes or dressing or anything! But there were IVs, and the pt was incredibly patient and kind. The past two days were somewhat uneventful due to the fact that it was all IVs and not much else. The night nurse even changed the sheets while he showered that morning, just before I came on shift!

I have made some silly mistakes though: I would forget to do parts of an assessment...or leave the the roller clamp of the IV down (which meant the IV wasn't running, even if the pump/computer said it was)...I can go on and on...

But I can guarantee that next week will be a killer for me. My teacher is either going to give me two patients and/or give me one (or 2) 'heavy' patients, meaning lots of tubes, dressing changes, etc.

Keep your fingers crossed....hopefully it goes well!