The 'nursey-ness' continues!

Yesterday my first FULL shift at the hospital. Since we haven't learned much past washing our hands and making beds, we were assigned to just 'shadow' our nurses as they went about their duties.

At 0650 we were told to meet in the report room and be ready to go. So, being the hopeless keener that I am, I was outside the room by 0640. But there were no students, and no instructor!

0645: instructor shows up and waits with me until the other arrive.

0650: 4 (out of 8) arrive.

07-freakin-00: the rest arrive.

So here we are, on the very FIRST day we work with the nurses, walking in LATE to the report room, interrupting the shift-change report, shuffling through the seated nurses, trying not to trip while we attempt to squeeze like sardines into this teeny-tiny room. Did I mention they were LATE which made everyone else - including me - LATE? I felt like I was walking into that room with a giant blinking L on my forehead. I suppose it could have stood for loser too. At that point, I didn't really care. Did I mention how much I hate being late???????

So anyways, after that minor frustration, we got paired up with our buddy nurses and sent out for the day. But seeing how something is always awry on the first day, the nurse I was supposed to shadow called in sick. However, my instructor volunteered her services in the mean time. So, her and I became a team and attempted do our rounds without a clue in the world of what to do.

Tangent: although she is a wonderful, caring person and always means well, my instructor is a little 'funny'. For example, when she was quizzing our clinical group about the warning signs of a stroke, I answered her question. I was standing on her right side, yet she looked to her left at another student and said, 'Yes Carmen, you are correct!!' Like, WHAT THE HECK?! I wasn't even over there. Seriously? Perhaps she has been working for too long.

So anyways, we set off to do our rounds and it turned out to be pretty great: she let me do a lot of hands-on work that we hadn't covered in lab yet. She knew of my previous experience at DP so she gave lots of opportunity to do care. She did vital signs, walked me through the steps, and explained the proper procedures even though that lab doesn't come for another few weeks. There were several casts, braces, etc. to apply, so she let me figure those out too. Despite the fact that we didn't know any of the patients, we managed to get everyone up and properly cared for in time for breakfast.

When the nurse who was called-in showed up, I was then her 'shadow' for the remainder of the day, which turned out to be SO SO great! She was still a graduate nurse, meaning that she had just written her RN exam but hadn't received her final mark yet. So she was able to show me how everything is done according to 'best practice' and not according to shortcuts. Even during our down time, she walked through absolutely everything on the ward: where to find this, where to find that, what happens with this, etc and etc. It was like being paired with a walking dictionary! So great. She also sat down with me and went over the client charts, which are a tad overwhelming if they are just plunked on your lap without direction. She went through literally every division and every paper, explaining it's relevance to the big picture. That was probably the most helpful - the amount of papers shoved into those binders is incredible!

It's too bad she won't be back next Monday, cause she really knew her stuff. But it was still a terrific day. Mondays are now officially my favorite.

D.