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Nursing School week 2/#3
Feb. 3rd, 2012 10:43 pmPhew! I am ready for a nice evening at home not doing homework (the homework will return tomorrow).
We had our first Nursing exam today. The word on the street (ie: from students who have already taken this class) was that "everyone fails the first exam." I don't think I failed it, but there were more questions that I wasn't sure of than I would have liked. The grades haven't been posted yet, and probably won't go up until Monday...I'll just be antsy until then.
Earlier in the week I passed my Secondary IV medications skill validation, which is nice to have out of the way and means I can give fluids and (most) medications in clinical. Of course, my patient this week didn't have an IV... The lab skill for this week was giving insulin via a subcutaneous injection and also via the Lantus pen. It isn't really very different from giving other subcutaneous injections, except that the syringe is marked in units of insulin, not in millileters. There are 100 units of insulin in 1mL, so each unit is .01mL, which means the lines are pretty close together! I think that's really the reason we have to do this as a separate validation! (And, also, insulin can be dangerous if you give the wrong amount. When RNs draw up and give insulin they have to have another RN check the needle, the vial, and the order before injecting the patient.)
Clinical went well this week--last week was a little crazy with us getting used to the floor, and used to our instructor, and everything. We only had one patient apiece this week, but I think she's going to increase it to two next week. Our floor is not very large, so this might be a bit challenging sometimes!
I must say, I'm grateful the winter has been so mild (even though I think we might be officially in a drought by now)...every morning that I don't have to clean off the car and shovel the driveway is a good morning!
We had our first Nursing exam today. The word on the street (ie: from students who have already taken this class) was that "everyone fails the first exam." I don't think I failed it, but there were more questions that I wasn't sure of than I would have liked. The grades haven't been posted yet, and probably won't go up until Monday...I'll just be antsy until then.
Earlier in the week I passed my Secondary IV medications skill validation, which is nice to have out of the way and means I can give fluids and (most) medications in clinical. Of course, my patient this week didn't have an IV... The lab skill for this week was giving insulin via a subcutaneous injection and also via the Lantus pen. It isn't really very different from giving other subcutaneous injections, except that the syringe is marked in units of insulin, not in millileters. There are 100 units of insulin in 1mL, so each unit is .01mL, which means the lines are pretty close together! I think that's really the reason we have to do this as a separate validation! (And, also, insulin can be dangerous if you give the wrong amount. When RNs draw up and give insulin they have to have another RN check the needle, the vial, and the order before injecting the patient.)
Clinical went well this week--last week was a little crazy with us getting used to the floor, and used to our instructor, and everything. We only had one patient apiece this week, but I think she's going to increase it to two next week. Our floor is not very large, so this might be a bit challenging sometimes!
I must say, I'm grateful the winter has been so mild (even though I think we might be officially in a drought by now)...every morning that I don't have to clean off the car and shovel the driveway is a good morning!
