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Nursing School week 4/#12
Apr. 12th, 2013 09:47 pmAnother speedy week, it seemed!
In Tuesday, we finished learning about Shock in our Theory class, although I definitely don't think I've mastered this topic yet. I predict a lot of reviewing this weekend, since we have an exam next Tuesday. On Wednesday we had an overview of the history of nursing in our Bridging class and then had a guest-lecture from a burn-injuries specialist. The burn unit at the local Trauma-Center hospital also covers other epithelium-destroying diseases and injuries, such as chemical burns and flesh-eating bacteria. It was a good lecture, with some horrifying photos.
I spent the week in clinical this week in the one-day surgery wing of the hospital. This is a place where patients arrive for pre-scheduled surgeries and then (typically) spend the night before being discharged the next morning; some don't even stay the night. It's also the place where pre-scheduled patients report for surgeries after which they'll be admitted to one of the medical/surgical floors for a few days (such as knee-replacements). So, it can be very busy at times and very quiet at others (such as midday when everyone who arrived that morning is still in the OR and most-everyone from yesterday has been discharged). Because most of the patients are relatively healthy, the nurses' jobs seem pretty easy most of the time, but because all of the patients are post-operative, the nurses actually need to be pretty on top of things, since a patient could start bleeding, or have a bad reaction to anesthesia, or have other complications. Also, all kinds of surgeries pass through this unit--I saw patients with eye/ear/nose/throat procedures, spine procedures, gallbladder removals, gynecologic and prostate procedures, fistula-creation surgery for dialysis (fusing a vein and artery together), etc... This means the nurses need to be familiar with the assessments and complications for all of these types of surgery. On most other floors, you're more likely to have the same types of surgery--one floor gets most of the GI/pelvic/abdominal procedures; another gets the orthopedic procedures, etc... But not this unit! It was an interesting couple of days.
That's about all the news. I feel like my list of "lasts" is growing quickly now--we'll have our last simulation on Monday; our last week of clinical is only two weeks away, etc... Now if it would only get warm out, it might feel like Spring!
In Tuesday, we finished learning about Shock in our Theory class, although I definitely don't think I've mastered this topic yet. I predict a lot of reviewing this weekend, since we have an exam next Tuesday. On Wednesday we had an overview of the history of nursing in our Bridging class and then had a guest-lecture from a burn-injuries specialist. The burn unit at the local Trauma-Center hospital also covers other epithelium-destroying diseases and injuries, such as chemical burns and flesh-eating bacteria. It was a good lecture, with some horrifying photos.
I spent the week in clinical this week in the one-day surgery wing of the hospital. This is a place where patients arrive for pre-scheduled surgeries and then (typically) spend the night before being discharged the next morning; some don't even stay the night. It's also the place where pre-scheduled patients report for surgeries after which they'll be admitted to one of the medical/surgical floors for a few days (such as knee-replacements). So, it can be very busy at times and very quiet at others (such as midday when everyone who arrived that morning is still in the OR and most-everyone from yesterday has been discharged). Because most of the patients are relatively healthy, the nurses' jobs seem pretty easy most of the time, but because all of the patients are post-operative, the nurses actually need to be pretty on top of things, since a patient could start bleeding, or have a bad reaction to anesthesia, or have other complications. Also, all kinds of surgeries pass through this unit--I saw patients with eye/ear/nose/throat procedures, spine procedures, gallbladder removals, gynecologic and prostate procedures, fistula-creation surgery for dialysis (fusing a vein and artery together), etc... This means the nurses need to be familiar with the assessments and complications for all of these types of surgery. On most other floors, you're more likely to have the same types of surgery--one floor gets most of the GI/pelvic/abdominal procedures; another gets the orthopedic procedures, etc... But not this unit! It was an interesting couple of days.
That's about all the news. I feel like my list of "lasts" is growing quickly now--we'll have our last simulation on Monday; our last week of clinical is only two weeks away, etc... Now if it would only get warm out, it might feel like Spring!
