Nursing School week 4/#13
Apr. 23rd, 2013 10:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pantsheadI worked in the yard a bunch this weekend--it was sunny, and pretty mild out--and thus neglected to update this...
Another week down! This week we had our 4th exam, which went okay but I didn't do as well as I hoped, and then learned about non-pharmacological pain management--everything from acupuncture to meditation to Reiki. I have to admit, I'm skeptical that 'energy field' therapies actually work (beyond a placebo effect--which can be very powerful and hey, if it works, great!--and beyond the 'caring presence' effect). However, hospitals--including the one associated with my school--are incorporating them into the clinical area, and patients can now request and receive these treatments in the hospital. There is a group of volunteers, many of whom are RNs, that provide the service. One of my previous clinical instructors is one of the Reiki practitioners, and I must say that she is, in every other way, a very focused, scientific, rational person...but then she said "please don't touch the tips of the essential oil bottles; it will destroy the vibrations." Sooo, I'm not sure that I will be convinced until I try it myself, and I think I have enough of a scientific bent to say "I won't be convinced until someone does it on me and I'm not aware of what they're doing and it works anyway."
[A non-school-related digression: My father is in the middle of moving out of the country, and he and a friend have bought a house. A series of unfortunate events have occurred to the friend in this house--nothing criminal or dangerous, but difficult to deal with nonetheless. The friend now believes the house is in some way cursed, or has a bad 'aura,' or something like that. My father is a scientist, and has never professed any religious faith. In fact, it's something he specifically disavows. I am a Christian, but a belief in evil spirits, or auras, or anything along those lines has never been personally resonant with me. But the other day my father and I--both admitted skeptics--had a serious conversation about whether having the aura of the house cleansed would help his friend feel at home there.
What's the point of that note? I guess, in the paraphrased words of Terry Pratchett, 'it would be a funny world if we were all alike.']
This was our second-to-last week of clinical. We also had our final simulation, which went pretty well in that we did not kill our 'patients.' The set-up was that we had two patients who were both at risk of going into shock, and if we didn't catch it quickly enough I think one (or both) would have gone into cardiac arrest. Then we would have had to do CPR and maybe they still wouldn't have made it. But, everyone (plastic mannequins and nursing students alike) survived!
Another week down! This week we had our 4th exam, which went okay but I didn't do as well as I hoped, and then learned about non-pharmacological pain management--everything from acupuncture to meditation to Reiki. I have to admit, I'm skeptical that 'energy field' therapies actually work (beyond a placebo effect--which can be very powerful and hey, if it works, great!--and beyond the 'caring presence' effect). However, hospitals--including the one associated with my school--are incorporating them into the clinical area, and patients can now request and receive these treatments in the hospital. There is a group of volunteers, many of whom are RNs, that provide the service. One of my previous clinical instructors is one of the Reiki practitioners, and I must say that she is, in every other way, a very focused, scientific, rational person...but then she said "please don't touch the tips of the essential oil bottles; it will destroy the vibrations." Sooo, I'm not sure that I will be convinced until I try it myself, and I think I have enough of a scientific bent to say "I won't be convinced until someone does it on me and I'm not aware of what they're doing and it works anyway."
[A non-school-related digression: My father is in the middle of moving out of the country, and he and a friend have bought a house. A series of unfortunate events have occurred to the friend in this house--nothing criminal or dangerous, but difficult to deal with nonetheless. The friend now believes the house is in some way cursed, or has a bad 'aura,' or something like that. My father is a scientist, and has never professed any religious faith. In fact, it's something he specifically disavows. I am a Christian, but a belief in evil spirits, or auras, or anything along those lines has never been personally resonant with me. But the other day my father and I--both admitted skeptics--had a serious conversation about whether having the aura of the house cleansed would help his friend feel at home there.
What's the point of that note? I guess, in the paraphrased words of Terry Pratchett, 'it would be a funny world if we were all alike.']
This was our second-to-last week of clinical. We also had our final simulation, which went pretty well in that we did not kill our 'patients.' The set-up was that we had two patients who were both at risk of going into shock, and if we didn't catch it quickly enough I think one (or both) would have gone into cardiac arrest. Then we would have had to do CPR and maybe they still wouldn't have made it. But, everyone (plastic mannequins and nursing students alike) survived!
