Like charting, blogging should be done ASAP after an event

And the event is . . . I put in an IV today!! DA DA DA DUMMMMMM!

This week's clinical was way way better than last week's. The main difference was my attitude. I adopted a lassaiz-faire approach to student nursing, since this hospital put so many restrictions on us. Oh, I see that I haven't talked about this clinical yet. I'm on a general med/surg floor in a busy hospital. Their student policy is that we can't do anything without our clinical instructor with us. We can't even pass meds if the patient's primary nurse is with us, if the instructor isn't there. Everything is controlled by fingerprint and card access. They won't give us cards or even a login password to check the computer for orders or lab results. So basically our hands are tied. I also felt that last week our instructor was babying us and not letting us do things ourselves, she kept stepping on our toes. We gave her a lot of feedback on that and this week she has given us a lot more control. It's still hard to get your patient cares done when you're on someone else's schedule - hence my new attitude. If I had an 8 AM med and it's 9:30 and she's still busy with another student? Oh well. Not my problem, as long as I let her know I was waiting. If she wants to chat with her fellow nurses when I'm waiting at the desk for her omnicell access? Chat with them instead of sending darts with my eyeballs (oh, but you guys know me, I would NEVER do that ;-)

I had two patients Th and F, one stayed the same and one discharged in the morning today. All my patients were Spanish speaking only. I used interpretors, fellow students who spoke spanish, the telephone interpretor, and a lot of charades and sound effects. I learned that they appreciate it when you use their phrases even though you can't say anything else. I quickly incorporated senora, gracias, lo ciento, delora (for pain), mucho, grande, and counted uno dos tres before giving a shot. I did the admission interview for a patient and had to use the telephone interpretting service. It definitely affects your ability to connect with the patient and it takes twice as long as usual, but we got through it.

I haven't done too many procedures yet. Lots of IV meds and boy, am I missing the syringe pumps at other hospitals. I had to sit and slowly push a medication over ten minutes! I do check a lot of urine and vomit, take a lot of vitals, do the assessments, and give heparin and insulin shots. I tried to start an IV yesterday but I was afraid to dig around too much, so I let the nurse finish the stick (which worked first attempt). Today though I did all the prep, got the flash, tested patency, and taped it down. The whole shebang. There are so many steps involved. I wish I had more chances to practice so I could remember all the little steps. I should mime it out in my free time.

Umm. I feel like I should summarize other things going on or write a nice conclusion. But I'm hungry and tired of typing, so laters!