An ugly day at the computer

Sheesh!

I’m in the process of co-organizing the orientation for incoming students at the faculty of Nursing this fall.  Things are moving right along, but we had a few hiccups yesterday and today.  One major one was copying the mailing address from last year’s enrollment forms – IT WAS THE WRONG POSTAL CODE!  So in panic, we had to send out emails finding out how many people’s letter we are expecting letters from.  So, I’ve basically spent hours of my day at the computer answering questions and emails about what to do about this situation.  SHIIIIT.

Now, I can’t even believe that I’m blogging, seeing as I’ve been at a computer for almost 6 hours today.  Yikes.  It’s like I’m back at my old office job.  Yuck!

Maybe today will be better.

It’s finally summer!

After a long school year, I am finished all the assignments, exams and such – yes, it’s official – I’m 1/2 a nurse.  Now I just need to wait and see how I did.  But that probably won’t happen until closer to the September.

Now it’s time to enjoy the summer sun, train for the sprint triathlon I signed up for, and work out some part-time employment hours.  Mostly I just wish that I get to spend tons of time with M because I’ve been really missing out on quality time with him because of school.  It will be like we’re dating each other again. 

When I stop to think about it – I really can’t believe all the crazy changes going to school has brought to my life – new friends, new skills, all sorts of things.  I’ve gotten a chance to see a myriad of different hospital facilities around the city, which is also pretty cool.  It gives me a much better idea of where I want to go after I’m done.  I’ve seen some truly amazing nurses in action.  Really – there are so many people who really go the extra mile to make someone’s hospital stay the best it can be.    On the other hand, it also made me realize that there are still tons of improvements that need to be done in some facilities before they can boast they are giving excellent care  Not huge things, just small things – the things that really count, like preserving dignity and such.  That’s why I’m so excited because I get to work towards improving those things when I finally start my career.  Cool.

Anyway, enough contemplation.  It’s summer – time to have fun! Woot!

Happy Nursing Week

It’s nursing week – and it’s time to celebrate all the hard work that nurses do on a day to day basis. Today, my best pal Alison passed on this article about my other best friend Jennifer. This totally shows what kind of impact I want to have in my career.

Here is the link, and the details are on page 5:
http://www.hospitalnews.com/content/magazines/May09/supple_May09.pdf

IM, I am.

I’ve been meaning to post this story for a week now – it’s totally worth sharing.

Last Friday, I was presenting with a new challenge as a nursing student – having to do my very first intramuscular (IM) injection into a real live client – wow!  My nurse was really supportive, kept me on my toes and walked me through getting the injection prepared, which was very tricky seeing as the drug was very oily and just did not want to get in to the syringe.  Once it was ready, the patient was prepped, and we were good to go…right?

I have to admit I was a little nervous.  The only work I’ve done with injections has been to stab a little practice pad  – that of course doesn’t take a lot of pressure.  A human’s skin is totally different.  I went to inject the patient and managed the right angle and hand position, but I didn’t master the pressure.  I pricked the client instead!  OOPS!  All I could muster was a little “Sorry” before getting some encouragement from my nurse to push it in more quickly.  By that last statement I mean she grabbed my hand  in hers and used it to push the needle in correctly.  I did the rest of the work after that – aspirating, pushing the med in slowly and pushing until the retractable needle clicked back.  Very cool.

I may not have been a perfect attempt, in fact it was almost downright funny, but I managed it and it’s just one more step on my way to being a nurse.  WOOHOO!

Pondering the new placement

Day two of classes and things are looking pretty good.  I had my first class today in preparation for my placement in mental health.  It should be really interesting.  I’m hoping that this placement teaching me quite a bit about what it means to live with a mental illness and all the stigma that can be related to it.  It’s an amazing thing to be there with someone as they start to learn to better manage something that can cause them discomfort, but it will also be challenging.  I mean, what do I really know about marginalization, poverty and inequity?

Part of me is a little bit nervous about the placement in that respect.  Yes, I might get some of the book knowledge required to interact in my placement, but I really want to make a genuine connection with people.  Will that be possible?  Will I be seen as the other, someone that can’t be trusted?  I don’t know.  Maybe it won’t even be like this at all – my impression of mental health facilities is probably already skewed by the wordly view I already have.  This placement will probably do a very good job at skaking up those beliefs – and I look forward to that.

In the end, it’s about learning – and that’s what I intend to do.  At the very least, I want the clients I interact with to feel like I respect them and that I want to learn from them – not because of their diagnosis, but because they are people who have had interesting and life changing experiences that I can learn from too.  But it’s hard to explain that to people without coming across as disingenuous.

I’ll figure it out.

Extra day-off

This morning was day one of my new clinical placement in long term care. I was frustrated because most other people were allowed to sleep in and not have to show up until around 9:00. We had to be there at 7:00. And the most frustrating part is that I had to take the first train out of Broadview station to get there. GAH!

But guess what? It turned out for the best. We arrived around 6:30, met at 7:00 and because one of the girls didn’t bring her scrubs, we couldn’t spend much time orientating ourselves on the unit. We had a quick post-conference meeting, and we were out of there by 8:00. Excellent!

So, my new pal Shera and I decided to go for breakfast together near her place – a super fun greasy spoon type place on the Danforth, then I walked over to Broadview station and headed home. Now I’ve got the whole day to get some school and house work done.

I love spontaneous days-off.

Welcome to the world, say hello

It’s been a while since I’ve posted. I’m working on my have written back dated posts, so stay tuned. But on to the story…

Today was a great day, I had my very first nursing experience in Labour and Delivery. As of 7:45 this morning, I was in a room while a mum was fully dialated and ready to give birth. I was there from the first push to the first time they saw each other as Mum and Baby. It was really a great experience, and not nearly as scary (at least for me) as I thought it would be. There was a part of me that just kicked in to help the mum, and I felt like I had a chance to make a good memory for her and her husband (I hope!).

I wish I could go in to more details, but that would be inappropriate, but I can truly say it was a really cool thing to experience.

Welcome little one!

Breastfeeding 101

Next week I’m heading in to my clinical placement, and we’re having to get used to learning tons of information, really quickly, and then act like we know what we’re talking about.  (Not an easy thing to balance when you’re nervous!)

Today was great though – we had a very experience clinical coach and breastfeeding expert come and talk to us about the whole process and how to explain it to new mothers.  There are so many little details to remember, so I can see it being an intimidating process, but it’s also a fairly intuitive one – there are lots of little “natural hints” that are occuring to let you know what you should be looking for – you just need to know the signs.  It was really cool to see how God really put the whole process together in an amazing way. 

I’m really starting to feel a little bit excited about what it will all be like! 

Officially a student

So, yesterday was day one of being a U of T nursing student.  We had orientation in the morning.  I’m one of 160 students, about 20 of which are guys, which is cool.  I’m not the oldest person, but I’m one of the few married people.  It’s cool.  I’ve made a few new friends, but we’ll have to see what sticks during the year.

It feels so strange to actually be at this moment.  I mean, I’ve been talking about going back to school for so long, and now I’m just a little nervous about getting started.  It’s going to be lots of work, but it will be only two years.  I guess I’m just ready to start trying it.  We’ll see how it goes.  It’s all about taking it one day at a time.  Classes start on Monday.  I’ll be launching in to clinical skills pretty fast too.  I’m excited about that.

Unfortunately, readers, I don’t know if I’ll be able to maintain writing every day, but I’ll write as often as I can.  I can’t let you down!

1, 2, 3, 4….

One of the fun part about going in to this nursing program is that I am going to get a chance to get some hands on experience.  Before I can, I’ve got to get all my vaccinations up to date, and get a few more details sorted.  That’s not so bad…ish.

Since May 22, I’ve been stuck with the most amount of needles I can think of in a long time (not including the tattoo experience as that just one needle over and over…)  I’ve had my blood taken to measure the serological titers for several diseases.  Then I had to have the step one of a Matoux (TB) test.  That same day I got a Hepatitis B booster.  When I got my test read 3 days later I got a tetanus/diptheria booster which hurt like hell – like a someone had taken a baseball bat to my upper arm.  This week I went for step two of the TB test (and I had to get two needles because the first didn’t take) and found out that I was immune to measles and mumps, but not rubella, so there was another shot (an MMR booster).  Today I have to get the test read, and hopefully my titer for varicella is back says I’m immune otherwise that’s another one! 

Good news is – after being pierced 12 times, and having 2 tattoos, I’m used to needles.