Clinical: Week of October 7
October 8, 2008
Background: On Monday night, the group on 8 East and I rode the TMH bus to Scurlock. We headed to the unit office and looked for our instructor. When she came, we met with the nursing director of the floor and she told us how the floor ran by nurse teams; we had to choose teams on each floor and meet the team nurse leader. After a short talk on what to do, I went over to the nurse station next to the rooms 861-867. I met the day nurse Paula and introduced myself. She handed me a paper on her reportson the several patients she was taking care of. I ended up with a lady I will name “Juno”. I wont say much about her, but I will tell you this… she was an interesting case…
I asked her if I could be her nurse tomorrow and she happily and cooperatively agreed.
The day of: Monday night proved to be very exhaustive. I came home that night doing my care plan and making Juno’s care plan. The next morning, I drove to Kara’s to ride down to school. We reached our hospital unit promptly at 645am and we all looked for the night nurse. My night nurse, Christel, was busy and I followed her and introduced her. She then gave her change of shift report to the day nurse, Stephanie (a really sweet lady). I realized the many details they tell each other in each change of shift report. Especially all the lab values.
Stephanie and Christel also found out that my patient was Juno. They were asking me to change patient and I was hesistant and asked my instructor first. I realizexd many odd things about Juno throughout the day…I will just say that her mood that morning was unlike the mood she had during routine vital signs…
I ended up switching my patient to an older man that proved to be really cooperative. I mean, I know im going to be dealing with many different patients who are uncooperative and cooperative…but granted that my time was almost up to attain a complete health history, I had to get a move on and find a more cooperative and nice patient.
I also met the PCA “Beth” and followed her around. I saw how they drew blood, use their vital machines, communicated with patients, ordered food, bedmaking, and even saw a patient die. It was quite sad, I teared as the son of the old woman was telling her that she was strong… (she was on DNR).
I hope next week will turn into something awesome (though I am anxious).
