Fortunate for me, though, my patient was a doll--such a pleasure to work with. She and I laughed so much today, just telling stories and learning from each other. It was really refreshing. My nurse, on the other hand, seemed like she was none too happy to have a student. I understand, I really do--we can be such a burden, because we can't really do anything without someone else being in the room, it seems. Or at least the bigger things--like giving meds. I know she was really busy, and the last thing she probably wanted was a student who needed to have her observe medication administration.
I was able to go with her, though, to do a bladder scan, which was interesting. What was most interesting, though, was being able to see the distention from the bladder being very full. It amazes me that some disease processes take that feeling of fullness away from you--so you don't know you need to go and therefore don't go and end up building up a ridiculous amount of urine!
I then had the opportunity to accompany my patient to occupational therapy, which was different than I thought it was. It was great to get to see, though. For those who don't know what it is--it is the therapy that helps you get back to normal daily activities. I saw the therapists working with other patients on how to dress themselves, and what they did with my patient was encourage her to stand while doing a puzzle to simulate standing in front of the stove or bathroom sink--helping her build up tolerance to standing for longer periods of time.
After I got back down to the floor, I was called in to do a staple removal. Coolest thing ever!! The little pair of scissors for removing staples have one prong on the top leg and two prongs on the bottom leg that crimp together to crimp the staple and bend it out of the wound (the staples are in the skin, wrapped under very much like a staple is in paper). I will put in a picture, so hopefully it makes more sense (kind of hard to describe without hand gestures, haha).
So, the one girl in our clinical group was an athletic trainer and had lots of experience with staple removal and steri-strip application, so she was a great teacher for me. I think I pulled out something like 12 staples, and put on a lot of steri-strips. Yay!! Oh--and the patient had hiccups, so I am even more of an expert, because I was working with moving targets, hahaha!
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| So these are the scissors... you can't really see but there are two prongs on the bottom leg.... |
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| This shows a little better how the crimping action works to pull out the staples -- really cool |
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| And this kind of shows the scissors and the staples. This is not my patient -- this is from google images! |
Right, so that was pretty much my entire day. I gave a lot of meds, figured out how to put on a gait belt (harder than it looks, apparently--probably just me), walked with my patient a few times, and learned how to use the IV pump. OH!!! I also helped a physical therapist apply lymphedema bandages to my patient. Not that she has lymphedema, but the principles that help with lymphedema also help with general edema. Of which my patient had quite a bit in her legs. It was interesting to hear the therapist talk about the cotton bandages she uses versus Ace wraps. Ace wraps have elastic in them, which allow it to stretch up to 200%--which isn't very helpful with edema. But, just plain cotton bandages don't allow that great of a give, and so are much better for helping with edema. Also, she made a point to say that we don't have to wrap the patients up tight--the multiple layers actually create a tightness in themselves, making tight wrappings unnecessary.
So, today, I am thankful for laughter. It really is the best medicine, and it really can bring people together. I felt I really connected with my patient today, and mostly because she and I were both able to laugh and did laugh at every occasion we had. And it just feels good to laugh--you're smiling, happy, and filled with nothing but good feelings. Huzzah!!
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