Med/Surg clinical day 2. I was assigned a different patient, seeing as how my patient from yesterday got discharged. My instructor gave me a somewhat complicated patient, with several things going on. The nurse I was assigned with actually graduated from the same program I'm in two years ago, so she was a great resource to have to ask questions. She also had another student with her who is in the standard, 2.5-year program, and she is set to graduate this December. She also was a great resource. The nurse encouraged me to follow her through the day and really pushed me to get involved and do things. She had me pull IVs, give a flu shot, give some insulin and other medications (oral route only), and do assessment workups. It was really cool to get to follow them around to see what a normal day in the life of a nurse would be like. I still wish there was more I could do with the patients besides do an assessment, chart I&O, and give parenteral and non-parenteral meds. But, I know that we are building up to it all, and I will be able to do more before I know it!
I think the most interesting part of my day was getting to do a wound dressing change. VEnous stasis ulcers are nasty looking things. The one I assisted with was 5 x 14 cms, which is pretty good-sized. I have never seen the foam pads that have silver-nitrate in them, which helps promote healing. Pretty cool, and you can see the healing process better because you don't have to add creams or anything that can block visualization.
Oh, another amazing thing I got to see was an echocardiogram, transthoracic. The ultrasound technician was really cool and had so much information to give to us. She showed us how difficult it can be to get good images, because the images are taken between ribs, and then if the patient takes a deep breath, the view can be obscured that way, too. She described how vegetation and calcifications would appear on the ultrasound. She also told us about her course of schooling and how it's a lot of physics. Getting to see the valves was pretty neat. They moved differently than I imagined they would.
It was a pretty great experience today, so I am excited for next week and what other great opportunities will be opened to me.
No comments:
Post a Comment