NICU

Today was my day to spend in the NICU at my clinical hospital. This isn't quite the experience it may have been even a couple of years ago due to the fact that almost every hospital has a NICU. Some may have more capabilities than others, but most hospitals are trending towards NICUS. We only had one patient. A pretty healthy baby considering. The main thing holding up discharge is the lack of ability to feed all feedings on a nipple. It was an educational day, but I would've liked to learn more about some of the more critical babies. I don't know if NICU is where I want to be or not, but one day with a fairly healthy patient isn't going to help decide that.

I have my first post-partum day tomorrow. As I've thought over the past month about what I want to do when I become a nurse, I'm becoming more and more interested in post-partum. I'm not so sure about labor and delivery, but we'll see where it all leads. Up to this point, I haven't really had much of a clue. And this may not be it, time will tell.

I'm exhausted and still have a little bit of paperwork to finalize before tomorrow. Just wanted to give you a quick update. More later, cj

Six weird things about me?

Why Vern chose me for this, I don't know! I've thought and thought and thought and am having a hard time coming up with weird things about myself. Maybe because they aren't weird to me. I'll take a shot at this though. Vern, I love you, dear, but don't know you know I'm not weird?

THE RULES: Each player of this game starts with the 6 weird things about you. People who get tagged need to write a blog of their own 6 weird things as well as state this rule clearly. In the end, you need to choose 6 people to be tagged and list their names. Don’t forget to leave a comment that says you are tagged in their comments and tell them to read your blog.

1. When it comes to school and work, I am very much a type A personality. But when it comes to my house, it just doesn't matter. (Go figure!)

2. I am an Air Force brat, but still want to travel. It is in my bones. I don't want to stay in one place for too long, or maybe I just haven't found "home" yet.

3. I record all my lectures, but don't listen to them after class ~ why do I do it, then?

4. I have three email addresses, but only use one of them actively.

5. I love these and these. They have helped my back a ton!!

6. I grind my teeth. I have since before I had teeth. It has caused tremendous problems, but I'm managing.

Ok, so that may be a lame list, but I can't think of anything else. If you know me well and want to comment on my oddities, please feel free (but be kind!!)

I tag Lorena, Hoosier Student Nurse, Prisca, Student Nurse Jack, Marisapan, and Disappearing John, RN. Make sure you post the instructions and then tag 6 people.

Lunch break is over ~ gotta get back to class. I'll post more later, cj

Weekend update

Not too much new to report since my last post. I still have a tag to reply to. I will get to that. It requires a lot of thought. I must finish the second half of my reading for tomorrow before I play.

At work on Friday, I thought I was going to die from overwork. Almost all of the patients I had (16 in all), were VERY, VERY SICK. Some of them needed to be in PCU, some of them needed to be in ICU, and some of them needed to be DNR. It was a rough day. I worked with two wonderful nurses and one nurse who can't see straight (figuratively speaking). I got all but one of my total baths done. Had two go for procedures and had to be on post-op vitals. I had one patient who insisted I was the meanest person in the world for turning her and bathing her and cleaning her dirty bottom. I had another one who kept pulling the non-rebreather oxygen mask off and kept desating into the low 70s. (We really needed to ship that one out, but didn't). The one that needed to be DNR was not one of my good nurses patients. It was a shame, too. The charge nurse came in and the patient was mottled from the knees down, and that was with a non-rebreather mask on!! The day just kept going. I finally got to go home. I was beat. When I went in Saturday, the patient who kept desating had been shipped to ICU and the other one had passed during the night. They had a bad night, too. My Saturday was much, much better. Mostly because we had the joy of having FOUR, yes, count them, FOUR techs until 3:00. I managed to have seven patients for the majority of the day. I was actually able to provide the type of care that I like to provide. Good baths, even for my "self-care" patients. I get to do some of the "pampering" that I don't normally get to do. It makes me feel like I've done a good job. At three, two of the techs left and that's when all hell broke loose. We ended up getting around five or six admits between three and seven. It was nice while it lasted. We enjoy our excess staff while we can.

Today has been ok. I've been working on my reading. I'm done with the reading for the first half of the day tomorrow. It was mostly a repeat from last week, but I reviewed it anyways. Then I ran some errands. Went to World Market. I LOVE that place!! I got some authentic gummis, some HIT cookies (from Germany), some Chocolate Raspberry coffee (with the 40% off coupon), and an awesome travel coffee mug that was 75% off! I made out like a bandit. I could spend hours in that store, along with lots and lots of money. I need to get some canisters for my kitchen. That will have to happen later. I've got my eye on a set. I'm not sure if I want the stainless ones, or the glass ones. I'm sure you don't care about my trip to World Market, so I'll tell you about my sad trip to Albertson's. I went to get a few things for my lunches this week and when I walked in I noticed a sign saying that the pharmacy was closing on the 1st. After I picked up all the items I needed, I walked back to the pharmacy to talk to the staff on duty and asked them if they were closing for renovation, or closing for good. She told me they were closing for good. I am so sad. I've been filling my prescriptions at that pharmacy for two years now. I really feel like I know them and they know me. Every time I go in, they ask me how school is going. If I'm not feeling well, they ask what's going on. It's going to be sad to see them go. I need to make a point to get up there this week to say good-bye to the rest of the staff.

Well, I've procrastinated enough. I need to go read about nursing management of the newborn. I only have 4 chapters to read, so that's not too bad. I hope you have a great afternoon. I'll do my best to reply to tag either today or tomorrow. cj

Seriously?!?!?

Ok, so if you are a Grey's fan and didn't watch tonight, please skip to my previous post. I'm sitting here literally speechless and almost in tears. I don't know what to think. Please don't mind me as I try to make sense of what happened tonight story-line by story-line. Ok, I'm so glad that the whole Alex/Allison thing didn't happen. I didn't want another intern/resident story line. They can be friends, but no more. George and Callie crack me up. George isn't quite sure how to deal with his dad's death, but he knows he loves Callie. He finally admitted he loved her and really, truly asked her to marry him. How about Christina and Burk? This whole not talking thing was really getting to me. The dinner party with Mer/Der was too funny, but over the top. The end of the show was so sweet when Christina finally broke down and started talking. She stood firm and let Burk know that she was there for the long haul. His response? Seriously? A marriage proposal!! Two in one night!! Amazing! We have to wait til next week for our response, but it'll be worth the wait ~ it always is. Bailey had her project in mind as well. She finally got all the residents to sign their support for her free clinic after the Chief resigned. Derek's words: "The Nazi's back!" It was classic Bailey. The scene between Bailey and Izzie was amazing. Izzie was inquiring about the progress of the clinic and Bailey was pleased that she had her signatures. Izzie then named it the "Denny Duquette Memorial Clinic"! What a better way to spend her money! She wanted to do something worthwhile with 8 million dollars. Bailey was speechless ~ enjoy that, it doesn't happen often.

My Thursday night is complete. I have my Grey's fix. For those of you who wonder how I make time for Grey's, well, I simply just turn the TV on and watch. I make sure all my paperwork is done early in the day and clear my calendar from 8-9. After all, a girl's gotta have something to look forward to! It's the only show I set aside time to watch during the week. It's my relax and do something for myself time. Thank you for letting me vent and rehash what happened. That was seriously an amazing episode. I hope Callie and Christina both say YES!!

Sunny days

Today is gorgeous. It's sunny and cool. There's a light wind and it's beautiful. It's such a change from what we've had most of the month. Don't get me wrong, we've needed all the rain that we have received. It's been nice. But it is nice to have the balance.

I woke up this morning without the dreaded headache that I went to bed with. It took a couple different types of meds and a hot shower before I could even think about going to sleep, but I finally dozed off about 10:30 or 11:00. It seems like my breakthrough headaches are getting worse and worse. They aren't more frequent, just more intense. I'll be talking to my neurologist about that when I go to see him.

I got quite a bit of school work done today. I finished up my paperwork from yesterday's clinicals and I got my discharge teaching assignment done. We had to have the blueprint for our post-partum discharge teaching done by Monday. Since I have to work this weekend, I decided to sit and do it today. It turned out pretty good and I have quite a bit to go on. I'm sure I will add some to it and tweak it some as I go along. Our instructor wants us to "think outside the box" and come up with something creative. So, I'm putting myself out there. I'm trying to come up with a creative idea for a discharge teaching project for a post-partum mom. If any of you out there are moms (and I know several of you are), what would have caught your eye at the time you were getting ready to go home? Would you like a pretty book with things to remember? Would you like a fancy power point on the computer (with the handouts to take home with you)? Would you like a poster board that has everything you need to remember? I need some novel ideas here. I don't want to come across absurd to a new mom, but I want to be complete and excel at my assignment. Any ideas would be appreciated. I may combine some. I have until Feb. 13 to complete this project, but I really need to get started on it.

Ok, I guess that's enough about that. I hope your day is as sunny as mine. I work Friday and Saturday and then spend Sunday reading for Monday. The cycle starts all over!! Have a good weekend. cj

Babies, babies, everywhere . . .

Today was my nursery rotation. I got to the hospital at 0610 to wait for my other classmates. We were meeting in the lobby at 0620 to be on the floor at 0630. We all headed upstairs via the elevator to the OB floor and got ready for our day. I was rather surprised when I got into the nursery that there were as many babies as there were. We are at a rather new hospital in the area that still doesn't have a lot of traffic, but this morning, we had EIGHT babies. I listened to report on all the babies and then buddied up with one of the nurses. We started right off assessing the babies and getting them ready for their days. The pediatricians come in first thing, so they stay in the nursery until the docs have come to see them. It was good to be able to see the nurses do their assessments, as well as the docs. I also had to watch a circumcision today. Thankfully the doctors that did them used emla (sp?) and lidocaine, but just watching it was almost unbearable. Things really started slowing down as the babies went to the mom's rooms, but there was still plenty to do. There were two babies going home, so I observed as the nurse did discharge teaching on the baby and also on the care of the new circumcision. All in all, I learned a lot today. And I must say, it is MUCH easier to change a diaper on a newborn than it is on an adult!! :-)

I left clinicals around 1:45 with a headache that was getting worse by the minute. I'm not sure if I didn't each lunch in time, or what, but nothing was helping. I had a few errands to run, so I took care of those and then headed home. I got home about 3:30 and laid down. I got up about 6:00 and my head is still just pounding. I guess it's going to be one of those nights that I take all my migraine meds and go back to bed after eating a small dinner. I really hate feeling like this, but I don't know what else to do. I have another appointment with my neurologist in February. The Topamax has been a godsend, but the breakthrough headaches that I get are almost too much to bear. I know that's why he gives me the other meds, but on so many levels I don't want to HAVE to use them. I think I'm going to eat and take my meds and go to bed. I may or may not work tomorrow ~ I'm not scheduled, so we'll see. I'm off to get a cold pack for my head and rest some more. . . talk to you later, cj

Clinical info . . .

Today was the official clinical orientation day. We had to be at the hospital at 7:30 for our first day. Not too bad ~ if I do say so myself. We headed up to the OB floor and got settled in our room and proceeded to go over the schedule, expectations and various paperwork. So far, it doesn't seem like it will be too bad. What does scare me is that WE will be the primary nurse for our post-partum patients. We have 3 days with one patient and then one day with two patients. We actually chart on the computer, in the patient's legal chart. This is new to us. We haven't been allowed near the charts before besides for information. I'm very slowly starting to feel like a "real nurse". During our OB rotation, we have a day in the nursery, a day in the NICU, three days in Labor and Delivery, and four post-partum days. Our final day will be a computer day at school where we will get to work with the mannequins who have various problems. Should prove to be interesting. We jump in with both feet tomorrow morning bright and early at 0630. I am in the nursery. Depending on what's going on depends on what we get to do. I guess that's kind of obvious. I'm actually excited about this rotation. It should be lots of fun. I'm expecting it to be challenging, but also a great learning experience. I have a ton of stuff to do tonight, so I'm going to get started on that. I'll touch base with you tomorrow after my day with the babies!! cj

Just hangin' out . . .

Today has been a relatively lazy day. The weather has decided to cooperate a little bit more and the rain has stopped for now. Though I don't mind the rain, we need as much as we can get. I got my laundry caught up (which will now become a Sunday afternoon routine) and finished my reading for tomorrow. Tomorrow is our first day of lecture. Then the clinical routine will start on Tuesday and Wednesday. Thankfully that's all of school I have for this semester. I'll work the last half of the week. Work this weekend wasn't too bad.

I got to talk to one of my friends that lives in FL today. We haven't talked at length for several months. Today was the first day that we both had uninterrupted time to visit. She is getting married in June, so we had a lot to catch up on. I'm so happy for her. And I get to be there. It was so good to talk to her. By the time we got off the phone, we had talked for 3 hours. It was incredible! I have a couple of other friends I need to catch up with, too. It's so amazing how our lives go different ways, but even after many months or years of not talking, with your true friends you can pick up right where you left off! I hope that your life is blessed with friendships like this ~ cj

Tag, I'm It . . .

Ok, for the 2nd time since I've been blogging, I've been tagged. This time, I was tagged by DisappearingJohn RN. My task is to write some six word stories. This could prove to be a challenge as I tend to get rather wordy sometimes. Bear with me.

First day. Long lecture. Brain dead.
Second day. Iced in. No school.
Third day. Didn't work. Math mastery.
Grey's Anatomy. George's dad. Very sad.

I could keep going, but I would probably bore you to tears. Don't know if that was the point of the tag, but I gave it a shot. I don't have anyone in mind to tag, so I'll tag whoever wants to play!

Math Mastery

Today was our "make-up" day from our ice day yesterday. We had to be at school at 11:30 to take our math test. I was there early because I wanted to get a few books from the library. I got what I needed from the library and was able to see several of my friends from 2nd and 4th semesters. That was nice. The math test wasn't too bad. We were able to miss two. I only missed one. I missed it because when I did it the first time, the answer didn't look right, so I did again reversing the numbers. Oh well. I passed, that's all that matters. That's all we did today. We were supposed to do a paperwork orientation yesterday, but several of the professors weren't able to rearrange their schedules, so we didn't do that. We all had to be there for the max of a hour. It wasn't too bad. I then ran a few errands.

I also called in to the hospital and will be able to make up the day I missed today by working tomorrow. I originally hadn't planned on working tomorrow not knowing how the math test would go. I hate to call off due to school. It puts everyone else in a bad spot and makes me look bad. I try to be more considerate than that. Some times, like yesterday, that is not possible. We'll see how my weekend goes. I'm working tomorrow and Saturday. Two days can't be too bad. Especially after having 5 off and getting half of my reading for Monday done. I still have quite a bit of reading to do, but am getting ready to get on that. You'll hear from me soon, cj

Online RN to BSN programs

Ok, so I know that I still have nearly a year left of my ADN program, but I am already in the mode of starting to look into BSN programs. I want to make sure that I continue my education as soon as I can after graduation. I realize some programs have some restrictions (as far as time you have practiced as a nurse, etc), but I was curious if anyone has had a good or even a bad experience with any particular online program. That is really going to be the best way for me to go. I want the flexibility of being able to work when I want/have to, as well as do my school work on my days off. Any assistance you can offer would be great!! I've started bookmarking programs and doing some preliminary research. Your help is my next step! Have a great day. I'm staying nice and warm inside!! cj

No school, no school, la la la la . . . .

Well, I got a call this morning from one of my friends at 6:00 am. She called to let me know that school had been cancelled today. Of course, I was just about to get out of bed, so I got up and turned on the news and went to the web to check for myself. Sure enough, there's lots of white stuff and ice everywhere. No school today. I have a whole day to get reading done. However, they have rescheduled work from today for tomorrow, and I was supposed to work, so I have to call and fix that. I'll venture out later and take some pictures and post them. Until then, I'm going to stay warm and safe inside.

First day is over

Well, after much anticipation and preparation, the first day of school is over. We even had to wear our marshmallow uniforms today. Kinda stinky, considering the temps still haven't gotten out of the 20s for the 2nd day in a row. I'm fine in the cold if I can dress appropriately. Unfortunately, nursing uniforms are not conducive to cold temperatures.

We started our day with our "surprise" drug screen. I was so embarrassed because it took me two tries to get mine done. My bladder doesn't normally need to be emptied as soon as I get to school because I use the bathroom before I leave the house and I only live 5 minutes from school. Life goes on though, and I wasn't the only one who had problems!

The next task we got to accomplish was to split up into groups (pedi and OB) and then into smaller groups and go through various scenarios to get us ready to go to clinicals. It was a great learning experience, but we just didn't have enough time to do what we needed to do!

It was on to learn math for our test tomorrow. It doesn't seem too bad. I still have some work to do on it tonight, but for the most part, I'm ready for the test. I hope that I pass tomorrow, so I don't have to remediate. We spent the rest of the afternoon talking about HIPPA and then care mapping.

Tomorrow doesn't seem too bad. We have our math mastery test and then we break up into clinical groups for the rest of the day. I'm anxious to see what our expectations are for the first part of the semester. My first half is in OB. Should prove to be an interesting experience.

Well, I've rambled on enough. I have quite a bit of work to do for tomorrow and must get on it. Until later, cj

BBBBRRRRRR

Well, the big ice storm they've been talking about for the past few days finally came through last night. We've had cold weather since late Thursday afternoon and have actually had a decent amount of rain. However, we are in the mid-to upper-20's right now and so everything froze and the roads are nasty. Thankfully I don't have to be anywhere today. If you are south of Dallas and they are saying you are going to get ice, you probably will. Hopefully you'll be able to stay inside and away from the frozen roads. I'm going to get a few more things done around the house today and start school tomorrow. Hope you all have a great day, cj

Exhausted is not the word . . .

Ok, so I just finished working 4 12 hour shifts. I wasn't supposed to work today, but when I got a phone call at 7:45 offering a bonus and call back to work in post-partum, I jumped at the opportunity. Plus I don't have to work on Monday now. Let's see if I can recap my week a little bit for you. So, the last time I posted was Wednesday.

I'll start with Thursday. Thursday was not much fun. My day started off like any other. And I only had 16 patients. By the time I finished my vital signs for my patients and passed my breakfast trays, I was told that the other tech wasn't going to be in and I would have to do vitals for both halls and pass the trays for those patients as well. That put my patient load up to 31. By the time I finished one set of rounds, it was time to start another. I was so tired by the time I got home, it wasn't funny!! I don't hope to have another day like that anytime soon. Friday was much better. I started with my 16 patients and by mid-shift we got an extra tech and I was down to 10 patients. I was so nice to actually be able to provide the type of care for my patients that I want and need to be able to provide. Today was good. I was VERY busy. We discharged 9 of 11 patients, but it was worth it to work in post-partum. I love oooing and awwing over the babies and then giving them back. It got to take staples out today. It was a new experience for me. The nurses were great. They were just as busy as I was, but they wanted to teach me whatever I wanted to know! It was awesome!!

I'm still sitting here in my scrubs. I can't seem to get the energy to find something to eat. It's freezing cold outside. But, I don't have to work until Thursday!! I just got off the phone with a dear friend. We always talk at least an hour when we talk. But we haven't talked since before school got out. We are great friends. It was so good to hear from her. I love surprise calls like that!!

School starts Tuesday. I have so much to do before then. I still need to get my syllabi bound. Thankfully Office Depot is in the shopping center right up from my house, so even if the roads are really bad tomorrow, I can venture out later in the day (after the sanding trucks have been out) to get that done. I need to do some decent cleaning in my house so that I can have a decent start to the semester. I have a good feeling about this semester. I'm closing for now. It's taken me forever to write this post because of my phone call (no complaints, though!!) Have a great night. I'm bundled up and packed in for the night and probably most of the weekend!! Be back soon, cj

Working lots

Sorry to be so absent. Every time I sit down to blog, I either am too tired or too distracted. I've been working a lot lately. I knew it was going to be this way. I did get a stomach bug over the weekend and haven't quite recovered from it. I'm still working despite it. I'm trying my best not to relapse and get worse. Today was the first of three days, then I'll have two off and work one, then school will start. I was in our overflow section today. Our hospital is in the process of adding a 4th floor. We have an extreme lack of space. We constantly have patients in overflow. Today was no exception. 12 patients had already been admitted into overflow and there were over 20 holding in ER for rooms. Insanity, if you ask me. But, we still keep the ER open, and still do elective surgeries and still . . . I could go on and on, but it won't fix the problem. I don't even think the 4th floor will fix our problem. The good thing about being in overflow is that the flow is generally a little bit more laid back. Today was not an exception, until about 5:00. They found rooms for all 6 of our patients and we had to get them out by the end of shift because we didn't have relief coming. For those of you who work in the hospital setting, you know how it gets near shift change. I was pushing beds up to rooms like you wouldn't believe. I think I burned a million calories today. Anyways, I've griped enough. I'm tired, I'm going to sit here and try to relax a little bit. I may even just go to bed. If you are one of my nursing student blogging friends, and have started school already, I hope that you are off to a great start. I'll try to post this weekend before school starts. Have a great week, cj

Busy again

Well, there's nothing like getting thrown back into the game after a long break from doing nothing. I've just worked the last three days (well, only worked 8 hours yesterday, but I'll get to that). Tuesday was a relatively calm day. I started out in med-surg overflow with one nurse and one patient. We got up to two patients and then I got moved to pediatrics. There were 3 babies and a young girl. My ultimate move is to be the unit secretary/tech for pediatrics, but none of us are sure if that is going to happen. There are only 6 pedi beds and if there are two nurses, they won't let me work over there. They keep med-surg so short staffed, that I am rarely where I'm supposed to be. Wednesday was a decent day as well. I sat a one-to-one with a pleasant patient. It wasn't too bad, except for having to beg for a break. Thursday was when the stuff hit the fan. When I got to work, I already had a headache that had started. It was a dull ache when the day started and I only had 10 patients, so I figured I could make it. But things were quickly to change. By 7:30, they had pulled one of our techs over to rehab. That put me up to 16 patients and wrapping between two halls. After I passed breakfast trays, I went and got something for myself to eat, thinking that might help my head. I did a few baths and tended to my patients, but my head just kept getting worse. By 11:00 vitals, I was done. I made my rounds, passed my lunch trays and then the nausea hit me. I finally asked to go home at 2:45 and was clocked out by 3:00. We had a lot going on on the floor, and I don't think any of the med-surg techs stayed past 3:00. For some reason, they schedule all the techs that leave at 3:00 on the same day. They tried to make me feel guilty about that, but if I would've stayed, I know I probably would've ended up in the ER. When I got home, I took my phenergen and fioricet and laid down to take a nap. Well, the meds knocked me out and I didn't wake up until 8:00 this morning. I'm feeling better this morning. Some residual ickiness, but nothing major.

I made it to the school today to buy my books for the semester. I have some vocabulary I need to get started on. I would also like to start reading for the first week of lecture. Classes don't start until the 16th, but I don't want to start out behind.

I've rambled enough. Need to go get some lunch and do some things around the house. Hope all is well with everyone, cj