Well, I was hoping to go to the respiratory unit at the Jubilee for practicum, but my practicum instructor informed me that there were very few acute care placements, and that she was probably going to have to place me in geriatric psych. All I could think in my head was "Oh no! Crazy old people!" I really wanted an acute care placement because we had been out of the hospitals since October, and I was starting to feel like I was forgetting things. You know, if you don't use it, you lose it. So I went back into her office and begged and pleaded for acute care. "I'll take anywhere!" I promised. "I'll even go to San Pen or VGH" (even though these two hospitals are further away for me, and I take the bus).
Well, a few days later, she called me to her office to tell me that she had two possibel placements at the Jubilee (one on GI medicine, which was another ward that I wanted to go to), and one for sure placement at the General..on 6ab neurosciences. Now, I had heard nothing but good things about 6ab from other students, but I had been avoiding going there because, quite simply, I was scared to DEATH! I knew it was a fast-paced floor, with complex patients who were very sick. Well, I guess the thought of geriatric psych must have been a lot scarier because I quickly nodded my head, "I take it!"
So here I am, three weeks later. I have worked two sets on 6ab, and I love it! It's a very interesting ward, and there is every skill imaginable. The staff have been great, and my preceptor (the nurse who I work with) is excellent. I have been able to do isolation precautions, catheterizations, and injections (though I still need work in this area!!). Next year I have two more practicums. I am thinking of doing one on Respiratory and the other on 6ab (if Uvic lets me go back). So even though I didn't get placed where I wanted, everything has turned out very well for me. :-)
I loved volunteering. I had the time of my life working on the wards with the patients. Still, there was no way I wanted to be a nurse. I'm not really sure what happened. Coop was over but I continued to volunteer. In fact I volunteered there for several years, and even recieved a scholarship for all of my hours of service. It was some time in the summer of grade ten that I decided that since I liked working there so much, perhaps I should consider really becoming a nurse. So here I am, five years later studying to be a Regestered Nurse....and all because I lied on my application form.
We paired up and set off looking for unmade beds (and in fact we ended up redoing a few already-made beds, much to the irritation of the nurses and the laundry department. I was paired with Lisa, I bubbly red-haired girl who loved to laugh. The two of us go along quite well.
Lisa and I entered a semi-private room. After ushering the two patient's to one side, we pulled the curtain around us and set to work on the bed. The bed was quite low to the ground, so I bent down and began to roll it up. Lisa and I chatted as I rolled, deciding on which colour scheme we were going to use for the linen (this was back when we actually had enough time on our hands to actully care what colour our sheets were). All of a sudden Lisa started to hollar.
"Sally! Oooh, Sally stop, stop! The bed!" I looked up to see what was the matter. The large balkan frame of the bed was right up against the wall and it had scraped the rectangular lighting fixture clear off the wall. The structure was barly hanging by a thread!
I started to laugh...it looked so funny! Then Lisa started laughing and soon both of us were crouched on the floor holding our stomachs and laughing our heads off.
From the other side of the curtain came a small elderly voice, "Girls? Is everything alright in there?' Our poor patients had to idea what we were doing.
I took a deep breath and tried to regain my composure, "Everything's under control." That only made us laugh harder. Lisa and I pulled ourselves up off the ground. If we let it go on much longer, our instructor was bound to come along. We rolled th bed back down and readjusted the light so that it looked like it was fine (who knew if it was- we weren't about to turn it on to see). We quickly did up the bed and made a hasty exit. Now I am always careful to watch the bed as I am rolling it up.
At any rate, this was my patient, and although I could do nothing with her IV or NG, I was looking after the rest of her.
The first thing I noticed when I walked in the room was that her gown was dirty. Unfortunately the gown she was wearing had been put on in emergency (before her IV was inserted) and it wasn't an IV gown (IV gowns have snaps on the sleeves so you can change them without disrupting the IV). I knew that it was possible to get the gown off by threading her IV bag through the sleeve, but since this woman had so many tubes, I was afraid I'd get her all tangled up trying. I went and found Ann, my instructor, who sent me off in search of a clean gown.
I should mention s few things right here: first of all, this patient was over-census, which means that she was a fifth patient in a four-bed room. This meant that #1- the room was packed, and #2- there was no place to mount her suction bottle on the wall so it sat on a stool beside her bed (just try to picture this in your head- a very precarious situation!). Another thing: I had placed a clean bedpan on a chair in the room because I was planning to use it after I got my patient into her clean gown.
Okay, so I went off down the hall in search for a clean gown. On my way back I heard a tremendous "CRASH!" I quickened my pace, hoping that it was not my patient who had generated this sound. At that moment Sarah, one of the other students came charging out of the room. "we have to go get some towels," she told me. "Ann knocked over the suction bottle!"
"What!? How?!" I followed Sarah back down the hall.
"I have no idea. I think it fell off thee stool." We gathered supplies and hurried back to the room.
There was Ann, there was my patient (tangled up in tubing) and there on the floor was a huge lake of NG fluid (the bottle had been nearly full). "Did you want some help?" I asked Ann, handing her a pair of gloves.
"First of all," she said angrily, "who left that bedpan on the chair over there?"
"Well that was me," I said.
"Sally don't you think that might be somewhat unnapetizing for the patients in this room to look at while they are eating their breakfast?!!"
I looked around at the NG lake that was now extending to the perimeters of the room. "Yeah," I said, trying to keep a straight face, "I see your point!"
Our first skill ever in second year was neurovitals. Neurovitals are a set of assessments you make when you are checking someone's neurological status. These include vital signs (pulse, blood pressure, etc) as well as pupil size, verbal response and orientation (ie. do they know their name). Well all eight of us in Ann's group had done our readings the night before so we knew all about neurovitals. We arrived at lab. ready to practice on each other.
Samantha and I arrived first. As we walked in to the skills lab, our instructor Ann, who had been standing at the table, sat down hard in her chair and slumped against the table.
I started toward her and then stopped myself. Winking at Samantha I sat down at the table and layed my books out in front of me. "Hey Ann," I said, nonchalantly, "up late again last night?"
Catching on, Samantha joined in. "Hmmm, Ann's passed out.....we must be doing neurovitals today!" We giggled.
Ann lay motionless.
The rest of the group began to arrive. "what's with Ann?" the asked.
"It's neurovitals today," I informed them. "I think she wants us to asses her."
"Should we?" asked Rob.
"Naw, let's go get a coffee first," I said. Th group of us wandered down to the cafeteria and came back 15 minutes later with our coffee and muffins.
Ann continues to lay there.
We took our seats and chatted while we ate. After about 10 minutes Ann still hadn't moved.
"I don't think she's going to start class until we asses her," said Samantha.
"Oh alright!" we said. "Let's just get this over with!" The eight of us stood around her, looking.
"So what do we do first?" someone asked.
"I dunno, look in your book."
Rob opened his text book. "Adress her by name."
Nobody said a word.
"Well someone should at least check her pulse to see if she's alive."
Nobody moved.
"OH alright!" I stepped toward Ann and grabbed her wrist. "Yep, she's alive." I began to count the beats.
Someone grabbed a BP cuff and all of a sudden we were in action!
"Let's get her on the ground...come on get her a pillow!"
"Can somebody find a blanket? I think she might be in shock!"
"Who has a flashlight? We need to check her pupils!"
"Ann, Ann! Can you hear us? Open your eyes Ann!"
Ann began to shake and writhe.
"Quick she's having a seizure! Roll her on her side!"
"Somebody check her airway!"
"How's that pulse?"
"Strong....pretty fast though!"
All of a sudden Ann began to laugh. She opened her eyes and howled. "Oh!" she said. "I just couldn't hold it in any longer!"
We all laughed with her.
"Some nurses!" she accused. "You would have sat there all days and let me die! I hope you're a little more attentive toward your patients!"
We giggled. "Oh Ann!" I said. "You couldn't fool us! We knew you were only pretending!"
"Which one of you did my pupils?" demanded Ann. "Did you guys even do you readings? Man we have a lot of ground to cover today!"