ER Day 2 (Feelings)

Today my preceptor was the Trauma Nurse, she documents and assists in any traumas that come in. Struck out on that front, but we did run around helping out everyone else.

I got two more IV's in on the first try which felt great, but I'm just waiting for my beginners luck to leave me for someone else.

A patient in the hallway was getting very agitated and needed to be restrained, I saw one nurse who was designated to restrain her head, start massaging the pts neck instead of forcefully holding the pt down, which totally changed the pts demeanor and calmed her down. I thought this was such a great idea, but when I looked around me I saw every other nurse rolling their eyes.

Later...neck massage nurse had another patient who they were going to need to restrain...confused and kept trying to get out of bed, not very redirectable since no one spoke his language, sitter wasn't helping much. Old Neck Massage had our confused man set up with some televesion that she pulled up on the computer in the pts language. It totally worked for a while. Again, I thought, wow what a great nurse, she's really trying to do everything in her power to not restrain this guy. She did end up restraining him in the end, but a big debate ensued about how many restraints, and my nurse along with every other nurse there thought Neck Massage was out of her damn mind and should have restrained this guy forever ago. Neck Massage is new to the ER, but not a new nurse, she has been a floor nurse (not sure where) for some time. The more seasoned ED nurses kept saying, "you're not in kansas any more hun". Not sure how I am left feeling, my gut says that Neck Massage was in the right, but I see the logistics of where the others are coming from. You can't let a patient like that suck up all your time trying to reroute them so you wind up ignoring your other patients and falling behind.

I am having fun in the ER, despite being constantly terrified of screwing something up. All the nurses and support staff have been incredibly friendly and supportive. I think as I get more comfortable in the setting I'll have even more fun. But, I think I'm more of a Neck Massage at heart, and less of a Seasoned, and thats okay. I can have fun in the ER and decide its not for me.

That's one of the hardest parts of nursing school for me, struggling to accept where my strengths are, and accepting that my interests and skill set are not necessarily hospital material.

1st Day in the ER

Thought I was going to barf all over the ER waiting room while I waited for my preceptor.

Once I met her, all my fears went away. She is so nice, encouraging, and supportive and I am very lucky to have her as a preceptor. She already started scheming on ways to get me hired into the ER there. Fat chance, but the sentiment is sweet.

I dropped an 18G into someone with huge veins, but I got it on the first try and I felt good about that!
Straight cathed a 90yo woman
Saw nurses save the hospital a butt ton of money in the form of an intubation kit: Medical Alert called for an OD who has been given Narcan x4 in the field without response and is being bagged by EMS. The doctor waiting wanted to open the intubation kit and all the nurses advised her not to, since its against their hospital protocol. Doctor complained and complained. Then the guy shows up sitting upright and talking :)

Moving Forward

For the past 8 years I have been telling people, "I'm going to be a nurse!". And every year I spent on my schools waiting list family, friends, strangers would ask me, aren't you a nurse yet? No.... still working on that one. Well the day is almost here! I am all done with my classes, done with lectures, done with tests! It feels amazing, especially since I maintained a 4.0 GPA for all my nursing curriculum. There was a time in my life when A's felt unatainable.

The only thing I have left to is my preceptorship. 120 hours in a Level 1 trauma center. I have so many feelings about that... mostly terror. I've been reading the website icufaqs.com which is well worth a read for nursing students, even though the format is so strange (downloaded word docs) and it is certainly outdated. I've also been watching lots of procedure videos: foley catheters here I come!

My last week of psych was a great one. We had two new patients on the floor, one bipolar 1 having a manic episode, the other major depression with psychotic features. Our bipolar friend spent his days singing michel jackson and whitney houston and the star spangled banner (and nailing every.single.note.) and our depressive friend spent his time sitting in the corner not talking to anyone until we befriended him. Then we spent the whole two days playing cards, sharing stories, and he even taught us a great card trick. It was hard to leave, not only these two but all of the other patients too. There are no activities for them to do on the unit, except for 1 hr of OT every day. It felt good to have our company appreciated, and to know that we could help someones day drag on a little less by providing diversion. Psych nurses we did not become, but it did feel like we made at least a small difference.

Psych Week 4

Psych is starting grow on me, I am getting to know patients and having a good time talking/ coloring with them.
We spend a lot of time coloring, and every single time that we're done coloring, the patients always clean up the mess we have made appropriately. All the papers get gathered, pens get put away correctly in their packaging. Every single time. Even the patient who is making inappropriate sexual gestures at every body while he is cleaning up.

This week my instructor decided to join us some in our art-making. When it comes time to clean up, she shoves 20 pens into a container that holds 10 pens and bails with her papers still strewn about everywhere.

In another news, I finally got placed for preceptorship and I will be going to a Level 1 Trauma Center ER. FUCK  Yay!