Week #4

Today I had outside rotation in Harrison preschool. We are going to several different grades in school to observe the varios developmental stages of children. I got to do a lot of fun things, like dancing in gym and playing doctor. It was doctor week this week, how fitting :) In the morning there were only 6 kids there because of the weather, but I had no trouble making friends. One little boy wanted to sit by me in circle time and well he ended up laying on my lap. And when he got up, he had drooled all over my leg! Lovely. His sister was in the class too and she wanted me to sit by her when she did everything. And in gym she called me on the floor for dancing and then she sat there and pouted the whole time! I didn't quite understand that one. But my skills in the chicken dance finally paid off though :) The last time I did that & the hokie pokie was in Spanish class. The one thing I couldn't believe was how many autistic kids there are. About half of the class are autistic. They seperate the kids for certain activities so they can concentrate better. There are varying degrees of it, so of them will hardly talk, while others won't be quite. There was only one boy who was really disruptive, but he had one-on-one attention the whole time. I met some wonderful kids, they are just so sweet, it makes me miss teaching CCD. I just hope I didn't catch anything...I think all of them were coughing, sneezing or had a runny nose. I used a lot of hand sanitizer!

Clinical this week was quite boring for me. My instructor thought she gave me a difficult patient, but he wasn't. He didn't even have IVs to do. He was very independent and his wife was there and she spoke for him. So I couldn't even talk to him to pass the time. Today a bunch of his other family was in the room with him also, so I was really bored. I did get to do some throat cultures and a urine specimen and send them to the lab, but that was the only interesting thing I got to do. Next week I will be in the middle and pre- schools observing. So no patient for me. Hopefully I won't be as bored!

Week #3

Things are going really well for me so far. Last week in clinical I got to do a lot of firsts. I got to remove sutures and a drain, remove an IV catheter, hook up an IV and give an injection in the stomach. It was a lot of learning. I just hope every week is like this. My patient was 93 years old and in GREAT condition. Her memory was perfect. I came in on the second day to wake her up and she said "Is that Erica?" Hardly anyone remembers your name, especially when your 93! She was a very nice lady and I enjoyed being with her. Today I had my 1st test. I didn't get to study for it as much as I would have liked to, but I got a 84%. So it's good enough for now. I also had 2 quizzes last week and I got 100% on both of them. Now I have a lot of reading to do...

Things are going great so far. On Thursday I had my first clinical in Midland, and well the day was interesting. We followed around a nurse for the day and I had my first experience with a severely confused, combative patient. I learned what to do in the situation, because really I had no idea. I also got to watch some IVs being inserted - some good, some bad. I also got to hone my bed making skills :) I still can't get the miter corners down. I will be excited to get my own patient on Thursday. Also this semester for our Maternal-Child class we will be doing outside rotations in elementary, middle and pre-schools. That will be nice because I will only have to drive to Marion, not Midland. We will be observing children in their different developmental stages. This is a new thing, none of the previous nursing classes have done this before, so I guess we are the test group...I think it sounds like fun :) The lab on IVs went well. We won't actually be inserting them until out RN, but we get to give the medications through them. It's good to actually know that a little air in the line won't kill a person. Not that I was worried :) I got 9/10 on my quiz and the one I got wrong was my own stupid fault! The answer was in the question, and it was 50, well I must have been rushing because I only wrote down 5! STUPID! I won't be making that mistake again!

I'm off and running. Yesterday I had my 1st Med-Surg class and it went good. I also had hospital orientation. I am SO glad we decided to go to Midland. It is very nice there and very big! But I know I will learn a lot more here than if we would have stayed in Clare. The trauma units & ER are like what you see on TV, it's just really cool, I can't wait! My clinical instructor is really nice too. This semester we will have less paperwork and more 'hands on' sort of experience. Our last instructor really stressed paperwork and now this one is stressing experience, and I'm all for that!! So I can't wait!! Today I had Maternal-Child and this seems like fun too. This semester is going to be more work but I think the material will be more enjoyable to cover. And tomorrow in lab is IVs...eeek!

Semester #2

Well I can't believe break is over...it flew by and I didn't get anything done (In the nursing aspect). Not that I had to, just stuff I could of done. I still can't believe it starts tomorrow. I will be taking Care of Adult I, Maternal - Child & Clinical II in Midland Hospital. Tomorrow I will have Care of Adult and then right after class we have to drive down to Midland for hospital orientation at 1:00 and we will be there until 7:00 + the drive home! So it will be a long day. Hopefully we get out a little early from class, otherwise we will be crunching for time. It's pretty much the same schedule as last semester except my skills lab will now be on Wednesday from 12:30-2:30, which is better than last semester and we only have skills lab for the first 8 weeks. Well I still have a lot to do before tomorrow...I will keep you posted :)