Friday, February 20, 2009

Compliments get you everywhere . . .

Today was my very last day of Med-Surg clinical. It was absolutely, hands down, my favorite clinical so far. I loved the floor I was on, my classmates were fantastic, my clinical instructor was phenomenal and the nurses were great!

So as I mentioned in my last post, my patient yesterday had no eye. This person was so wonderful and inspiring. They had had a tumor in the orbit of their skull, it was removed but then they had to go through 7 more years of repairs/surgeries until this newest surgery that was done. Like I mentioned previously, it was a fantastic experience and I got to do all sorts of fun nursing duties. Well, at the end of each day I always say how nice it was to meet my patient and good luck with everything. Today my patient told me that likewise it was great to meet me and that they appreciated all that I did for them over the last two days. As I was leaving the room, the patient calls me back in, looked me in the eye and said "Julia, you are really good at what you do." That is definitely one of the best compliments I have received. What a wonderful way to end my Med-Surg Clinical! Thank you patient.

Thursday, February 19, 2009

LOTS of Updates!

So it has been a while and I have many updates. First, here are some pictures from when Steve visited. He got here last Friday, we went to Iggie's for pizza and then to my favorite bar, Brewers Art for a beer. Saturday we went out to dinner at La Scala where we shared a delicious grilled caesar salad (so good) and a delicious pasta dish with shrimp in a red sauce. It was a very happy Valentine's.




Sunday we ventured to Boordy Vineyards for their monthly theme of wine and fondue. The fondue was tasty but we realized that Maryland wine holds nothing on Washington! It was lots of fun but we didn't even buy a bottle!



Monday, I dropped Steve off at the airport and it was back to school for me! As I mentioned in my previous post, I am now done with my Med-Surg (Adult Health) class and get to start Pediatrics on Monday! I just got my clinical assignment and I will be in the Center for Pediatric and Adolescent Rehabilitation at Mt. Washington. It will definitely be a good experience and help get me prepared for my real career in pediatrics!

This week I am still in Med-Surg for clinical and my patient was very interesting today . . . my patient had no eye. It was a very odd experience but very interesting. I got to do flap checks, change a wound dressing, discontinue an IV, suction a trach patient and admin a bunch of meds. As always, I had a great clinical day and tomorrow is my last day!

Tomorrow is Friday and then on to the weekend! Just 22 more days until Spring Break and another trip to Seattle.

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Yikes!

I just finished my application for my RN license in the state of Washington as well as my NCLEX application. I am a little early on all that but better early than late! Anyway, it is a bit freaky that it is all becoming so real. I can't wait to graduate but I am a bit nervous for the NCLEX!!

Anyway, I also finished my Med-Surg class today so I am happy to report that I get to start my pediatrics rotation next week! I will have more to report after this weeks clinical and I find out my new location for peds.

More to come soon . . .

Friday, February 6, 2009

2 More Weeks

I just finished week 5 with just two more weeks for my adult health class. Also Steve comes a week from today so I am REALLY looking forward to that!

My week went well, had another exam (I feel like I have one every week), got a bit of work done and had a great week at clinical.

This week brought a very wonderful patient! The patient was the sweetest and I got to do some more suctioning and do quite a few meds. I had her on Thursday and Friday. I picked up a second patient today and got him situated and discharged. Also, just before I left today I got to change a dressing on my classmates patient's skin graft site. It was pretty neat, quite bloody and it hurt the patient a lot (for which I feel bad). They were a trooper and we got it changed! It took a whole hour but it was definitely a very cool experience and great practice!

Oh and my funny story of the week is that I went into my patient's room, getting him ready for discharge and asked him how comfortable he felt doing drain care at home (one of his surgical sites had a drain). He looked at me, smiled and said "Oh I feel great about it, considering the doctors just came in and pulled it out!" I couldn't help but laugh . . . oops!