Hooray!

Hi Erika

Just finished my first 2 week block and loved every second. The class appears to be a diverse bunch ranging in age from 21 all the way up to about 55. We bounce well off each other and there is already a feeling of comradeship in the class room. You are right, I am lucky to be given this opportunity. I think a hospital is the perfect environment to learn about nursing. I can't imagine trying to achieve my EN via correspondence, I am a visual kind of gal and need to be able to question to process and retain new things. I really hope you are given bucket loads of support.

So far it is a manageable work load, and I am finding learning about language particularly interesting. The teacher has an absolute aversion to text talk, and I have become so mindful of this I have actually stopped text talking even when texting! Ha! I think trying to structure sentences correctly and using the correct spelling is a good habit to get into considering it is worth a whopping 15% in our overall assignment marking!

I will be settling in to one day of study per week (Tuesday) from now until my work placement which starts in May. No doubt it will be here before I know it. Got my uniform, sadly not at all cute.... I will have to compensate with some cute shoes.

The hottie is still hot. He is Swedish, but sadly is fluent in English - I mean to say, is there anything hotter than a hottie who doesn't speak English?!

Good luck with your starting date and I look forward to sharing progress notes.

Hello Erika!

Sorry there has been quite the delay, but I have been so busy!

Balancing 2 jobs, study and my pole dancing at the local strip club on the weekends simply chews up my free time.

It pleases me to tell you that I am officially 1/8 of the way through my study. I have been studying in the education wing every Tuesday and I have just started my first nursing placement on Wednesdays. I am currently on afternoon shift at the hospital and I have basically learned how to nail doing obs and body fluid collections and other more basic practices in the EN scope. I am hoping to do a simple aseptic wound dressing this Wednesday (fingers crossed some poor blighter falls down or hurts themselves and needs wound care). I have had a stack of stuff crossed off in my Clinical Competency Placement Book, and I am almost ready to face a day shift, more work less pay I am told.

I have to say I am in absolute awe of the nursing team and can't believe that in 18 short months I will be officially a part of that team. They work together like a well oiled machine. I used to think doctors were the heart of a hospital, I now see it is the nurse. I have been so lucky in RN teaming so far. Each RN I have been coupled with so far has been happy to impart tricks of the trade and useful tips. I really love being able to assist both the RN and the EN's with my limited knowledge where ever I can.

I really hope you are loving your study as much as I am loving mine.

Talk soon

Tracey

Quirks aka Erika, I admire you for your strengthens in juggling work, family and studies...go girl!!! LOL..always entertaining to read some of your post. Sounds like you are doing very well and will be a great nurse. I can see in you and Tracey that you both have good hearts and alert minds...things that one needs to be a good and compassionate nurse, Well done both of you.

Just a short scenario for you girls to thin about. A patient of mine was recently told that she has inoperable valvular disease and its terminal. She's slowly dying of heart failure and she's starting to see the first signs which she have never noted to be that bad..and its shortness of breath. I have been looking after her for the past 2 weeks now and have seen how she deteroriated from cheerful to an empty shell. The doctors don;t see what their bad news can do to people, its left to us nurses to be their psychological support and friend in these times. She has not been able to sleep at night because she cannot come to terms of her dying. She does not want to die and worse, her children did not come visit. I recall 2 nights ago, when I have to sit with her for 30 minutes holding her hand until she fell asleep from exhaustion at 3 am. The fear of death magnifies itself at night in most cases because its the time of the day when everything is quiet and there's lesee "signs" of life...noises, people talking and movement. So for these people, they sleep during the day when their relatives visit because its soothing then. I know how all this would end, it would be a torturous road, where the patient will have air hunger, edema will wreck their bodies and they will not be able to exert themselves.So instead of walking the patient to the toilet of giving them the pan, it will soon be an IDC insertion and the patient basically sits upright leaning either to the left or right side to sleep because pulmonary edema and altered state of consciousness and very slowly meet their end. As nurses, we have to steele ourselves and be there for them, hence I agree with Tracey, nurses are the literal heart of the ward.

Anyways, don;t let this sad real life scenario dampen your spirits...soldier on and hope to see you in the wards soon.

If you're doing your night shifts, you'll probably note that there are pockets of time available that aren't when doing the day and afternoon shifts. All the more so, because the 30 minutes came out from my break allowance. I know its always difficult to see what happens in a hospital, that's why I shard that experience, simply because its not all about doing procedures and etc. To suggest that someone should get out if they cannot accept this or because it dampens the spirits isn't something I expected you to put down...well if its any consolation whilst its a sad scenario, I gave up a well paid job to be a nurse because I feel that I could do more for others. Believe me its never easy no matter how many times a patient who is NOT ready passes but I guess the silver lining is that it reminds me that I have become so immune that I loose my compassion for others.

Tracey, I have worked in ICU and switched of life support for those beyond what we can do and to see family members gather around to say goodbye is never easy. Now just because I feel for them, do you think I should get out?

I posted here because i want to encourage you all. Doing an ECG is great but if you have time, learn to read one...it will not only extend your knowledge but make you a unique member of your team. For example if you identify a heart block, you can tell members of your team and review medications to stop say the administration of beta blockers or digoxin as an intervention until doctors can review the patient. What I am encouraging you to do is to look beyond the processes and tie them up with the knowledge that you're gaining to become a very effective team member. For example, you mentioned that you saw alcoholics with liver disease, but have you also noted that the patient is on high doses of Folic acid and/or Vit B complex. If you had just given these meds out without wondering why, you might have missed the opportunity to co-relate it to your anatomy class. Alcoholics usually have some impaired neurological functions, damages could be in the frontal lobe causing emotional swings and aggression, Vit B complexes and Folic acid it given to help overcome deficiency because of the habit and help stablise and improve neurological function

Tracey When I shared with you about the dying patient, I was reaffirming your statement that nurses are the heart of the ward...the human face and importance of our role. I did not write to be-little anyone. I wrote that it should not dampen ones spirit because you and erika are so cheerful and excited with your studies and I hoped that it did not detracted both of you in your pursuit. I had not meant that neither of you have no resolve to stomach this or not.

When i wrote for you not to buy the stethoscope, I did not go on to explain that you might find that hospitals will supply them and if you're happy to use them, you will find that you would have saved yourself some out money. Also there are different stets out there which you might prefer to acquire later on as you advance into your career...example - Cardiac Stets or or Peads stets. I was of the impression that the school requires you to purchase your own stets. which you may very well find it unnecessary later on. But if you have already purchased one, then I encouraged you to use it often and learn how to use it. What is wrong with encouraging you to do so? I find a lot of nurses don't know how to use stets. If you have a cardiac stets, do you know you can change picking of different pitches from high to low simply by pressing the diaphragm slightly harder on the pt's skin, hence it only has one side. Whereas to do the same, the stets that has a bell and a diaphragm needs to be swap between sides if you want to hear different pitches. 95% of nurses only use the diaphargm but have never progress to use the bell. Also i encouraged you to use the stets often because with proper technique and experience you will be able to use the use it effectively in your work. What I shared with you about the student is because we are generally not trained properly to use stets, a mitral valve regurgitation is not common. I got the student to move the stets position because through this, she learned that the murmured was loudest when positioned over the mitral valve and not the tricuspid and murmur faded or become duller as she moved away. Moving the stets around and listening to sounds becoming louder or fading away, provides one with "referencing". Pnuemonia for example will present with crackles, especially on expiration - if you auscultate and hear more crackles in both upper section of the lungs than say yesterday, you know that the patient's ability to undertake gas exchange is further compromised...so as a nurse, you may want to sit the patient up in a semi or full fowler position to improve his/her ability to breathe. With older people, sometimes it almost impossible to feel for pulse and I have suggested to students to use auscultation as a technique of determining heart rate. I wished we had been taught how to use stets properly.

I made a typo error when i wrote that - it should have read as "it reminds me that I have NOT become so immune that I loose my compassion for others". I believe that compassion is what drives us in our work. I am not suggesting we become emotionally involve but its our intimate knowledge of the patient and our human desire to alleviate their suffering that makes us what we are and why nursing is an altruistic profession given the pay conditions...lol.

Tracey, good on you for having learned how to do bladder scans, ECGs and the platitude of procedures. I believe that nurses are NOT merely defined by our ability to do procedures alone but by our ability to intrepret and contribute to being the doctors eyes and ears, alerting them of changes or developments that they may not have picked up. I still standby my comment...use the opportunity that you now have to look beyond the procedures and co-relate them to what you are studying and it will make your experience even more exciting. Ask why are we doing this and self directed learning is the key to expansion of your skills. You say I am condescending in that I don't recognise that you are matured aged students with life experiences....in what way am I being condescending? I started my studies as a mature age student too (>40 years of age) and though being a qualified RN now, I am still learning - many times from younger RNs, ENs and AINs. I did not share the experiences to assume that you nor Erika are green behind the ears, I shared it because I was affirming that you were absolutely right in saying that nurses are the heart of the ward. We are the human face of medical care and we are there for the patient, NOT the doctors when patients go through physical, mental and emotional trauma.

If you think I have given you unsolicited advice and not encouragement then I am sorry. Given your apparent hostility to my innocent suggestions and encouragements, I shall leave this thread and not pursue anymore post..leaving you to enjoy your exchanges with Quirks. All the best to you and Erika. Adios

Hi Erika

How time flys!

I have just started my second placement at the local hospital! I am on the surgical ward this time around. My first placement was in the general ward, so as you can imagine there is quite a difference.

I am over half way through my study for this year and I have successfully completed every module so far. We are doing A and P and Mental Health this Semester, which I have found super interesting. Although I have absolutely no interest in working in Mental Health, I guess it is important as a nurse that I have a grasp on the comorbidities which affect patients in the general nursing areas. I have endured exams, presentations, assignments, debates and had my way with Herman the mock patient (he even has a penis!) as well as had my nursing practices scrutinised and I am pleased to report I have come up trumps every time!

I love my class, I simply could not have hand picked a better group to study with. Everything is going super well and I am balancing working 2 jobs and my pole dancing perfectly, although truth be known I would LOVE to cut back on work (the price we pay not to be a broke student). I am rewarding myself with a 5 day getaway to Fiji in November just to remind myself that working is worth it.

I would love to hear how you are going!

Take Care

Nurse Tracey :o)

A & P exam Tuesday!

70% pass mark.

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!