This is Zach. Well first quarter clinicals are almost over but I feel horrible. I have a new patient who has Parkinson's (doesn't talk at all) and I just am realizing how inept I am.
Just getting him cleaned up and to breakfast is the biggest chore! But I have to do assessments and all stuff. I did an abdominal assessment today and listened for bruits and thought, "I wouldn't know even if I heard one"..I only think I heard bowel sounds that's it. There was a lump and I had my instructor look at it..I thought it was stool and we thought maybe it was a distended bladder so I'm gonna check tomorrow to see if it's still there. But how do you know it's that and not something major? See, things like this make me think I'll never be capable of doing meaningful assessments.
Cleaning him up is such a chore as it takes forever to get him to help you turn in bed. When I finally got him up, I had another student with me and the instructor and his undewear felt wet as we put it all the way on him. How could that be since he didn't even wear it yet? I thought maybe a wet cloth had made it wet. The other student didn't feel it wet...I mean sometimes I wonder if my imagination plays tricks on me. It could have been sweat too.
Basically, I want to be a nurse..I want to take care of patients. But I feel at this point I am not adding anything beneficial to the patients. I mean I have trouble doing basic things and to do assessments too, it's a nightmare. Any words of advice??
Z
P.S. When you do pericare on the bottom, can you just roll to one side and clean it all or do you have to roll on the other side too. With patients hard to turn, it seems better just to try to clean it all good while on one side to expedite the process and not have them do all this tossing and turning.
Any words of advice??