What's the coolest thing you have done or seen so far?

[Nepenthe Sea]

I was just wanting to hear from you guys about the coolest things that you have seen or done since starting clinicals. I am almost finished with my first semester of nursing school, but we don't do clinicals in the Intro classes. I am scared s%^&less sometimes when I read your accounts of clinicals days! I wanted to balance that with some good, fun stories. I realize that clinicals are going to be overwhelming and stressful alot, but I know there have got to be some good moments. And I would like to hear about them :).

TIA!

[Nepenthe Sea]

well, i was going to say c-section...until recently.

lemme tell you about some interesting things i've gotten to see, before i get to the most interesting:

incision and drainage on a baby with a gnarly (that's medical jargon, right!?) abcess

2 atrial valve replacements (obviously separate pts.!)

paracentesis due to cirrhosis/hepatitis

put in a foley (always quite exciting for us nursing students)

remove some drains

post-op after testicular torsion

and here's the really interesting thing (circumstances are quite unfortunate, but i'm glad we could see this):

an almost 4lb. infant born w/ intrauterine growth retardation. the baby's genitalia was uhm, ambiguous (creative paperwork ensued). it looked somewhat like a member, but no foreskin. there was no scrotum, let alone testes. also, not only were the fontanels huge, but the opening started at the bridge of the nose and went all the way to the back of the head. the plates only came up about 3/4" above the ear. it was really tough, but a very intersting day.

Wow, that's an interesting condition you got to see! But yes, unfortunate. Was there a particular diagnosis the baby was given?

Thanks for sharing.

[Nepenthe Sea]

Coolest thing I have seen so far is a C-Section and a Vag birth. Having no kids myself I was utterly facinated!!

I more or less witnessed those two on myself (same birth, even!), but would really like to witness somebody elses' delivery someday!

[Nepenthe Sea]

I'm in my Preceptorship now in the OR and I see exciting surgeries day in and day out. Yesterday, I observed a breast augmentation on a 65 yr old.

But the most exciting thing thus far? I had my first code blue experience on April 1. It was MY patient that I got from Pre-op, interviewed, took back to the OR, sat through her 3 hour surgery, and then took over to PACU. She got a colonstomy takedown, something that is a routine surgery.

I was the last person to do chest compressions on her before the doc called the code. She literally died in my hands.

It shook me up for a couple of days afterwards. I cried right after I stepped into the hallway when the code was over.

Yesterday, I helped lift a patient to the OR table who was a CABG (Cononary Artery Bypass Graft) who had literally died on the OR table. They brought her back and left her chest open. She had bilateral chest tubes going, was intubated, and literally in a coma. She was being brought back from ICU to the OR to close up the chest.

Then there was surgery for a mom who had to have an emergency C-Section due to a car wreck. The fetus was a 31 weeker and doing fine, however, the mom is in a coma and her body is starting to posture (decoricate). She was brought from the ICU to the OR to repair a fractured pelvis, and she was also intubated. Mom most likely won't wake up.

I'm learning so much in my Preceptorship. I will be an OR nurse, but will work the floor (hopefully Renal/Transplant) FIRST to learn hands on skills.

These are really interesting (and SO sad, in the case of the mom and baby)! Thanks!

[Nepenthe Sea]

The most shocking, amazing, horrifying, nightmare-causing, saddening thing I have seen so far... a bone/skin/tendon/cornea tissue donation on a man that died the night before. I can't even discuss details because it makes me so sad, and yet when I was in there, I can only say my adrenalin kicked in or something, because I was very eager to see and do and learn as much as I could from the experience. But now, looking back, I am physically ill to consider going to another of those procedures.

I have not been part of a code, but I am not looking forward to it. Perhaps its the knowledge of what comes next that has sobered me, but I am positive that my first code (nor that procedure that I witnessed), will ever turn up in my "coolest" book. I often wish that I was younger when I did this, so that my feeling of invincibility was still surrounding me. These days, I don't feel anywhere near invincible, and I can't help but look at my family and see their vulnerability in a way I never could before, as a result of my experiences.

For me, the coolest thing that I have ever done? Taken a disabled overweight elderly woman who was seldom taken out of bed due to staff cutbacks/lazyness/whatever, get her a bath, breakfast, into her wheelchair, and rolled her out into the sunlight for the first time in as long as she can remember, then snuck a half hour away from clinicals to sit with her and listen to her tell me about her life, and thank me for letting her sit in the beautiful sunshine. (she also had a mean recipe for homemade southern apple pie)

I saw your post last week about the tissue donation. I can see how that might be disturbing. Your story about the old lady is the kind of stuff I love to read about! Thank you!

[shorty3_31]

births are amazing. nasty, but so much fun to watch...not going back though until it's actually mine, haha.

[mmmc2]

I'm one month from graduating and have seen a lot in my clinical time. First day of clinical, got to watch a code. Last semester in critical care, I did chest compressions in a code, the patient ended up dying (she was 96 years old) so I help in her postmortem care. I have also seen several c-sections and a couple vag. births. In my senior capstone (in the ER) I got to help in several traumas--stabbings and MVAs. Saw physician put in a chest tube, which was cool.

I've pretty much seen (or done) something cool in each rotation. Psych. was a blast too!