Re: My Year of Lpn School
Geriatrics clinical:
It's fun! I finally get to care for patients and be hands on. And all the practice on our dummies really helped. So a day in clinical starts out in pre conference. This is were I get my assigned patients rm number and the drug information they are on and all the disease processes they are going through. I head to my patients rm to intro myself and get my assessment completed. Give the bed bath if the patient is bedridden, if not they will be taken to the whirlpool sometime during the day. I then change the linnens and straighten up the bedside table. I comb my patients hair and get them ready for the new day. By then it's almost time for breakfast so I head to the conference room and write my formal assessment on the nurses notes form. I go back to check on my patient and normally breakfast is there already ( waiting if the patient cannot feed themself....in that case I feed them) or if the patient is mobile or can get around in a wheelchair they have already been taken to the dinning room for breakfast ( if not I take them myself). The rest of the day is spent doing two hour checks and helping other classmates. During the two hour checks you just go to the patients room and ask if they need anything...typically if they are bedridden they may need assistance with something ( water, positioning, etc). I like to turn my bedridden patients every two hours with pillows or other soft linnens. I also have this thing about putting lotion on their hands and asking if they need chapstick...hey! you never know. I try to treat them like they are my grandparents or how I would like to be treated. Alot of the cnas talk to them like they are babies but I noticed me and my classmates treat them with respect and talk to them as older individuals. In between checks I tend to change alot of diapers, watch med pass, watch whirlpool, watch wound care, or change trashcans. Anything to keep yourself busy and learning. Already I have seen 5 pressure ulcers ( yes even stage IV), a colostomy burping ( when the bag gets too full it has to be emptied out so it won't burst all over the patient), seen wound care on several patients, and learned how to administer O2. Nursing homes are at a laid back pace and it seems the major job of the LPN is to pass meds from 8 am to 10:30 am. After that I see them writting out their forms behind the nurses station. Very rarely do I see them even doing checks. Alot of my classmates do not like geriatrics but I like it. The patients are sweet at this facility, and I'm getting the hang of things.
Now homework? Ok let me tell you! We go to clinical 3 days out of 5. On the first day we get those drugs and pathology I mentioned earlier. Well we get to go home and write a drug and patho card for each drug and disease process. Plus a careplan....all due the next morning. Mind you, geriatrics patients seem to all be on a million drugs with an ample amount of diseases so it takes awhile to get homework done but I see the point in making us do the cards.
All in all geriatrics is fun! Two more weeks at the nursing home and then I'm off to IV Therapy clinical. Wish me luck and pray for me!
Nursingladyquinn
I hope to be starting LPN school soon, and keeping up with this post has provided me with so much insight on what to expect and how not to give up when things get difficult. Thanks! 
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