happy! i just found out my winter clinical placement is on a spinal cord injury / wound care floor. woot woot! im soo excited - its for 195 hours in total from Jan. to April.
I can't wait!
Has anyone ever done a clincial placement on this type of floor...what should I expect to be doing while im in placement and what should I spend time on reviewing over the holidays (nursing books, etc). Any tips would be great!
if anyone knows any good websites that would be helpful to me I would greatly appreciate it too...
Thanks! :spin:
Dec 20, '07
Moved to Nursing Student forum...
Dec 20, '07
I haven't done a clinical placement on any floor, but I wanted to wish you luck! You sound so excited!
It definitely sounds interesting. I'm sure you'll learn a lot next semester!
Tiffany
Dec 20, '07
Very cool! My favorite clinical was on a SCI unit. A year or so back Nursing Made Incredibly Easy did a really nice overview on spinal cord injuries. If you have time you could always do some NCLEX neuro questions etc. Like with anything there are a few tweeks that are important to know like autonomic dysreflexia and one thing that I found facinating is that their internal temperature regulation can be out of whack causing fevers. The other thing that I thought was interesting is throw the "turn every 2 hours" rule right out the window, in these patients ideally there should be some position shift q 20 minutes. Hopefully others will write in with pointers for you. I think Daytonite did some work on this floor also and can probably offer a ton of advice. Enjoy!
Dec 20, '07
Congratulations!
I have never worked on the floor with such patients, but I have worked in the OR with wound care patients who have mobility restrictions. From this experience, I would have the following two pieces of advice for you.
Make sure you know body mechanics and how to prevent yourself from a back injury. Depending on their level of mobility, you may be doing a lot of work for them, so know how to protect your back!
Secondly, make sure that you carry some type of mint or something (I like sugar-free menthyl tabs, but anything "strong" smelling will do). Sometimes the wounds you are dealing with can have very strong odors, and after a while it can get to you. If you have a strong cough drop or something it can really help you get over the smell.
Good luck to you, with your enthusiasm you are going to be great!
Dec 20, '07Occupation: mom and student :) Joined: May '05; Posts: 437; Likes: 106I haven't done a clinical placement on any floor, but I wanted to wish you luck! You sound so excited!
Dec 20, '07Joined: Aug '06; Posts: 9,029; Likes: 13,987Very cool! My favorite clinical was on a SCI unit. A year or so back Nursing Made Incredibly Easy did a really nice overview on spinal cord injuries. If you have time you could always do some NCLEX neuro questions etc. Like with anything there are a few tweeks that are important to know like autonomic dysreflexia and one thing that I found facinating is that their internal temperature regulation can be out of whack causing fevers. The other thing that I thought was interesting is throw the "turn every 2 hours" rule right out the window, in these patients ideally there should be some position shift q 20 minutes. Hopefully others will write in with pointers for you. I think Daytonite did some work on this floor also and can probably offer a ton of advice. Enjoy!
