Made my first "Nursing" connection

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So from day one everyone says in your second year of nursing school things start to click. I've been having an awful time connecting the dots on things so I never believed any of them and today IT HAPPENED! It was a super small connection but it happened and I was super excited!

The patient I had was a 13 year old postop patient. I did my morning assessment and vitals and her HR and RR rate was a little high but nothing not expected for being postop. Well when I went back 4 hours later to do her vitals (I was with her throughout the day I'm just talking second set of vitals here) and her HR and RR was even higher this time. So I immediately asked her to rate her pain and she said 3 out of 10. Okay so maybe I counted wrong, I checked again and no I wasn't wrong her HR and RR were elevated and it just dawned on me, I think she doesn't want to say how much pain shes in! so i don't say anything and i just take the vitals to her nurse and explained I took her HR and her RR twice to be sure and low and behold what does the nurse say? shes not taking pain meds the way she should, I think shes in more pain than shes saying which is why these are elevated!

Such a small and maybe a common sense connection but normally I would just blindly do what the nurse told me to do and that's it, no thought to it, unable to really "think" about what was going on just relaying info. And at the end of the day I got my first complement from a nurse since I started clinical last year. She says I did good work today and I was very independent. It made me feel good, just thought I'd share!

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Specializes in PICU, Sedation/Radiology, PACU.

Good for you! It's awesome when you start seeing that you can put the pieces together and think critically. Soon, you'll be making these connections without even realizing it!

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Specializes in ICU/ Surgery/ Nursing Education.

This is the stuff that you should celebrate so that you can finish out your nursing school education on a high note. Congratulations and good job. It seems like a minor realization, but very important for your practice. Be proud of it.

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Excellente! You've got your critical thinking hat squarely on. Keep up the good work!

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Specializes in Cardiac, ER, Pediatrics, Corrections.

Good job! It will keep happening more and more. You are well on your way! :up:

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Specializes in L&D, infusion, urology.

Yay!! It's so validating when you realize you are starting to think as a nurse! :)

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I made my first nursing connection this week, and totally thought of you after having read this post. Had a pt in clinical who came in with a chronic absess on his ankle; it started out as a blister, wouldn't heal, etc.

So, he thinks he has DM bc it runs in his family.... although he has no other s/s, they test his glucose, and everything comes back normal. Meanwhile, they also find that he has a tibial fracture, but they can't treat it bc of this other infection. Then he is scheduled for an angio. I ran through my mind a hundred times that morning,"Why is this guy having an angio???" He has no Hx or labs of any kind of cardiac probems whatsoever, except that he's a 57yo smoker. Finally, in post conference, while I'm tuning everyone out trying to figure this guy out, it hits me why they did the angio: lack of healing=perfusion problem, regardless of a DM diagnosis. So, sure enough, they went in and found multiple thrombi in this guy. Both of his iliac arteries were severely occluded, along with additional occlusions down his affected leg.

I totally feel your joy. :up:

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It's nice right? I feel like I'm "growing up"

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