KristaB

Zach, Evergreen hires Unit Techs. You might want to look into that. :) Krista

Well, I just found this cool website (and bookmarked it!): http://www.pharma-lexicon.com/ It says S/P means status post. :) Krista

CHI = closed head injury I thought S/P was single person...I'll see if I can find if it means anything else. Krista

Thanks, everyone. :) I'm studying today for my theory test tomorrow, so I guess that means I'm not leaving this week. I'm still dreading the thought of going back to clinical on Thursday, but I'll deal with that later this week... Thanks again. I'm going to print out some of your responses to keep with me for when I get discouraged. Krista

Hi everyone, I had the worst day at clinical today. We're in a long term care facility for the next six weeks. We began clinicals yesterday, and I actually had one of those "I know I want to be a nurse" days yesterday, and I was really excited that I "knew" I was in the right place, even though I've been feeling like quitting for the past several weeks. Today, I may have been pushed over the edge. We only have a short clinical on Fridays, pretty much just long enough to help do feedings and to do assessments on our patients. Keep in mind, this was only my second day -- I fed my first patient ever yesterday. Today, my instructor told me to follow some of the NACs around that were passing trays so that I could learn to do that, and I somehow got roped (by one of my fellow students, no less!) into being the sitter in the dayroom, where three of the residents eat. Two of the three eat fine by themselves, but have some strange habits that keep them away from the other residents, but the third is a food thrower. The NACs were very specific in telling me that I needed to give her one thing at a time to eat or she'd dump or throw her food. So, that's what I did. I gave this resident one thing at a time, and it was fairly frustrating, since she wasn't very interested in eating. She dumped her water on the floor and kept throwing her spoon, but it wasn't anything I couldn't handle. Meanwhile, one of the other residents in the room kept motioning me over and pointing to his plate. I honestly had no idea what he wanted, and I acknowledged him as best I could while trying to keep food off the floor from resident three. The med nurse on the floor was finishing up her rounds, and was glaring at me through the window. My instructor refers to her in class as "the troll," so this gives you some indication of what she's like. She came storming in and demanded that I put all of resident three's food in front of her. I told her that she had told me she was done, and was refusing to eat anything else. She again demanded that I put the rest of her food in front of her. So I did, and I'm sure you can guess what happened next...scrambled eggs and oatmeal all over the floor. This med nurse in the meantime had sat down to feed resident two (the one that had been motioning to me), and then said, "Why don't you go over to the kitchen and...oh, never mind. You don't KNOW anything, anyway." Imagine that said in the nastiest tone you can, and that is how it was said to me. She then got up and left the room. I cleaned up the mess from the floor as best as I could and moved the table away from resident three and asked her if she'd like for me to help her put her slippers back on. I was reaching down for the slippers when the med nurse came back in the room, pulled the tray back in front of the patient, right between the patient and I -- and VERY abruptly, I might add -- and then slammed down a nutritional drink in front of the resident, then went back over to feed resident two. Of course you know what happened next -- nutritional drink on the floor. The nurse just glared at me. I walked out of the room, saw another of my classmates in the hall and just started bawling. She pulled me into the bathroom and I recollected myself, and then my teacher found us and I started crying again. She pulled me into the conference room, reassured me that this was nothing that I had done and that the behavior of the nurse was unacceptable, then she took me to the nursing director's office where I had to repeat my story again. Then they called the nurse in question in and talked to her (my instructor also had some other problems with her that she had already discussed this morning). After she got chewed out by the director, she kept trying to corner me, but thankfully my instructor kept telling her to back off, that she had traumatized me enough for one day. Then on my way out after we were done for the day, she grabbed my arm, and I said, "Look, I'm not doing this today," and I removed her hand from my sleeve. I cried all the way home. Knowing that I am a new student, this nurse could have poked her head in the door of the dayroom and said something like, "Looks like XXX would like a little help eating this morning," instead of barking at me about the other resident and then doing the feeding herself. I think making suggestions is usually more effective than barking orders, particularly when this was not a life and death situation. I can't believe I'm paying tuition to be treated like that by a nurse on the floor. I also feel like I never want to set foot in there again. I've been teetering on the edge of wanting to quit, and after I got home, my husband and I discussed what would happen if I left the program. I just don't know what to do; I just know I never want to go back there. I also feel like a total baby for being upset about this; I mean, I know I'll have to deal with this kind of crap out in the real world, but being a student is hard enough without nurses that just can't be bothered by what they perceive to be idiot students. Maybe I'm really not cut out to be a nurse. What a miserable day. Krista

CNM = Certified Nurse Midwife. CNMs are usually nurse practitioners, a masters level program. Krista

I'm right there with you, kday. :) It will take awhile, but we can change birth one woman at a time. I tell anyone who will listen how great CNMs are and how much better birth experiences I've had with midwives, not to mention how much better their well woman care is. For some women, it takes getting that one *horrid* birth experience under their belt to change their minds. Maybe your c-sec lady will have second thoughts in a few months, start reading, then VBAC next time. Maybe. :) My goal is to have a freestanding birth center when I'm done with my formal education. I'd also like to get an add-on pediatric NP certification sometime so I can have a women's and children's center. Sometimes I think I'd be better off doing hospital birth, because I'd see a larger percentage of "those" women, the ones that think they can't give birth. There is such an opportunity to teach, if only people would take the time to do it in their early pregnancies (and not those hospital-here's-how-to-ask-for-your-epidural childbirth classes). I'm rambling now, but this is also one of my issues. Krista

Yep. With my first, the doctor was *so* incredibly freaking impatient, it makes me mad even thinking about it. At one point he told me, "Look, I've been here since nine this morning and five women have already had their babies today. I really want to get home and get some sleep." My daughter was born, thanks to the pitocin, of course, at 11:24 p.m., about four hours after that $#%hole wanted to get home. I feel just terrible for inconveniencing him like that. I had a much different experience with the CNMs with my second birth. They were trained to wait it out, listen to the woman and let her listen to her body. It was really great. And my homebirth was even better. :) Krista

I should also mention that a better way to get the uterus to clamp down after childbirth is to encourage mom to breastfeed. :) No drugs needed. Krista

You've never had afterpains, have you? I'm sorry, I have to disagree. If there is no reason to intervene, we shouldn't intervene. Saying that we should give pit to all postpartum women "just in case" is just as bad as giving it during labor "just in case" labor doesn't progress. If there is a good reason (like pp hemmorhage), by all means intervene, but not as a preventative measure. And I can tell you from experience, having pit administered after labor "just in case I might have hemmorhaged," made the afterpains nearly intolerable, almost worse than labor. That isn't "good," especially when there is no good reason. Krista

I think we also have the advent of epidurals to blame for some of the use of pit. Epidurals help the pain, but slow the labor. A better method would be education of the client prior to labor. Most women (even pain weenies like me!) can have natural labors and births if they learn what to expect and have tools to deal with it. My first was induced with pitocin, and I will never, ever do it again. My second two were completely natural, last one was a planned homebirth, and though there was pain, it was nothing compared to the pitocin-induced contractions of the first. Krista

I wanna work where kday works!!!!!

Thanks, everyone! :) I'm really glad to know I'm not alone! I have a history of fainting at the sight of my own blood and also when I get shots (and I tried to give blood once -- they did a hematocrit on me first and I passed out, bumped my head on the lady's desk and got myself a nice concussion!). Anyway, thanks for the votes of confidence! :) I hope you're all right that it won't affect me while working on anyone else. The woman that did my TB test yesterday told me to wait a few months, and I'd know why they say it's much better to give than to receive. Krista

Hiya everyone, I went down to the health department today to get my TB test done. No problem, it didn't hurt a bit, nothing like I was expecting (I'm a little sore *now*, though). Anyhoo, I have a terrible needle phobia of my own -- I can watch other people get pricked, and I have no doubt I'll be able to do the poking, just something about it being done to me, particularly if it involves my blood. So TB tests don't involve blood, so I didn't think to take any of my usual precautions, such as eating beforehand to avoid fainting. My mistake! I happened to catch a glimpse of my arm after she was done, and there was a *drop* of blood. I lost it. I had to sit down with my head between my legs and everything and came >this close Anyone have advice for getting past this? I always try not to look and I'm usually fine. Next week I'm scheduled to have blood drawn for the MMR titers, and I hope to be ready for that! Krista