RunninNurse

Let me get this straight. You guys hijacked my post to rain on my parade and now you're telling me I cannot take constructive criticism and I won't do well in my professional career. You guys have no idea what happened. I didn't even give you the entire story of my assessment because it was too long to read. Half of you didn't even read my original post correctly to see that the player wasn't unconscious. This isn't about criticism or me not listening. I've had a really really hard week and hard quarter. I needed to feel good about myself and my skills and very few of you were willing to give me a thumbs up for trying. All I got was a list of things I did wrong and how I could of somehow killed the guy... who by the way, has NOTHING wrong with him after visiting the hospital. Maybe instead of jumping on the "picking out what she did wrong" bandwagon, you can stop and see that I'm a person who has feelings. Just because you're online and can't see my face doesn't mean you can talk over me and pick me apart. If I wanted insight into what to do differently, I would have asked. I'm done with this thread, and I think this forum. I came here to be lifted up and share with others in the same boat as me. So far, all you guys have done is made me feel bad for doing what I know was right. Who needs enemies, when your have fellow nurses like this.

Alright, I'm done defending myself. I feel good about what I did. None of you were there and didn't see what happened and what I did. I'm going to happy despite all of your comments.

Let's just hope I never have to put my CPR skills to practical use!

Seriously, I'm trying to share good news and you're literally shutting me down. I'm not looking for someone to point out everything I did wrong. I'm happy at what I did and I know I showed sound clinical judgment. Perhaps you can be a black cloud on another post.

I told his girlfriend to drive him because the hospital is literally down the street from the arena. The ambulances are dispatched out of a completely different city, and it would have taken longer to get an ambulance there than for her to drive him to the ER.

Thank you for the input. Glad to know I'm not alone. I want to wear all the cute shirts and fun fabrics, but I know I'd sweat through anything in five minutes flat.

Good advice. I'll remember that next time. :)

My husband plays hockey, and last night I was at his game when one of his teammates had a hard fall onto the ice. There were only a few of us in the stands watching, and I heard one of the players going to the opposing team's side asking if anyone was an EMT or a doctor. No one seemed to have any idea what to do and no one had medical training, so I jumped up and walked toward the ice. My husband saw me walk up, and motioned for me to come on the ice. The ref wouldn't let me on the ice, but the player was able to get up by himself and come sit on the bench. I took his helmet off and did a neuro check on him and asked him what hurt. He never loss consciousness and his neuro check was fine, but was feeling dizzy, so I told his girlfriend to take him to the hospital down the street to get checked out. It was kind of amazing how calm I was and how my learning in class became instinctive when the player sat down. It really felt good to be an asset and know what to do in those types of situations. Though, I keep replaying the situation again in my mind and wondering if I should have asked more questions or done things a little differently, but I know I did the priority items correctly. I'm now re-considering this whole trauma nursing thing. :)

We aren't required to have malpractice insurance at our school. I don't have health insurance because I literally cannot afford it. Insurance rates in my area are through the roof. For my husband and I, the cheapest health insurance we could find was over $300 a month. That's my entire grocery budget for a month. Though my school requires health insurance I get by that by being enrolled in a "health care sharing program". It's not insurance, but would cover a decent amount of my medical bills in a serious medical situation. It's basically like having catastrophic insurance because the deductible is $10k. We basically pay cash for any doctor's visits.

Nope, I'm 100% healthy with normal BG and BP.

Yeah, I've tried every deodorant around. I'm at the point where I need alternative options just to keep the sweat marks at bay. I'm more looking for clothing ideas, not deodorant.

That really depends on how hard you want to make assessments on yourself. I tried to be cheap when I started nursing school and bought a low-end stethoscope. Big mistake. When it came to assessing breath sounds I couldn't hear crap. I thought it was just me, but it was my horrible stethoscope. When I sucked it up and purchased a nice Littman ($100) my assessment skills went up. So, remember that bad equipment will make it harder on you when it comes to clinicals and lab skills. Chose something that will last.

So, as I wrote in my original post I cannot go to the doctor for this. I do not have health insurance because I cannot afford even the cheapest offering for it right now. While I'd love to get a prescription for this problem, it's either choosing between groceries for the month or going to the doctor. And when this isn't a medical necessity... groceries win.

Oh yes, I've tried everything and then some. I'm at the point where I'm just living with it and trying to find a way to make it less noticeable.

I've talked about this exact topic with my cohort this last week. During our last quarter of nursing school we have the opportunity to be "Management Students" and essentially act as clinical instructors to the first quarter students. I remember being in my first quarter and being thrown into clinical with big eyes and no idea what I was doing. My saving grace was the final quarter management students who were super helpful and really pointed me in the right direction. It's exactly how I want to be as a management student, and as a nurse who has students. One thing I promised myself I would do as a nurse with students is always make the student do the procedures. I guess "make" isn't the right word, maybe offer. A few nurses I had would never let me do specific procedures (i.e., IV starts, EKGs, caths, etc.) because they just wanted to hurry up and get something done. However, the nurses that allowed me the experience were the most influential and taught me the most. That's the type of nurse I want to be.