Skills that we thought we would never get

Blackheartednurse · Nov 17, 2009

Blood pressure,hate those damn things@!

lamazeteacher · Nov 18, 2009

So I'm looking through the posts and I am reminded of my first day in nursing school. I was looking forward to doing injections and learning about meds. What I feared was that I would never learn to take BPs. You pump up the cuff and let it deflate? How is that supposed to tell you anything? I just couldn't wrap my brain around it. What are you supposed to do with all the numbers?
Share your stories. What did you fear before starting school?

That I might not get in......

My high school grades were awful, in Canada, and I had to repeat Grade 12 (in a province with 13 grades, Ont.) The fact that Quebec's HS grades went only to grade 12, allowed me to claim Jr. Matriculation for academic qualification. My Rabbi wrote a letter of recommendation which was all about my uncle's philanthropy. Since the School of Nursing was at the Jewish General Hospital, that was a guarantee to admission!

The first month at Nursing School, in a class of 18 wouldbe nurses, I projected the self defeating tactics that hadn't worked in HS - not reading assigned work. The Education Director hauled me into her office when I couldn't answer one question she asked me in class, and said if I performed as poorly again, I'd have to memorize the assigned chapters in her office during lunch. Ever one to be a player, I didn't read them, couldn't answer questions, and went to her office during lunch the next day and actually memorized the stuff.

When I answered all the questions she'd posed to others and to me, she said, "See, you are smart! Continue to learn and you'll go far". No one before had thought I was intelligent, as I goofed off a lot. To make a long story short, I graduated and got the highest grades in the multichoice licensing exam, that were achieved in all of Canada (for the provinces that used the American exam) that year.

So, realizing that I had something between my ears, I continued my education, going to University of Toronto two years later, and got my degree in Public Health Nursing. That was a rocky climb, as I had to live with my parents while at school, and that had been disasterous before. (My mother had severe clinical depression with hysterical suicide ideation, and I was genetically headed in that direction, my grandfather having died of suicide, having been a stock broker, many years before the 1929 depression.)

Somehow I accomplished that goal despite telling the psychology professor that his book was full of......excrement. He said I could refute his work for my final paper, which I did, happily. The grade I got from him was a pass - just. So when I have to get my school records for a job application, I bow out.

I'm writing this for those who have underachieved as I did due to pathological factors, in the hope that you'll be able to overcome learning blocks, too and achieve if not your full potential, at least part of it, as I did.

Thankfully the modern antidepressants have been available for me, the past 20+ years, although they were financially challenging when I had no health insurance; and before I had them my marriage (based on faulty thinking and codependence) was sacrificed. So I'm sure you can see why I support President Obama's Reform of Health Care Bill, due in part because he believes mental and physical diseases deserve equal benefits. :specs:

lamazeteacher · Nov 18, 2009

Scared I am not going to complete my care plan....can you help??? Its over lab values posted just afew minutes ago?

Were they abnormal? If so, the anticipated orders that you need from the doc to treat the abnormality, can go into the care plan, and the next time labs should be done. If a diagnosis was clear after getting the labs back, form your nursing diagnosis and go from that..... You can do it!

goodgrief · Nov 25, 2009

like you, when I was in school I feared most everything, especially the simple stuff that I wasn't so good at (BP's, IV's, etc). I can't believe I'm only 7 months out of school and working in a cardiothoracic ICU and now I work with swans, art-lines, VERY sick patients, and even open-chest codes at the bedside! in school I never thought I would have gotten this far!

ariansas · Nov 26, 2009

Lacey,

You might want to think about how you treat residents. i have heard from many physician s that the way they were treated as residents is why they treat nurses as they do. We were all students at one time, have a little patience and help them, don't do harm. It does come back to bite you.

zebsmom2002 · Nov 26, 2009

I had a sort of vomit phobia until I started nursing school, so I was afraid that someone would puke on me (haha)...well, after that happened a couple of times it wasn't so bad...but when I had to learn to put in an NG tube and the lady just kept GAGGING without puking, I almost lost it!! I still don't think I'm good at the NG tubes, but at least I can stay in the room when someone's gagging or puking!!

I had a major issue with the smell of emesis & had a major fear of doing it myself when I smelled it. I tried to hold my breath, use a mask, peppermint oil under my nose--you name it. Then I finall gave up & walked into the room, smelled it, gracefully exited to the nearest (usually patient's) bathroom & have a sympathy emesis myself. It got it over with & was actually easier than trying to fight it. After 30 years, I've had people do it down the inside of the front of my shirt & into my pockets. I finally just got used to it & it doesn't bother me any more.

zebsmom2002 · Nov 26, 2009

I had a sort of vomit phobia until I started nursing school, so I was afraid that someone would puke on me (haha)...well, after that happened a couple of times it wasn't so bad...but when I had to learn to put in an NG tube and the lady just kept GAGGING without puking, I almost lost it!! I still don't think I'm good at the NG tubes, but at least I can stay in the room when someone's gagging or puking!!

like you, when I was in school I feared most everything, especially the simple stuff that I wasn't so good at (BP's, IV's, etc). I can't believe I'm only 7 months out of school and working in a cardiothoracic ICU and now I work with swans, art-lines, VERY sick patients, and even open-chest codes at the bedside! in school I never thought I would have gotten this far!

The one thing I could never wrap my head around was IV credits. It took me forever! Somehow no one ever simply explained that it was how much was left in the bag at the end of the shift. I'm embarrassed how long it took me to finally figure it out.

Dimethylamine · Nov 26, 2009

Ahhh.. mine was having to do the baths and the ever intimidating occupied bed change. Tuck and roll baby! ~Ivanna

ohhhh this makes me laugh.....I remember being sooo intimidated by this one in CNA class, and then of COURSE I had to do it for my state test......

sharpeimom · Nov 26, 2009

roser,
i did step on a foley hose in my first year of nursing. it came out with the bulb intact while transfering a patient from his bed to a chair. it came out and the patient had to stay in hospital for another 3 days. i, too, now look where my feet are and check for anything that might get yanked out. i keep a tidy room.

eeeyyyoouucccchhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek:

i once tripped and knocked over an iv pump plus a bag of blood onto an ortho patient just back from surgery. it looked like a horror movie scene! to make things worse, it happened in front of the attending, head nurse and the patient's parents. he'd been in an horrific accident. i'm amazed his catheter didn't come out too. the ortho was furious, but not with me. he was angry that she'd assigned one of his patients to a brand new nurse...:angryfire

kathy

shar pei mom:paw::paw:

beachmom · Nov 26, 2009

In nursing school I was really nervous when I thought of giving injections. Needles are scary.

Our teachers arranged for the EMT students to come to our class and get their TB tests. I psyched myself up, gave a young man an intradermal injection and discovered it didn't hurt me a bit!

I've been able to give injections ever since.

Katie5 · Nov 26, 2009

Ivanna,
My first patient was a 94 yr old man who had just had a circumcision. Talk about invading someone's personal space.

That must have hurt.Ouch

Zana2 · Nov 26, 2009

I was really really scared of connecting/disconnecting IV's. Like I wouldn't touch them with a barge pole. The whole count the drips sent my head spinning. And we're talking saline.

Served me right.