I've been asked to start the WILTW thread, and I'm more than happy to!
This has been an exciting week for me, as it was the last week of my Med/Surg I rotation. I'm trying not to feel too relieved though, because finals are next week. That being said, I will still absolutely squeeze in time to catch up on GOT.
This week I learned:
That my clinical instructor is a big ole softy. I can't believe that I thought she was super scary when the rotation first started.
That having just one year left of nursing school doesn't feel like enough time. Don't get me wrong, I feel like I've learned a ton in the one year of school I've had (and I'm more than ready to graduate so that I can get my social life back), but when I think of just how much I still don't know, I get a little worried.
That I wish I could take some patients home with me. Throughout clinical, I had nice patients, but none that really lingered in my thoughts when I went home for the day. But last week I had a patient who had already been through so much. His whole family had already been through so much. Sometimes it's hard to know just what to say, and I hope I was more helpful than I felt I was.
That I'm probably going to have a lifetime of telling family members, I'm not a doctor. You really need to talk to your doctor about that. I will probably NEVER be able to diagnose you.â€
I've also learned that said family members, when you actually do give them advice (such as dietary advice), will say Oh, you're just regurgitating what you've learned in school,†and will continue to eat everything under the sun while wondering why their blood pressure isn't controlled. Why yes, I am telling you what I've learned in school, but apparently you'd rather hear that steak for every meal paired with a margarita is the best possible chance for survival.
That being said, I do follow the steak and margarita diet. But hey, I'm working on it.
That the best way to get a resident to like you is to empathize. Let them vent. Losing my independence is something I can hardly fathom, and I'm sure I wouldn't handle it with grace. (Like, really I'm very certain that I'll be the LOL trying to escape everyday and falling out of my wheel chair in an attempt to lunge out the door). It's ok to let residents feel angry about it. It's ok let them know that, yes, it does suck, and that you'll be right around the corner when they're ready for help.
But it's not ok if they scratch you. Or bite you. Oh swear at you. We still need some limits.
That I will never ever forget to do an oral assessment on my patients. This is the second time I've shined a penlight in there and found a massive case of oral thrush.
On that note, I'm also very glad I'm not a dentist or dental hygienist. I'll wipe all the butts in the world, but don't bring that mouth any closer to me.
But what's grosser than the grossest mouth? Maggots. I was not pleased to learn that maggots are still being used for wound debridement. That...is my limit.
My family just thinks I'll "grow out of it." They create pretty interesting loopholes that allow them to believe I'm "still" going to Heaven.
I've told my FIL I am not Christian, and that I try to live my life using Buddhist principles.
He responded (and I quote, word for word), "that's okay, Buddhists believe Jesus is the son of god." (As though in his mind, that validates moral reasoning and "goodness".)
Me: "No, they don't."
Him: "Yes, they do."
He was so resolute about it, and I suddenly realized this will keep him out of my hair about this entire subject. I just said, "okay," and changed the subject completely.
Specializes in OR, Nursing Professional Development.
Trump won the primaries in IN. What has the world come to, that Trump and Clinton are facing off for the presidential election? Well, I couldn't vote for the primaries when I recently registered to vote, but I'm not even sure who I will vote for in the general election. Hmm, possible third-party run?
Or a write in candidate may actually be viable this year.
Oh, and what I learned this week:
I don't like the new surgeon. Very prima donna-ish. Very needy. Nothing we have is good enough for her. Hate to say it, but when you move from a world-class multi-facility conglomerate to little old stand-alone budget-wise even though owned by one of those conglomerates, we don't always have the best and newest. And when we spend $40,000 on the things you said you wanted and they aren't good enough, tough. We already lost out on raises for the year- we don't want to lose next year's too. Maybe if said prima donna worked more than one day a week, we'd consider it worthwhile.
We just found out that CAPNI is lobbying to get the IHSAA to change its outdated bylaws regarding preparticipation sports physicals. And just about every parent I've talked to is annoyed beyond belief about the situation. WE can still do private school and out of state high school sport's physicals. We had one over the weekend and we had to call one of our clinics there and verify that we can do it. The FNP there was shocked we couldn't do them in our state. :/
I've been thinking about this since I first read it. Doctors ARE busy, yes, but they're busy providing PATIENT CARE like we are. When they approach with an attitude that they are simply there to do a 5-minute u-turn, it pisses me off. We run our asses off the entire day, yet patients generally don't get the feeling that we're too busy to hear them. Doctors give them this feeling. Its not okay!
This is a huge reason why I stalk patient rooms the entire morning to go in with rounding MDs. When something isn't mentioned in rounds, I bring it up. (Things I know they'd want brought up, like uncontrolled pain.)
Oh yeah, I agree. I think we have very approachable docs. I love our docs, and they're even nicer to the patients than they are to us (as in they have great bedside manner even when having a bad day, for the most part); I think sometimes though patients get tunnel vision when talking to the doc. I hate it when a doc will come in without reading my nursing notes first. I think a lot of the perception of docs being less approachable just has to do with the different focus of a doctor-patient relationship, but that's just me.
My money is on doc is crappy at tubing patients, or the patient had a crappy airway. Did you ever find out why?
nope, I didn't. Honestly I think its one of those things where certain docs struggle with the idea of being proactive with airway management in a patient that comes in that can at least kinda talk. My experience has been that its a lot tougher to get some docs to intubate patients that actually have looked into their eyes prior to needing the tube... but maybe that's just my perception. I mentioned several times that I was worried about her tiring out, her airway patency, etc, and kept getting the response of "but she can open her eyes and look at you and can talk (kinda) when spoken to".... uh, yeah, and I'd like her to be able to do that in the future, not just now. lol
Farawyn
12,646 Posts
L.o.l..