Clinicals Week 3

So I know you are all hanging on the edge of your seats wondering what I did all of last week, so here goes. Tuesday in Theory we talked about the Tuskegee study, which if you don't know, happened from the 1930's to the 1970's and involved studying the effects of untreated syphilis in African American men. Even though treatment was available, these men never received it, and never even were told that they had syphili because it was more important to the government to study what would happen to the men if they let the disease just run its course. Oh and the men thought they were being treated even though they weren't. Way to go America. It wasn't until more than 20 years later that a President even apologized for this and compensated survivors and family members of the men who were part of this study. Then in seminar we watched a movie about Tuskegee called "Ms. Evers Boys" and it was pretty much just a super uplifting day.

Thursday I was in the Special Care Nursery at the hospital and I gotta say, it was not the most exciting day. Don't get me wrong, I was able to see a lot of cool stuff and learn a lot by talking to the nurse that I was working with, but as far as being able to DO anything, not so much. There was one baby in there that I got to do my assessment on that was a 34 week old and weighed only 4 pounds. The other baby in there was full term but was admitted to Special Care because she was having breathing problems and having trouble feeding. So it was really interesting to see all of the monitors and equipment in the nursery but I was pretty bored. I did get my newborn assessment done though which was something I really needed to finish so that was good! :)

Friday was just a normal day, I took care of a mother/baby couplet and did my maternal assessment on the mom I was taking care of. The day went really well, also pretty uneventful. Clinicals are really great and I really am enjoying being in the hospital. It makes me want to be done with nursing school and just be a nurse. I guess one more year isn't that long to wait right?