Intesive Care Unit!

I apparently am REALLY on the ball with blog entries this week, but I recently am realizing that I hate waiting until the end of the week and then trying to remember all of the things that I did throughout the entire week. I feel like there are so many things that happen and I forget to write about them because I don't talk about them right after the happen. Hence beginning my new effort to update more frequently so that I can actually write how I feel about them. That being said, this week I did ALOT of different things so I figured it was a good plan to talk about each one. Today I was in the Adult ICU (Intensive Care Unit). Each person in my clinical group gets to spend one day in the ICU and one day in surgery. ICU was definitely intense. I followed a nurse around that was absolutely amazing. At the beginning of the day I didn't think she was going to be very nice to me, but I found out she was just stressed out because she thought she was supposed to be somewhere else today so she was all out of sorts. Once she got where she was supposed to be and got report, she calmed down and started talking to me. She had two patients, one was an 80 year old woman and the other was a 40 year old woman. I got to see a LOT of things in the ICU. Both of the patients were on ventilators and sedated. I was able to see one of the patients get extubated (got the breathing tube taken out), and I got to see the other patient get a PICC line (Peripherally Inserted Central Catheter). The line goes into the arm and down to near the heart. These lines are great because you can infuse meds faster, they last longer, and they have 3 lumens (ports to put meds in). This was really cool to watch because they put these in using Ultrasound to see the vein. I also got to go down and see my patient get a CT Scan today. The craziest thing about the ICU is just how many medications these patients are on. My one patient had 4 separate IV pumps running, some with multiple bags piggybacking into one pump. In addition to all of the million IV's that were running the patients also had a ton of IV push meds that they were getting. I felt like my nurse spent half the day just do nothing but giving meds. Its definitely a very high stress environment in the ICU. It was really cool to get to see what it's like though, and also to see all of the meds, pumps and vents.

The other significant part of my day was with my older patient. She was not doing very well and they were considering transferring her to Spectrum to get a different kind of MRI. They went back and forth with this all day, and the family was all in the waiting room or in the patient's room waiting to figure out what was going on. Their mom/grandma/wife was completely out because of the sedation and I know that from the standpoint of the family it had to be really hard to see her like that. I remember my grandpa being in the ICU and how scary it was to see him like that. The family was standing in the hall when the doctor came to talk them, and the doctor told them some not-so-great news. The whole family started crying and hugging and just reassuring each other that they could get through it and that they have to think of mom and what she would want. I CAN'T HANDLE PEOPLE CRYING. AT ALL. I'm the most emotional person on the face of the planet. Then my nurse got a little teary, and I got a little teary but was trying really hard to keep it together. I just don't know that I could work there knowing that I have to watch people die and watch their families watch them die. There were probably 8 people on the unit today that were DNAR, meaning if they code they can't try to resuscitate them at all. I don't know that I could (emotionally/mentally) just stand there and watch someone die. It definitely was a learning experience though and I am really glad that I got to spend the day in the ICU.

Also my nurse told me that I was one of the brightest students she has had follow her and told me that they hire new grads into the ICU and I should definitely look into it. It's for sure always nice to hear that :)