Surgery Take 2 and LEADERHIP PLACEMENT!

As part of this rotation we got to spend one day in surgery! I've been very fortunate to have both of my med-surg rotations at Saint Mary's because that means I've been able to spend a total of three days in surgery, while people who have been at Spectrum haven't been able to spend any time in surgery. So the operating room I was assigned to was an orthopedic room and I got to see two surgeries. The first was a total hip replacement and the second was a total knee replacement. The surgeon I was with was really great (and his last name was Kane. Win.) and he had two other ortho residents with him that he was teaching (who were both pretty easy on the eyes, so I was a fan). My nurse was a little bit intimidating to say the least. He was older and had been doing working an a nurse in the OR for 30 years. He wasn't mean or anything, he was wasn't overly warm or helpful. He didn't really explain much to me during the surgeries, but luckily there was a surgical rep in there that explained everything to me. During the total hip I couldn't really see anything because of how the leg was positioned and because there were 4 people doing the surgery, but during the total knee I was able to see a lot more which was really cool. Mostly I just followed the nurse around as he went to get the patient from the pre-op holding area, brought them into the OR, got them all set up and prepped and then just hung out in the OR and watched the whole surgery. I really like surgery, but i definitely don't think that it's for me. One of the things that I love most about nursing is the one on one face time that I get to spend connecting with and caring for patients. With surgery, 90% of the time you are with patients, they are unconscious. So while I do enjoy watching the surgeries, I don't really think surgery is for me. I'm glad that I got the chance to spend some time in surgery though because it's been enough time to give me a good idea of what it's like and whether or not it's something that I would be interested in.

Also yesterday we got our assignments for our LEADERSHIP rotations! Leadership is a 7 week rotation where we are assigned individually (meaning not in a clinical group like we usually are), to a specific unit in a hospital and to one nurse. We follow that nurse for the entire 7 weeks and work when they work. We got to request the top three areas of nursing we wanted to work in so I picked Pediatrics, Pediatrics ICU and medsurg, in that order. And I got PEDS! At Helen Devos, which is exactly what I wanted. I am in peds sedation, and I wasn't really sure what that meant so I looked on the website and this is what it says:

[One-Stop Sedation Procedure Rooms
Sedation services are organized around the patient and family. The goal is to remove the discomfort or anxiety of painful or invasive procedures, or diagnostic or radiology tests that require the child to lie still. Children are prepped, sedated and have their procedure and recover in the same room, rather than moving for each phase of care. Family members may accompany the child during both the preparation and recovery phases.]

So I guess that's what I am going to be doing! I'm really excited about it! We also found out where we will be doing our community health rotation and I will be doing that at the Kent County Health Department. I'm happy about that too and I think I will learn a whole lot being there. Life is good :)

3 weeks left of clinical and we MOVE TO OUR NEW UNIT NEXT WEEK! 4 weeks left in the semester! Done for the semester in 30 days, and done for good in 133, time is flying!