Gilda's Club

Today instead of going to seminar at the CHS building, we had our seminar at Gilda's Club. Gilda's Club is in Grand Rapids and it is a place for people to go whose lives are affected by cancer. It's an amazing place that offers support groups, play groups for kids, resources, and just a place for people to come and be with people who understand what they're going through. They also offer classes like tae-bo, yoga, quilting, basket weaving, and other arts and crafts. They also have an enormous and awesome place for kids to play. People don't live at Gilda's, it's just a place that they can come during the day to get away and talk with people. The building is absolutely awesome. It was a hundred something year old farmhouse that they bought about ten years ago to turn into Gilda's. The pictures show just a few of the rooms in it. It's honestly gorgeous. We also got to listen to three people tell us about their cancer journey and how Gilda's has changed their lives and helped them through their fight with cancer. It's just such an awesome place and it makes me remember why I want to work with people with cancer once I'm a big kid. It always amazes me how many incredibly great places there are out there.

Also if you've seen the thousands of yellow smiles around Grand Rapids, you probably now know that they are for Laugh Fest. What you may not know is that Laugh Fest was put on by Gilda's Club (there are more than just the one in Grand Rapids). The tagline for the event was "Seriously Funny." When you think about it in reference to a cancer benefit, seems appropriate right?

Leeeeeeeeearning (or "My grumpy old lady")

Yeah, its not creative, but A) It's late and I'm tired and B) It's what happened this week, so the title stays. So this week was actually surprisingly busy now that I think about it. Monday I had seminar and theory. In seminar we talked about living with AIDS (As I think of all the things I want to talk about in this entry I'm realizing I shouldn't have waited all week to do this, so I apologize for the ramblings). So Monday, AIDS speaker in seminar. I knew before seminar that we were having a guest speaker so I clearly assumed that someone with AIDS was going to come in and talk to us about life with AIDS. But then I walk into seminar and there's this 50ish year old woman at the front of the room that absolutely does not look like she has AIDS. I'm kind of disappointed because she starts by putting up a powerpoint (gag) and telling us about Project Red that she works for downtown, blah blah blah. I'm very disappointed. So she then goes on to tell us how they serve all kind of people, anyone can have AIDS, etc. I think "No shit, I already know all of this from the THOUSAND TIMES I HAVE HEARD IT. Dumb seminar." She says, "....I am a wife, mother, sister, etc. AND I HAVE AIDS." Boom, now I feel like a giant asshole. I don't have stereotypes? Lie. I obviously do. She tells us about her life and how she found out she had AIDS (One night stand between marriages), and how she told her husband and her family. Then she tells us about her infertility and battle to get pregnant. She does get pregnant and they take all the precautions to prevent transmission (roughly a 9% chance she told us). Just when you think this story is looking up, her son is HIV positive. Diagnosed at 6 weeks old. But he's awesome. And doing well. She showed us tons of pictures of her son, her family, her dogs, and she talks to us about her medications, costs, health, daily life, etc. Then she lets us drill her with questions. It was awesome. And I learned a huge lesson in not judging people.

Tuesday I just had theory, got my SUPER PROCRASTINATED PAPER back in class which I was actually semi freaking out about. Got a 93%. This is both a good and bad thing. It's good because it's an awesome grade. It's bad because I started this paper at 7pm the night before it was due and did only 1% worse then I did on the last paper I wrote that I worked on for DAYS. This is not good for encouraging my procrastination. Meh, still awesome. I also had my first LEI (elderly client) visit on Tuesday which was good because I need to do three this semester and I was kind of getting behind on that. Oh and we talked about cancer this week. Which I am super interested in. WINNING.

Wednesday and Thursday I had clinical. I can clump these into one since most of my learning experience came from one patient that I had both days. So Wednesday I meet my nurse and go in the room to meet my patient, she's 81, and I walk into the room and the nurse introduces me. She immediately gets super pissed and keeps saying "No student, I don't want a student, no students." Awesome, bring on the good day. The nurse basically tells her it will be fine, I promise her we will have a lovely day, and I leave the room thinking this day is going to completely suck. So I go in a few minutes later to get her vitals and do her assessment. I stay super polite. She is super rude. I try to make conversation. She looks like she hates me. I inadvertently make a joke and she actually smiles. I'm happy because maybe I can win her over. Then the doctors start coming in, and she is even more rude to them. Literally they walk in, she stares at them and says "What do you want." Then she insults them and tells them they don't know what they are doing essentially. Then she looks at me and winks, like now I am on her side. Boom. Now I'm winning with her. As the day goes on she continues to be rude to everyone that walks in the room but she keeps getting more open with me. She tells me about her son and her dog and her life when she was young. Don't get me wrong, this woman is absolutely still the boss and ordering me around like it's her job, but she is at least being nicer. She seems to hate me the least out of everyone that comes in her room so I take what I can get. I spent the whole day telling her that "She's the boss." Moral of the story, by the end of the day we are getting along pretty well and I'm feeling pretty good about myself for making it through my day and winning her over as much as I honestly feel anyone could have. So I go to tell her that I'm leaving and thank her for being a good sport she says "Oh, when are you coming back?" I tell her tomorrow morning. She says "Oh...are you going to be with me again tomorrow." I semi laugh and tell her "If you let me." She says "Yeah, I guess I'd like you back tomorrow." BOOM. I was really happy that she wanted me to come back and that she finally was feeling comfortable with me. So I was with her again all day Thursday (plus another patient, only three of us got to take 2 patients this week so I felt good there too). We talked a TON on Thursday and I spent lots of time in her room just chatting and helping her wash up, brush her hair and teeth, etc. It was a really great learning experience because it showed me that patients who may seem difficult may really just be anxious (she had a lot of anxiety) or frustrated and need someone to spend some time and listen to them. It was very eye opening and also gave me a lot of confidence in myself and my communication skills. I also felt good this week since I got complimented a few times by my instructor and also because she asked if I wanted two patients this week and only two other people got to have two patients. So it was a really good week of clinical for me. Next week I spend one day in the ICU and one day in the OR! Exciting for sure.

Friday I had my second LEI visit because I needed to get another one done and Tuesday and Friday this week both happened to work for us. Also my client is going on vacay next week so we needed to get these bad boys done. So yeah, busy, crazy, but GOOD WEEK. And I got a TON of homework done with weekend. At the risk of saying this too many times in one post- I. AM. WINNING.

150 days to go! (And other number related milestones)

For those of you who don't know, I'm mildly obsessed with countdowns. I have a countdown app on my phone now that is counting down until a variety of things, mostly KCON Pinning and Grand Valley Graduation. Pinning is August 6th and our actual "graduation" when we are done for good, and graduation for Grand Valley is April 30th (we have to walk because there is no commencement ceremony in August when we are really done). So yesterday marked 150 days to go until PINNING, when we are DONE WITH SCHOOL FOR GOOD! It's kind of a big deal because it means we only have 5 months to go. And tomorrow will be only 50 days until Grand Valley Graduation, where I get to rock the cap and gown and all that fun stuff. It's all happening really fast all of a sudden and I can't believe that in five months I will be done with nursing school and studying for the NCLEX and being a real nurse. Tomorrow is also when it will have been 100 days since I made my paper chain countdown! So when I get back to school at the end of Spring Break I will have to take an updated picture so everyone can see how much shorter it's gotten.

Moral of the story: I can't believe how time is flying now and that we are this close to being done with school! :)

Enjoy my funny picture of Elmo and the Count. Even they are excited to count down until August.

Saint Mary's: Round 2.

I apologize for my lack of blog entry last week (as in the week before last week) but it was because we didn't have clinical that week! The only thing we had last week was lab and theory on Monday and just theory (and our second paper due) on Tuesday. I started this paper on Monday, bringing my procrastinating to an all new level, so I hope it doesn't wind up biting me on the ass. I got a 94% on my last paper so I'm feeling pretty hopefully that I will be fine on this one. So all in all, it was a pretty low key week and then I was able to come home for a few days which was MUCH needed.

This past week then, we started our second rotation of clinical for this semester, which is another med-surg rotation. We were supposed to be on 3 Lacks, which is a brand new progressive care until for people over 65. Unfortunately, it didn't open when it was supposed to and now it isn't opening until March 28th. Big bummer. So for the first three weeks of our rotation we have to be on 6 South, which is a renal/GI/GU floor, so we are seeing a lot of kidney and liver failure patients, patients on dialysis, etc. It's an OLD floor. Like so old that they don't have showers in the rooms, you have to walk to community showers (freshman dorm style). They still have semi-private rooms with two people to a room, and old school pull down wall computers. It's definitely different than I'm used to since the last two floors I have been on have been BRAND NEW. I guess it's good to get to see something totally different. We do at least get a little room on this floor that we can kind of use as our "home base" to put our stuff and work on our paperwork and charting. My instructor is definitely more hardcore than the last few instructors I have had. Not that she's mean, she just expects a lot out of us. She warned us on the first day that if she comes to check meds with us and we aren't ready, she will just walk away and move on to the next person. I don't feel that stressed about it though because I pretty much know what I'm doing. Also there are three of us in my group that have an advantage because we have been at Saint Mary's before so we are super comfortable with their whole charting system. Definitely a bonus for us. Because we were more comfortable with the charting, the three of us were the only people who got to go meds this week. This was actually really great because we got a lot of one-on-one with the instructor since there was only three of us.

Wednesday we didn't do any patient care, we just did St. Mary's orientation, orientation to the unit and surgery orientation (we get to do one day in the operating room and one day in the Intensive Care Unit). So Thursday we got to get on the floor and start by taking just one patient until we get used to the floor and where everything is. My patient on Thursday was actually a really great one to start with for a few reasons. First of all he was SUPER nice and really a good sport about having a student, Second he was diabetic and needed a lot of blood sugars and insulin injections, which was something I don't have a lot of experience with and I got to learn a lot, and third because he had a TON of medications and IV piggybacks, so I got a lot more experience with that. It was actually a really good day, my instructor helped me out a lot, and I was able to learn a lot.

I think this rotation will be really good and I think I'm going to learn a ton from this instructor. I LOVE being back to having clinical from 630am-230pm, which I NEVER thought I would say, but compared to having clinical from 1-8pm, the morning clinical is awesome. I love being done and home by 3. I'm also really excited to be able to spend another day in surgery, and get to spend a day in the ICU. Next week is just a regular week on the floor for me and then the next week is my surgery/ICU week. Then *fingers crossed* the new unit opens and we will MOVE!

LAST WEEK OF PEDS!

This as the title obviously implies, this was my last week of my pediatrics rotation. It's been a weird 6-weeks, with having to spend the first 2 weeks doing clinical at Mary Free Bed, then finally getting into the new hospital but only for 4 weeks. I really have enjoyed this rotation though, because if there is one thing I am comfortable with, it's KIDS. I know kids, I understand kids, I'm not afraid to just jump in and interact with kids, so this rotation was good for me. The only thing I'm not used to in this capacity is PARENTS. With adults, most of the time you are assessing your patient or taking vitals or giving meds, you are doing it alone in the room with just the patient. If someone is there at all, it is another adult 98% of the time, who isn't really concerned with what you are doing, if they are even paying attention at all to you. Parents are a whole different ballgame. Parents are hovering over their kids 24 hours a day like lion mothers. They want to know everything you are doing, who you are, why you are here, what you hear when you listen to their breathing, what they're temperature was, how much their diaper weighed, if they're blood pressure is normal. They are CRAZY, and they are enough to make anyone nervous, no matter how comfortable you are with kids. They can also be helpful though, because a lot of the parents are great and enjoy being able to teach students about their kids, especially if they have a child with a chronic condition. They also know their kids better than anyone else so i their child is having a meltdown, the parents know just what to do to help get them over it. So I guess moral of the story is that the parents can either help or hurt, but either way they are there, and they are a part of peds nursing that you just have to get used to.

This week I had a really awesome patient on Wednesday. He was 8 years old and autistic. I was a little leery of working with an autistic child because this isn't really something that I have any experience with, but I figured I could probably handle it. My instructor seemed to think this would be a good challenge for me and that I would be fine with it, so I figured I probably would be fine. I got on the unit RIGHT as the patient was being admitted from out of town. The nurse and a few residents were in there so I had to wait to get report and go in until my nurse came out of the room. The nurse filled me in and warned me that the mom was kind of "difficult" and she rolled her eyes at me. I was thinking "Wonderful, a tough kid and a difficult mom, gonna be a great day." The mom was AWESOME. The kid was AWESOME. The nurse and this mom obviously were just not compatible personalities because she warmed up to me instantly. I spent probably an hour in the room with them showing her how to work the tv, how to order meals, where she can put clothes, food that she brought, etc. She was great, and her son was a riot. Totally non-verbal but he still could definitely understand and show his emotions. I had so much fun working with them and I just really loved it. It just shows that you can't take to heart what someone says about a patient or a family because just because they don't get along with them doesn't mean that they are difficult or rude, it may just mean that you have a different personality than they do. So I am definitely learning so much about the real world of nursing from all of these clinical rotations.

Friday was our last day and we were only there unil 5ish, instead of until 8. I had only one patient and he wasn't a very involved kid. Only a few months old and his parents were living in the hospital and doing all of his care and feedings so there wasn't much for me to do. They were very nice though. This reminds me that the other thing I hate about working on a peds floor is that almost every kid is in isolation. They can be in either contact or droplet precautions, meaning if they are in contact you need to wear a gown and gloves ANYTIME you walk into the room, and if they are in droplet you have to wear a mask. Many of the kids are both, so you have to wear a gown, gloves and a mask anytime you go in the room. This is SUCH A HUGE PAIN. But it's just something you have to do to protect yourself and the other patients that you are caring for.

So now we off to another med surg rotation at Saint Mary's. I loved my last rotation there so I am really excited to go back there for another 6 weeks :) I just hate switching rotations because it seems like just when you finally have everything figured out with charting, know where everything is, have the whole layout of the floor down, BOOM... we have to move again. But I'm glad to be one step closer to graduating, only 166 days left :)

PICU! (And pretty boring Friday)

Sorry for being a big slacker on my blog recently, so here we go! Last week we had our two days of clinical on Wednesday and Friday. On Wednesday I got to go to the PICU, which is the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit. This is a few floors up from the floor that we are on and it's a specialty floor for kids that need more involved care than they can get on the regular pediatric floors. Each person in my group got to pick either the NICU or PICU to go to for one day, and we mostly just go to observe. I had a great nurse that kind of took care of me and showed me and around the unit. She even walked around with me to try and find things for me to do and see, which was awesome because there are very few nurses that will go out of their way for a student like that. I got to watch her put in an NJ tube under fluoroscopy on a tiny baby, which just means putting a tube in from the nose to the intestines using what pretty much looks like an MRI machine. So that was something really cool that I got to be a part of and it was definitely the coolest thing I got to see. The picture for this post is of what it looked like when I watched them put the tube in. I also got to see a lot of kids that were on ventilators and watch the nurses do all of the care that goes along with that. There were also a few kids down in the PICU with different genetic disorders that I had never seen before, and there were a few kids with cancer. And I got to watch a lumbar puncture. Very cool. The unit wasn't really all that different from the regular floors, the kids just had more things that they needed done and they needed more one on one care, so each nurse has less patients than they would have on a regular floor. I could for sure see myself working in the PICU when I am a grown up. So all in all it was a REALLY cool experience and everyone was super nice on the unit. Good stuff.

Friday I was back on our regular unit and I ended up just having one patient because as I was getting on the unit to start my shift, my second patient got transferred to the PICU. So that was a bummer because then I had a pretty boring day. He was a cute little muffin though so it was okay. And I got to hang some more IV meds which is good because I've been getting to that a lot lately and I pretty much have it down. Unfortunately other than hanging two IV meds and flushing all of the lines, I really had nothing else to do other than vitals and my assessment, so it was a pretty slow and boring day. I was definitely wishing I had my second patient. But such is life. It's okay though because I'm starting to feel much more comfortable with a lot of the skills that we are doing all the time like hanging IV's and meds, working the IV pumps, flushing feeding tubes and drawing up meds into syringes. It's pretty cool to know how close we are to being real nurses. The only thing that is very frustrating about this rotation is that our instructor tends to get sidetracked easily and is always running late when we need her to give meds, or she is just impossible to find altogether. It's very annoying when you are supposed to give a med at 5:00 and at 6 you still have no idea where she is and once you do find her it takes another 3 reminders to finally get her to come with you to do it. Usually I just end up asking my nurse to do things with me because it's MUCH easier and then I don't throw all the meds for the next entire day by being late. Plus the nurses are (mostly) all very nice and willing to help as long as you are nice to them and actually doing something. So that has been working out pretty well for me and it keeps me from getting super irritated at the instructor.

Moral of the story: I really like this clinical and I'm bummed that it's almost over! (But I am VERY ready to be off of 1-8 clinical and back to 7am-3pm, which is what my next rotation is) This has definitely confirmed for me that Pediatrics is where I want to be :)

Finally in peds :)

So although technically my pediatric rotation started in the first week of class, we JUST finally got into the new Helen Devos Children's Hospital last week. The new hospital open 1-11-11 (Cute, right?) and it is the most expensive building in Grand Rapids, ringing in at a final cost of just under $300 million dollars. The hospital has eleven floors and more than 40 different specialties all housed in it. It's absolutely unbelievable. I am putting a link below this of a little 5 minute video clip that gives you an inside look at the hospital because my explanation of it just doesn't do it justice. During our tour our entire group just walked around like little kids looking around in complete awe of everything in the hospital. Even just the little things like having all private rooms, having thermometers and vitals machines in each room, and having separate rooms on each floor for procedures, playrooms, therapy, etc. We are so lucky to be able to have clinical there. For real. It's amazing.

Watch the video! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDy5a4Mxk8Y

The only thing I hate about this clinical is that it's Wednesday and Friday from 1-8pm. Clinical until 8pm on a Friday is not exactly my idea of a good time. Other than that though, it's going really well. Wednesday we took a tour for about an hour, then we got assigned our first patient. My first patient was a little boy and he was ADORABLE. His mom was with him and she was really great. We spent a lot of him just chatting and I walked around the floor with him and his parents so he could get out of her room. I love when whole families are nice and make me feel really welcome. I saw them on Friday also and went in and played with him for a little while as they were getting ready to head home. Friday I had a tiny baby as my patient. Her family wasn't the nicest, but they weren't mean either. They just seemed to generally want to get out of the hospital. I did spend a little time chatting with them when I was in there. I got to hold and feed the baby while they were gone and give her a bath so that was really fun, I miss taking care of babies since OB/Labor and Delivery was FOREVER ago. All in all, it was a really good week. The nurses were really nice, which I was really worried about because we were warned that the nurses in peds were not very nice to students. As it turns out though I've had great nurses and hopefully that streak will continue on Friday. We had a SNOW DAY today so I didn't have clinical!

So in general, as it turns out, I still love kids. Who knew right? I may have kept stealing other students patients on Friday just to hang out with and hold them. Luckily half my group doesn't really like kids :)