BINGO!

As I said at the end of my last post, I had my second exam on Monday. I really didn't study at all the entire weekend before the exam because I went home on Wednesday because I didn't have clinical. So I was freaking out, and only studied the day of the exam for about 5 hours with some friends from my class. As it turns out, the multiple choice Gods were on my side on Monday because I ended up getting a 94%. Awesome. That totally made my day. Even though I was "that guy" that everyone hated because I did that well without studying...

Tuesday I had my second LEI visit with my elderly client, which went well. Then I had theory and we talked about mood disorders like depression, bipolar, and suicide. It was pretty interesting since a lot of the residents at Ferguson have these issues.

As usual, the most exciting part of my week is clinical, which was Wednesday and Thursday. Wednesday was fairly uneventful. We hadn't been there the week before, some of the residents were really excited to see us and were eager to hang out. Another student and I walked with one of the residents to get coffee in the morning, then came back and played cards and hung out. In the afternoon I went for another walk with a resident to the grocery store. At the end of the day I worked at the "Lucky Bucks" store in the apartment building. This store has necessities like toilet paper, paper towel, soap, shampoo, combs, razors, towels, sheets, etc. The residents earn "lucky bucks" by having good room inspections, helping with chores, volunteering with projects, etc. They can then use this money to buy the things that they need. It was very interesting to see how excited the residents are to get into the store and see if there are any new things (sometimes they get things donated), and how happy they are to just get the necessities that they need.

Thursday was a really fun day. In the morning I learned how to play dominoes, which is surprisingly harder than I had previously thought. The guys that were teaching us were SUPER into dominoes and were really funny about teaching us. It was a lot of fun learning though, and by the end I was beating all of them :) It's hard to win sometimes though because some of the residents take these games very seriously and don't take it well when they lose. We also played BINGO on Thursday with the residents, which was also an experience. We had probably 15 or 20 residents that came to play, so we were happy about that. A few of the girls had gone out that morning to buy BINGO prizes for the games. They bought things like gloves, hats, toilet paper, soap, deodorant, body wash and more. So then we started playing BINGO, and with each person that won, there were 10 other people that got upset about it. We heard every reason under the sun that they were losing. We were rigging the game, we wanted them to lose, we were playing favorites, the balls weren't mixed up, people were cheating, they had unlucky cards... you get the point. Paranoid schizophrenics are not the greatest BINGO players, but they all still enjoyed it and had a good time. We all had a good time also, and it made the day go by really quickly. All in all a pretty good week! Just busy since this week I also babysat 4 days and worked at the Children's Center! Looking forward to the weekend! :)

Half way!!

So as the title implies, this week marked being half way done with not only the semester but also exactly half way done with the NURSING PROGRAM! The program is five semesters long and we are currently 2.5 semesters into it. I can't believe how fast it's going and it's so nice to think that we are kind of in the downhill half of it now :)

This week was only a two-day week for me because my group started clinical last week while everyone else had the week off, so we got this week off instead! Monday we had a skills practice day in lab for the entire three hours to practice for our final test-out that was on Tuesday. The test-out was over either NG tube insertion (a nasogastric tube that is inserted through the nose into the stomach for decompression/suction or feeding) or central line dressing change (easier than NG tube insertion BUT has to be a sterile procedure which is harder). We had to be ready for either of the tests and the instructor picked which one we had to do. I really hate this nerve-racking-don't-know-what-you-are-going-to-have-to-do test-out crap. That being said, I did the central line dressing change and everything went fine, and I passed. The picture is of all of the things that are found in the kit for the dressing change. Bonus: Tuesday was our last day of lab for the semester, and now I only have theory class on Mondays and Tuesdays, which is awesome because I can sleep in :) BOOM.

The bad news is that we have our second theory exam on Monday and I have ZERO motivation to study for it. Blah.

Ferguson Fun :)

I apologize for the three cheesy rhyming titles in a row, I'm not sure where these are coming from. None the less, this week was my first week of my new clinical: Mental health. Going into this rotation I was NOT excited about it. I already had the idea that mental health was definitely not in my options of things that I would ever want to do. So I admit I had a negative attitude about starting this clinical. Also we are in an apartment building that doesn't have any nurses, so I wasn't seeing how nursing was going to fit into this place. I had heard that the majority of this rotation was just talking to residents, playing cards and hanging out, which sounded like fun but I didn't think I was going to get anything out of it. I also was feeling very nervous about talking with the residents, since most of them do have a mental illness. After three days I have a totally different opinion of this clinical and the things that I am going to learn from it.

First I guess i'll give a little overview of my clinical site. Ferguson Apartments is a building with 101 single-resident apartments. The building used to be a hotel until it went out of business and was purchased to be used as a place for the homeless to live. There is a whole lot of interesting history of how the apartments came to be, but I will spare you the details. In order to live at Ferguson the residents have to have a disability (either physically or mentally) and be otherwise homeless. The majority of the residents there, probably 75%, have mental disabilities, and even many of those with physical disabilities also have some kind of mental problems. So on Wednesday we met our clinical instructor and got an introduction to Ferguson and all of our assignments, started learning about some mental illnesses, and other fun things. Then we went out and met some of the residents. We sat in their big conference room and played cards, games, riddles, etc, and just talked with them. It was uncomfortable at first, but as the day went on and we started getting to know them it got better. It was very "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" because it was raining and we were in this big room with a skylight, while residents were wandering in the lobby, some having conversations with themselves.

Thursday we went on a scavenger hunt around the neighborhood near Ferguson to find resources that the residents can use. Some of the places were Good Will, soup kitchens, missions, shelters, grocery stores, the library and more. One of the residents came with us to show us around. It was awesome to see all of the resources that are available for those who are homeless, struggling with drugs and alcohol, or just need help. A couple of us took a tour around Mel Trotter, which is a shelter and program for people with drug and alcohol problems. They can house up to 180 men each night. It's an incredible place and it was amazing to see all of the things that they do. Later in the day we took another walk, with a resident who took us around downtown and told us about his life being in and out of jail, losing his family, and ultimately ending up homeless on the streets of Grand Rapids and how he ended up in Ferguson. It was so interesting to hear him talk about all that he has been through and how happy he was to have a home. We went to see the Fishladder, which is something I will probably take anyone who comes to visit me to see. Also the walk made me realize how absolutely beautiful Grand Rapids is. We also took the picture of us in the giant button :)

Friday we went bowling with the residents! We took the bus to the bowling alley and bowled a few games with them. There were I think 7 residents that came with us. It was so much fun to spend time with them. We had two students and two residents on each lane so we got to really get to know the people that we were on a lane with. Most of the residents that we are spending time we with have schizophrenia and many of them have a variety of issues that go along with that. But I'll tell you, they are changing so many of the stereotypes that I have about mentally ill people, and I now have no doubt that I will probably learn more here than I ever thought I would.

So long Saint Mary's

Yesterday was our last day at the Lack's Cancer Center at Saint Mary's Hospital. We just got to take a half day and only one patient for the day, then we all went out to lunch together to celebrate the end of our rotation. I really enjoyed my time at Lack's. The nurses there were absolutely amazing. They were so helpful and so willing to teach us. They really made it a wonderful experience. I also really loved my clinical group this semester. There were four people in this clinical that I was close with from my NUR 315 lab and a few people that I didn't know at all. But we all had a good time together over the past 6 weeks. (Please see the cheesy pics).

I can't believe that the first six weeks of the semester are already gone. This semester is absolutely flying by faster than I think any other semester has. Next week I already jump right back into clinical and start my mental health rotation. I am at Ferugson Apartments, which is an apartment building/home from people with mental disabilities. I don't know a whole lot about it, but I will update once I know more. I start there on Wednesday and will be there from 8-4 on Wednesdays and Thursdays. It will be super great to sleep in until 6:30 or 7 in the mornings :)

Since I didn't have clinical today I volunteered at a flu vaccine clinic in Allendale. There were 12 students there and we have over 200 flu shots! The shots were free to faculty/staff and their dependents, spouses, etc, so a lot of people came. I feel much better about giving injections though, since I gave probably 30 of them today. It was pretty cool though, I liked talking with people and I actually like giving the shots. Is it weird that I think it's fun? Probably yes.

Surgery Shenanigans

As part of our rotation at Saint Mary's we get to spend two days in the operating room. This is awesome because Spectrum Health (The health care system that dominates the entire city of Grand Rapids) students aren't allowed to go into the operating room at all, so being at St. Mary's was a huge plus for us. For one of the days we are assigned to a specific operating room nurse. The nurse stays with one surgeon in one OR and we stay with them for the whole day and see all of the surgeries that they do. The other day we are assigned to a specific patient and we follow them from the pre-op area, into surgery and int the recovery after. This is a really great opportunity for us to not only see a couple different surgeries, but it is also a great way for us to see the many different roles that nurses have in the surgical process.

My first day was Wednesday and I was assigned to a nurse that I stayed with for the whole day. The operating room I was in was a neurological surgeon and he was doing three different lumbar (low back) surgeries during the time I was going to be in the room. I got to get changed into my sweet surgical attire, scrubs, mask, hair cover, etc, and then I got to find my nurse and start following her around. We went out to the Pre-op holding area and checked all of the paperwork and met the patient and the patient's family. After asking and answering some questions we brought the patient down to the OR. In the OR the anesthesiologist was waiting to put the patient to sleep, but I won't go into the mundane details of surgery. Basically, surgery was awesome. The surgeon, physician's assistant and surgical tech were all really great. Surgery is basically like a party. There is an IPod playing and everyone rocks out while they are doing surgery. It's epic. Everyone in the OR was really great and explained what they were doing and let me see what what was going on. They were also testing my knowledge of who sang all of the songs on the IPOD. AND I got to throw in my favorite Lady Gaga joke (How do you wake up Lady Gaga? Poke her face). It's funny, I know. I had SO much fun in surgery and I really did get to learn so much about the actual surgery as well as how the OR works and what the nurse does in the operating room. After Wednesday I was sold on possibly being a surgical nurse, but I wasn't really sure that I actually liked surgery or whether I just liked the fun, laid back atmosphere that there was in the room I was in on that one day.

Thursday was my follow through day where I was assigned to one patient for the whole day. I met my patient in the operating room and was with the pre-op nurse when she went in and talked with the patient and family. I also got to to meet the anesthesiologist and went with him to give some medications to the patient. I met the surgical nurse and then stuck with her when she met the patient and brought her down to surgery. She had an anterior cervical fusion with allograft and plating, which basically means they removed the disks between two of her vertebra on the front side of the neck. One they are removed they replace the disks with cadaver bone and then secure them with plating. This day in surgery was not fun at all. The surgeon was much older and not really friendly at all, I couldn't see anything, and none of the nurses were really super nice to me or willing to tell me much. The surgical tech was the only person who really was explaining what was going on. But basically I just sat on a stool for about three hours without seeing anything. And it was freezing. After surgery I went with the patient to the PACU (Post Anesthesia Care Unit). Patients go here to come out of the anesthetic before they go up to their room. PACU was kind of cool just because I had never seen it before, and watching people come out from the anesthesia is pretty funny.

Overall though, after the second day in surgery I realized that it wasn't really something that I loved. While I had fun with it, I think that I really just don't love surgery enough to want to do it. Also, one of my favorite things about nursing is the interaction that I get to have with patients and the relationships that I get to build. Obviously in surgery you don't really have any patient interaction, and I could never handle that. It was a great week and and amazing learning experience though!