Home Stretch

My first semester is rapidly coming to a close. I had two exams today. Next week I have an exam, a clinical competency exam, and a paper due. The following week, another exam. The week after that, three exams and a presentation. The week after that, three final exams. There really isn't going to be much time to breathe between now and then. Just writing this made me really nervous. Until I looked at the calendar, I hadn't really realized what a tight squeeze all of this is going to be.

Just because...my grandmother...

Cock update

Well, don't YOU have a dirty mind. Pig!

I just wanted to update you on my rooster friend. He is still with us. It has been a few months now and I am frequently awakened by his lame and asthmatic sounding "cock-a-doodle-do" in the morning. He sounds like he's drowning when he's doing it. It's pathetic.

But just in case you were wondering, he's still with us. Here's a picture for those of you who didn't get to see him the first time around.

Nursing Tip 001

We'll start with something simple.

Issue:
Nose Bleed

Real Name:
Epistaxis

Etiology (What causes it?):
Blood vessel injury resulting in localized bleeding. Can be caused by dry air, dehydration, irritations from allergens, irritation from rubbing

Effective Interventions:
Apply pressure to bridge of nose. Also apply cold compress to bridge of nose. Both of these measures cause vasoconstriction, which is a constricting of the blood vessels of the nose, which will help to slow and eventually stop bleeding.

DO NOT:
Throw your head back!! BAD!!! The blood could rush to the throat and cause choking.

++++++++++++++

Additional comments from the student nurse:
Did you ever hear the story of how in the middle of a concert, (I believe it was all-district band in high school), I was playing my clarinet (shut up!) and my nose started bleeding profusely. I was looking at my music...playing a little clarinet section solo within the piece, and all of a sudden there was blood pouring down the silver parts of my clarinet and down my hands, onto my chair. I nearly threw up from the sight of the blood. I had to get up in the middle of the piece, clanking chairs, and music stands, stumbling over people to get off the stage so I could stop the hemorrhaging.

True story. You can't make this stuff up. Too bad I didn't have a piece of ice with me at the time.

New Feature - Weekly Nursing Tips!

Starting today, my loyal readers will be given a short useful weekly nursing tip every Friday. I am not a doctor, so please don't contact me for treatment of anything beyond these simple measures. For those treatments, please see my mother, as she is both an honorary lawyer and MD. (Inside joke...a few people will get it.)

Home Furnishing Tip #1

What's on your mind???

Today was brain day in A&P lab. We dissected sheep brains so we could physically see the component brain structures that we’ve been learning about in Anatomy & Physiology lectures. The sheep brain is about the size of your fist. It was pretty cool. My brain was a bit damaged (Go figure!), so I wasn’t able to see all of the structures involved, but overall I think I would make a good surgeon. Maybe medical school and neurosurgery are next.

I’m not sure where the time went since the last update. School has been truly insane. So far, I’m doing pretty well. A&P requires the most time and I can literally clock 40-50 hours in preparing for a single exam. It is being taught on the doctoral level, and from what I’m hearing from classmates and my instructors, does not compare at all to your garden variety undergraduate A&P. In fact, several of my classmates have been let go from the program because they couldn’t keep up in this class. I really enjoy it, but it’s intense.

Clinical is going well. I had my first experience with patient vomit (or “womit”, as he said), yesterday. The bad news was that he (56-year-old practically blind diabetic cancer patient) threw up all over me; my arms, my hands, covered. This was after, mind you, I had just completed showering him. The good news is that I didn’t get sick in response. I had been worrying about what that first experience with puke was going to be like for me. It turned out fine. It wasn’t until 4 hours later that I started to get the dry heaves, while I was on my way home on the subway thinking about it. Gross. (Why am I doing this?)

I’ll leave you with that. More frequent updates are promised. Enjoy the pictures, and as always, you can click on them for the larger versions.

"Was that disgusting, or what?" - Nuala

This place sucks...

"I can't wait for Thursday's shocking new update." - Nuala

Full update coming!!

In the meantime, here's a pumpkin.

Progress Report

I am doing pretty well so far, but the workload is more than I ever imagined. There is at least one exam per week. (There are two this week.)

Anatomy & Physiology is taking up a lot of my time. I spend 12-15 hours per week studying it. I have my first lab test tomorrow; I was up until 3:00 this morning studying, and then studied all day today. (And I still don’t feel prepared!)Tomorrow’s exam is identification and discussion of different cell types and body tissues. There are 25 stations, and you move from station to station. In some cases, there will be microscopes out, and you will have to identify the cell/tissue, discuss its function, and where in the body it can be found. There are so many different variations that all look identical. I’m in a bit of a panic over this one.

Otherwise, I’ve been doing pretty well so far. I had a big A&P unit exam last week that I got an A- on, and my first Nursing exam this week, on which I got an A. I have also had a weekly Nursing Lab quiz, and have gotten 10 out of 10 possible points on all three of them. So, not too bad, but tomorrow’s exam is going to be a killer. I’ll post an update when I get my grade.

Did you know?

Did you know that the average person has 2.5 million sweat glands? TRUE!! They are spread all over the body, with the exception of the nipples, lips, and external genitalia.

Food for thought! Here's a picture for you to help you envision:

P.S.

Before anybody gets TOO choked up and actually starts thinking I have feelings, let me say that one of my classmates had a 66 year old man that got a cosmetic penile implant and she had to talk to him while his exposed and tremendous (primarily from swelling) penis was staring at her. We all got a good laugh out of her plight.

And don't feel bad for the guy. I read his chart and it was completely cosmetic. He just wasn't happy with what he had, apparently. I wish him well.

Patient #1

Today was my first day on the unit at the hospital. I took care of my first patient, and she lived to tell!

This semester, I will be spending every Wednesday morning from 7:45am - 12:15pm working as a student nurse on the post-operative med-surg unit at Beth Israel Medical Center. I will be exposed to all kinds of patients, so this is a really good introduction to the clinicial environment.

My first patient was a 55 year old female that had an unsuccessful angioplasty, followed by an aortic bypass, and now has pnuemonia while recovering from all of that. When I get the assignment in my group's pre-conference, I was a bit stunned. I was really hoping for, I don't know...skinned knee, bad headache, something like that. No, instead I got a woman who is literally stitched together.

Well, after nearly throwing up, I walked into her room and introduced myself. I explained that I am a student nurse, and that I was going to be available for her to try to help her in whatever ways I could for the morning. I then told her that I don't know enough to hurt her, so she shouldn't worry. That got a good laugh out of her, and it broke the ice.

She was terrific. I did temperature, pulse, respirations, and blood pressure on her. I helped her out of bed and into a chair, cleaned her room, etc. She talked to me about her medical situation, how she misses her job, and how she really hopes to get back to work eventually.

When I left for the day at around noon, I returned to the room to thank her for being my first patient. I told her that I will never forget her, as she was very kind and accommodating to being poked and prodded by a student with only 4 weeks of nursing school under his belt. She told me that it was her pleasure, and that she enjoyed having a private nurse for the morning. She then wished me the very best of luck and shook my hand.

I don't think it could have gone any smoother than that. What a great day.

Just like living on a farm...

I awoke this morning to find a rooster in my backyard. Mabye my neighbor and his French wife are planning coq au vin for dinner?

Academics, so far

So, I figured I would describe a little about what classes I'm taking this semester, and a bit about how they're going, what is being studied etc. I guess you could say I'm enjoying all of the classes on some level, but I'm not thrilled with what I perceive as a lack of organization at times with some of the instructors.

Anatomy & Physiology
The bulk of my time this semester is being spent on Anatomy & Physiology I. This class is wild. The workload is unbelievable, but I love the information. The focus so far has been on Chemistry (Biochemical stuff, primarily) and an indepth understanding of the cell, cell membranes, molecular transport into and out of cells, genetic code, protein synthesis, etc...stuff like that. It's been nearly 20 years since I touched any of this stuff in high school, and I can't stop wishing I had paid more attention back then. I have my first major exam on Monday. A "pretest" earlier this week gave us a hint of what's to come, and I got 10 out of 10 on that, so that was a bit comforting for a few minutes, until the teacher was proud to tell us that if we had gotten a single one of these 10 wrong, we were doing something extremely wrong, and not to expect such "gimme" kind of questions on Monday's real test. Oh well, ego back in check. The instructor is AMAZING. I really love her.

Nursing 101
As the name implies, this is really an "Intro to Nursing" course. So far we have been focusing on ethics issues, standards, legal implications, the nursing process, etc. Big picture stuff, none of which has yet involved learning about patient care per se. It's more about setting up the framework. It's interesting, to a degree. I think this class will be better when we actually start learning about real nursing "stuff."

Nursing Lab
This is the skills lab section that we have each week, where we learn actual techniques that we'll be using during our clinical rotations at Beth Israel Hospital. (Starts tomorrow morning at 7:45, in fact.) Things like blood pressure, respirations, temperature, radial pulses, bed bathing (yuck), etc. I really like my clinical instructor. There are four, and I think I got the pick of the litter. She's terrific...smart and demanding, but very laid back, in a way. There is a weekly exam, testing us on the previous week's skills.

Developmental Psychology
This is a psychology course that is taught by a Pace University instructor at our location. I have to say, this is probably my least enjoyable subject matter, but the actual class time itself isn't too bad. I find the teacher very interesting....an older woman from the Netherlands who married a Korean while studying here many years ago at NYU. Her last name is Van Der Groot-Kim. Go figure. Anyway, you can't help but like her. She's got a peculiar and charming way about her.

Math for Medications
This is a course that is all about exactly what the name implies...how to figure out proper dosages of medications, and how to properly fill doctors' orders. I actually got lucky with this class and became eligible to take a CD-enhanced version of this course. What does that mean? In a nutshell, I don't have to show up for class anymore, other than for the midterm and the final. I can do all the work on my own at home with electronic resources the instructor has provided.

So, that's a brief summary, in case anyone was wondering 'What does someone actually study in nursing school?" I'll check back soon!

CPR

I'm sure you'll all be happy to know that I completed my 8 hour training and am officially certified for the next two years. I will remember nothing of this by Monday.

Oh Boy...

Just typing this quick update from school. Had my first Anatomy & Physiology lecture today. We covered in 3 hours what took a week to cover during the Chemistry immersion program over the summer. All I can say is thank GOD I took that summer session. There was a look of absolute horror on the faces of many of the students in the classroom who hadn't taken it.

I've been here since 8:00 this morning and will be here until 9:30 tonight because of a mandatory CPR class I have to take tonight and tomorrow night. All I remember from CPR 15 years ago was that you have to yell out "I'm certified! Get help!"

Should be a blast.

U.S. Open Finals

Well, I couldn’t really have been any more disappointed than I am with the outcomes of the finals. Pierce lost to Clijsters, and Agassi lost in a heartbreaking match to Federer today. I expected Agassi to just completely crumble and be humiliated in straight sets. That was certainly not the actual outcome. He lost the first set, won the second set, and lost the third set in a crushing tie break. That tie break caused the ultimate breakdwon in the fourth set, leaving Federer with $1.1 million and Agassi with a silver plate. (Yes, he got half a million for his time today, but that just wasn’t the point!)

You just can’t help but like the guy, and I think it’s his class and the manner in which he conducts himself both on and off the court.

As far as Pierce is concerned, that was an easy two set annihilation for Clijsters. It was over in about 45 minutes, I think. Pierce just completely buckled. But what I witnessed when the players met at the net was unlike anything I had ever before seen happen at that potentially awkward and contentious moment. Pierce and Clijsters hugged, kissed, and then Pierce whispered something rather lengthy into Clijster’s ear, which prompted Clijster’s face to erupt with this huge smile. And then when speaking to the crowd, Pierce kept it simple and humble...”Kim, you’re just too good. You deserve this.”

Question: Can you IMAGINE either of those Williams animals demonstrating even 5% of this level of sportsmanship and class? I am thankful that they are slowly but surely disappearing into the abyss. Nobody takes them seriously anymore. Tennis is slowly but surely being de-ghettoed.

A Day at the U.S. Open

Chris invited me to the U.S. Open today for the Womens’ Singles Semi-Finals. First match was Mary Pierce and Elena Dementieva, which Pierce won in the third set. She is one freaky chick, but you can’t help but like her. She’s loaded with all these weird ticks and OCD-ish type behaviors, especially before a serve; rubbing her skirt, touching her wrists, fixing her huge Rapunzelish braid, etc. It must be a bit annoying to play her. And she always has this strange smile on her face...it almost looks chemically-induced...like a “haze” of some sort. It was fun to see her in person. You just really end up rooting for her.

The next match was Maria Sharapova and Kim Clijsters. I really didn’t know who I wanted in this match. I kind of like them both, but neither one of them enough to make a clear cut decision. In the end, I decided to go with Clijsters; Sharapova has been a very successful media whore already, and has made a fortune in the process. I decided Kim needs the money more. And as it turned out, she shall have it. She won the first set somewhat easily, and then played a really contentious second set that ended wtih a tiebreak that Sharapova won. But she came back in the third set, and pretty much blew Sharapova off the court. There was great playing by both players. It was awesome.

I have some pictures below; two of Pierce, and two of Sharapova in action. Thanks, Chris! It was an awesome day. Especially what we got to see in one of the side courts. :) But that will remain between us, and we can discuss that further when we get to hell.

Classes have begun!

Classes started yesterday. I had my first Nursing Lab section, which was pretty cool. We learned proper sterile gloving techniques and proper handwashing. Nothing too terribly difficult, but you’d be surprised at how hard it can be to do something so “basic” when you are being observed by an instructor. I also met my Clinical instructor. She is the professor with whom I will be working at Beth Israel hospital during my clinicals every Wednesday. I found out that my first rotation will be in a post-opp surgical unit, so that should be interesting. ;

Also yesterday was Developmental Psychology, which I think is going to be a complete and total nighmare. 3 papers, 3 exams, and a group project, all within 12 weeks.

Today was a 7 hour Introduction to Nursing lecture. 7 hours. S-E-V-E-N H-O-U-R-S. Started at 7:45 this morning. The classroom had no air conditioning and it was packed. I thought I was going to die. In the future, half the day on Wednesdays will be on the unit at the hospital, so it shouldn’t be that tedious. I ended up having to give a presentation already today. I represented my clinical group and presented a case study that we had been working on for a while in the afternoon. It was scary, but I enjoyed it.

And after all of that, I ended up having to go to work, but that actually was fun. I was looking forward to it in a strange way, now that I’m not there full time anymore.

Up tomorrow, my first session of Anatomy & Physiology Lab. I’m looking forward to that a lot. I’ve heard that the instructor is brutally difficult, but excellent, and that the course is fantastic. I think this is going to be the part that will interest me most this semester.

More on the people I’ve met next time. I’ve made some great friends; some really funny and smart people that I think are going to make great study partners.

I promise more frequent entries going forward!