At least I know anatomy.....
This conversation somehow brought back memories of the knee surgery I had in high school. I had to have my pes anserine bursa removed from my right knee thanks to my baseball and skateboarding days. While the nurses were preparing me for surgery, one of them said to me, "Which side of your leg is your bursa on, the front or the back? We need to know how to position you for the surgery."
Starting to shake now, I told them it was on the front. "Ha! Told you," the one nurse said to the other. At this point in time, I did not know much about how hospitals worked. I thought that these nurses would be assisting in my surgery; I did not realize that they were just there to get me ready to go in. So right before I was wheeled into the OR, I was given the impression that they had no idea what exactly they were removing from my body! This could help explain the panic attack I had when waking up from the surgery. Still heavily sedated, I felt the pulse oximetry device on my finger. Terrified, I started crying that the surgeon had operating on my finger instead of my knee. Thanks Pittsburgh, Seattle for bringing back this awful memory!Mature people
Ok, I'll bite. "Why is that?" I asked. "That way they would know that you hang out with mature people," he confidently replied. About a second later, a rock song came on the radio. I looked over at him out of the corner of my eye and saw that he was playing air guitar and banging his head to the song....It's the little things
Lesson of the day: If you get lost in Northern Dallas, do not try to find your way back by keeping track of CVS Pharmacies. I made that mistake today- I thought I was going in circles because I kept seeing a CVS Pharmacy on the corner, but I actually traveled pretty far across town (in the wrong direction, of course)!
The first interview...
WHAT?! She said it so casually that I almost didn't catch it. I got the job? It's only been an hour and there are still three people to interview!? I guess they liked me! Just thought I'd share the news, now I need to get back to my happy dance.Thanks for all your encouragement and tips guys!
Food?!
And yes, they both did eat again. Could this be why Isis's belly swings back and forth when she runs and Skitz weighs as much as a small dog? Hmm... time to hit the kitty gym.
Edit: Isis is very upset that I mentioned her belly fat because her boyfriend Manny might be reading. So I take that back, Isis's belly does not swing back and forth when she runs. It just sways a little bit.
Seriously?!
I answered my phone this morning and heard, "Hi Katie, this is bla bla bla, the dean of your nursing school." Why is the dean of my school calling? Within a second, I had all sorts of possible reasons floating through my mind- she was calling to congratulate me on having my site featured on MSN, she was calling to say they missed me at graduation, or maybe even to personally thank me for all of my suggestions throughout my year at her school. Unfortunately, I was wrong. Four days after graduation, the dean was calling to inform me that there is a problem with my transcripts, and that they will not be able to release them for me to take my licensing exam. Yes, four days AFTER graduation they realized this error. My first thought was, “Danielle, this is not funny!” But I remembered that Danielle was in orientation at her new job and could not be calling to play a practical joke on me. I checked the number on my phone and realized that it was definitely someone from my school calling. I sat there quietly for a second, then asked, "I don't mean to be rude, but ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!" No, she was not kidding. My morning was spent making frantic phone calls and faxes to fix their error. My mom came to my rescue and drove all over town to hand deliver the transcripts my school had misplaced. And all of this craziness was just a few hours before my "Personality interview." Ironically, one of the questions during the interview was, "Do you respect authority figures?" Yes, when they are competent! Don't worry, I didn't say that. I know that in any profession I might have to deal with unorganized management, so I guess my school has prepared me for the real world. I just wish they didn’t repeat this same lesson over and over again for their students!
Interviews
The problem I have with job interviews is that I never seem to know when to stop talking. The interviewer will ask a simple question, and I will respond with a simple answer. I will stop, smile at the interviewer, and we will sit there in an uncomfortable silence. Why isn't she responding or asking me another question? I better keep talking! Unfortunately, this is when I get myself into trouble. I have nothing to say but to fill the awkward silence, I talk. One of my "silence fillers" at my first job interview a few years ago was, "I don't know if that's what you wanted me to say." What?! Where did that come from? That's what I was thinking, but it was not supposed to be said out loud. Great, now she really thinks I'm an idiot. I better say something else so she knows I'm not. So I said "Sooo........" Uh, the word "so" without anything behind it is not the astounding comment I was planning on making. And of course, while I was going through the agony of not being able to look intelligent, the interviewer just sat there smiling, letting me dig my own hole. I studied psychology, I know the way to handle this- I should sit there and be comfortable in the silence just like she is doing. But why does my mouth not agree with me!? I have a phone interview later on today. Maybe I should just answer the question and then cover the speaker on the phone so my wonderful additions will not be heard?
A note to nursing students
The first day of nursing school. How can those six words cause so much fear, panic, and excitement in the hearts of nursing students everywhere? I will never forget my first day of orientation. I sat there looking around at the seventy-four other students in the room and thought, “They all look so…. confident. Why can’t I be more like them?” They were relaxed and talking to one another, while I sat there praying that I wouldn’t provide the first example of “Dealing with a Code Vomit.” After a few introductions, they brought in a man from the testing center to give us tips on being Accelerated Nursing students. One of the first things he said was, “If you are the type of student who relies on flashcards, you will not make it in this program.” Hmm… where’s the nearest exit door?! I left that first day in tears, convinced that I would never return. We were assigned a few hundred pages to read for our first day of class, so I spent the entire weekend reading, taking notes, crying, and trying to convince myself to quit. With the support of my close friends and family, I decided to stick with it for at least two months and then quit if I still wanted to. Every two months I renewed this little contract with myself, until finally there weren’t two months left. Now that I am finished with nursing school, I am extremely thankful that I stuck it out. I’ll be honest, it was not easy. There were days where I was completely convinced that I had lost my mind. Other days I thought everyone around me had lost theirs. Looking back now, it is probably safe to say that I was right in both instances. ;) I now know that I was definitely not the only one nervous that first day. We all were. Some of us were just better at hiding it than others. Every one of us felt lost or alone at some point throughout our program. So if you are a student nurse and you feel like you are the only one who just “doesn’t get it,” trust me, you are not by yourself! Find some classmates you can get along with and be there for each other. Their support will get you through it.
One of my always-present fears as a student was that I was going to embarrass myself. Unfortunately, this fear became a reality far too often. After a few months I grew accustomed to looking like an idiot and found the strength to laugh at myself. Finding the ability to laugh at yourself is crucial to surviving nursing school. You are not going to be perfect no matter how hard you try! You can read about a procedure over & over in your books or practice with mannequins, but once you are working with real people, things don’t go as planned. Your quick stop in the room to give a medication can turn into a huge ordeal if your patient has explosive diarrhea. Or you might be shaking so badly while giving your first shot that you don’t get the needle all the way in. Suppositories can be slippery and don’t always go where they are supposed to (now THAT is embarrassing!). Always try your best, but don’t beat up on yourself when the end result is not what you hoped for.
I recommend writing about your experiences in school. Any time I go back and read my old postings from my first clinicals, I get a great laugh (see October archives on the right side of my page). It also lets me see how far I have really come. If you need any encouragement or have questions along the way, leave me a comment in my guestbook (upper right corner of my site) and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can! Also, click on the links to PDA Programs or Pharmacology. And if you are a flashcard user, click here. These should help you with your nursing classes. And check out these blogs by other students in the medical field:
Nursing Students:DandDs Mommie Shelbe
Charis Tim
Mmmmkay4Now Nurse In Progress
Mom of 3 Student Nurse Gen-X-BSN student
It's Almost Heaven Jayleigh's Journal
Med Student:
The Future Dr. Cara
Radiology Tech students:
Dustin
Kristin
Good luck! Let me know how I can help you on your journey to become a nurse!
Katie, GN
Still no calls...
Just kidding, that's not my email address!I actually thought of the perfect way to get an ER job. I'll have Mike injure himself- we have the perfect staircase for that at our apartment- and then I can take him to the ER. Once there, I can wow all of the doctors and nurses with my vast knowledge, then ask them for a job. Foolproof, right?!
I have figured out why no one is calling me back for a job- in Dallas, most large hospital chains make Graduate Nurses enter an internship program. These programs are 8-14 weeks and teach all of the important information for the area you want to go into. I think this is a wonderful thing for hospitals to do- I could definitely use additional classes before being responsible for someone's life. However, I think that the hospitals should offer these internships when they are convenient to ME, not to the May and December graduates. If I want to work as a nurse, I will have to wait until January. Looks like I better start practicing saying, "Would you like fries with that" in the mirror...
Great first impression
I woke up this morning and got ready to finish my application. I had all of the necessary information in front of me, including the approval from all of my references. I opened my hotmail and saw an email from the hospital I was in the process of applying to. I opened the email expecting it to be a form letter thanking me for starting an application. I was wrong. It was a personalized letter from the human resources department letting me know that the application I had submitted was incomplete. I know it's incomplete, I haven't submitted it yet!! Apparently, I had submitted it, and now look like a complete idiot. Who would submit an application without a work history, education history, or any references?! I'm sure that's what they were thinking when they wrote "REJECT" at the top of my application.
This whole job search thing is not going as planned....Work experience
Now that the excitement of finishing school is over, I have to face the reality of finding a job. I know that there is a nursing shortage, but for some reason, that does not make finding a nursing job an easy task. Before I can turn in my resume, I need to make my work history look good. My first job after graduating was "Office Assistant." I started as a receptionist and moved up to stocking plastic spoons, coffee, and coffee cups. Yes, this is what my 4.0 GPA in psychology got me. :) How do I describe this on my resume though? At that job, people would get extremely upset if I stocked the coffee too low and they had to bend down to get a new bag- or they would come close to having a heart attack if the spoons ran out. Would it be too much of a stretch then to say that my Office Assistant job gave me experience in:
~ the ICU : the coffee I stocked could probably count for a few employees' life support
~ the ER : "Oh, no! We are out of coffee! Someone call Katie, STAT!"
~ Pediatrics : a few people acted like children when the hot chocolate would run out
~ Psych : I think everyone gets experience in this area from dealing with their coworkers
And I have two degrees?
Changes
On Monday, a Code Blue was called on one of the Med/Surg floors, so several of the ER staff responded to help. I followed them and was in the room watching and learning. Unfortunately, after over thirty minutes of CPR and medications, the man did not survive. The whole experience was nothing like I expected. No one was panicked or running around, it was actually a well-coordinated event, very similar to a business meeting. The doctor in charge would say, "I'm going to give ____ (drug), does everyone agree?" He might as well have been saying, "I think we should go with this contractor for our project.." At first I thought everyone was extremely cold- didn't they realize this was a man's life they were talking about?! But the more I watched, the more I realized that the only way to save a life in a situation like this is for everyone to stay calm, work together as a team, and do everything accurately. When I participate in my first Code, I hope I can play it off like I'm that calm too!
On Wednesday, I asked an elderly patient if he had any drug allergies, and he responded, "No, and I also want you to know that I am not allergic to cute young nurses like yourself either." Hmm.... Is that a call light in the next room? Gotta go!
Oh, did I mention that I am no longer a student nurse?! I haven't officially graduated- graduation isn't until the 19th, but I don't plan on going, so I am completely done! All that is left is the NCLEX (licensing exam) and I will be an official RN with a Bachelor's of Science in Nursing. I thought about changing the name of my site, since I am no longer a student, but too many people still find me by googling "Confessions of a student nurse."
Once I finished my Capstone hours, I packed up my car and left for Dallas. Although I have been looking forward to graduating and restarting my life with Mike, saying bye to my parents and friends for the second time was extremely hard. My mom is my best friend, and not being able to see her whenever I want breaks my heart. And I have been spoiled by having my dad, who is a doctor, around to help explain anything I don't understand.
On the way to Dallas, I drove by the hospital where we had our very first clinical. Seeing the building made me smile- the first time I saw it I was a scared student nurse, who had no idea what she was doing. Now I am a scared graduate nurse who still has no idea what she is doing. ;) I started thinking about those first few days of clinical, back when even walking into a patient's room was a scary task. My classmates and I went through a lot together- from dealing with our first patient dying before we even touched her to spending thirty minutes putting a diaper on an elderly woman BACKWARDS, we have been there for each other through the laughter and the tears. I will miss you guys.
Little Brat and Old Rascal
There is a long-term care facility in the same hospital as our ER. On occasion, the doctors will send an elderly patient down to the ER for some problem that they are having. Yesterday, Vicki and I had one of the long-term care patients. She was an elderly woman with severe dementia who wanted to be left alone. She was DNR (do not resuscitate) and had what seemed like chronic heart failure or pneumonia, so the doctors wanted to figure out what was going on. This meant that we had this lady for the majority of the day. Most elderly patients, even those with dementia, are easy to work with. This one wasn't. At first she seemed like a sweet old woman, until we tried to put the pulse oximeter on her finger. This is a painless little device that tells us a patient's oxygen saturation.
It looks harmless, right? Well, she did not want us to put it on her finger, so she called us a long list of words, the only ones I can repeat are "Little Brat" for me and "Old Rascal" for Vicky. She pinched Vicky's arm, took a swing at my face, and then grabbed the pulse oximeter and started using it as a whip to hit us. We both stood there in complete shock. Did that cute elderly woman really just attack us and call us those things?! Apparently she could tell what we were thinking, so just to clear up any possible confusion, she began repeating the insults and even added a few more to really make her point.
We went and reported to the doctor that she was being very combative with us. He didn't seem to care or believe us, and told us to go start her IV. We again entered her room and she held up the pulse oximeter to show us that yes, she did still have her weapon. We brought one of the techs in with us to help hold her arm in place, and after getting the whip from her, started preparing her for the IV. Within a few seconds she had hit Vicky and tried to pinch the tech, so I held both of her hands with my hands over her fingers, preventing her from pinching. Vicky was almost ready to start the IV when I suddenly felt this awful pain in the palm of my hand. She had managed to pinch me on my palm, and she was not letting go. She only had a little bit of skin and glove, but those pinches are the ones that hurt the most. I finally managed to get my hand away, but barely had time to look to see if she broke the skin when I saw that the whip was again flying through the air. She had officially won round one. I’ll spare you all the details, but she also won rounds two and three. Vicki finally figured out a solution: she brought the woman a soft teddy bear to cuddle with. The woman chose not to cuddle with the bear but to use it as a weapon instead. Being hit with a soft teddy bear is not painful, so we were able to take care of her without being injured. I wonder if the soft teddy bear trick will work with big angry patients who are detoxing too?
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