Week 10: Eating and Breathing Nursing

There were plenty of times this week that I was able to lol and :). However, only 6 more weeks remain and stress is beginning to take hold of everybody.  Time is precious as we are beginning the homestretch.  Unfortunately, I'll be devoting more time to school(but I love writing this blog and I'll continue to make time for this).  I don't think I'll have time to celebrate my birthday on the 15th - we have an exam on the 16th :(.



GWC Nursing students are definitely eating and breathing nursing right now.  Why I can't just enjoy my meals at Panera? Why do my books have to be out? Why do I need to make an effort to get some studying done at lunchtime.  It definitely does help having nursing students around you to keep focused (since my classmates were talking about woman issues and I clearly could not give any input).

In lieu of a typical lecture about the Gastrointestinal System, our instructors wanted us to practice our critical thinking skills and using SBAR.  The N100 instructors role played, and the N100 students laughed (and of course critical thinked).  If you didn't know, SBAR (short for Situation, Background, Assessment, Recommendation) is a communication technique that allows nurses to give vital and concise information to a healthcare professional about something thats going wrong with a patient.  So if a nurse calls a doctor, the nurse shouldn't just say "I think theirs something wrong with the patient".  SBAR helps the nurse tell the physician details about the patient, so that the physician can hopefully give an order to the nurse that will help fix whatever is wrong with the patient.  Interesting right?

Tuesday was a stressful day because of the exam.  The exams are not easy and it requires you to really think about what is the best thing to do.  The questions are tricky as sometimes one word in the question can change exactly what you should pick as your answer.  It would be great to just go home after lecture, but I have to head to work and teach my extremely talented students (because I'm an extremely gifted teacher - hahahaha).  I was drained by 8PM that night.  Thankfully, I went to Ten Ten Seafood Restaurant in Artesia for their 9:30PM special.  It was special and helped bring the stress level down.  Look it at, doesn't it look amazing?

We are required to have a certain number of lab hours in order to get the RN license.   I think I put in about 3 hours on Wednesday, but I didn't spend all my time in the skills lab.  I spent some of my time in the computer lab (which is connected to the skills lab) studying.  A two computer setup is far superior to a one computer setup.  This way you can facebook, blog, and study at the same time! (I was studious though.  Look at the computer screens, all school stuff).  I also like the fact that their are window in which you can see into the skills lab.  You can wave hi to people!

Big change this week at clinicals.  For the first five weeks are clinicals, I was on one side of the floor. Week 10 marked the switch to the other side.  Let me tell you, the vibe is completely different.  I really enjoyed being able to go into the break room, sit down, and get offered to eat some pancit in a cup and with a spoon!

After a hard day at clinicals in which Nurse Edwyn dealt with so many issues (that really happened), Chipotle was a great way to recover.  It's not Alertos quality, but I thoroughly enjoyed my burrito.

Last time on Being Nurse Edwyn, Nurse Edwyn was about to start clinicals, but he had to rush back to his car in hopes of finding his stethoscope.


(Disclaimer:  What's written below is an exaggeration of the truth. I'm making the story more dramatic.  The excitement probably did not happened!)

0646-0740

• 0646:  "It has to be in the trunk", I thought in my head.  I open the trunk, its not there!  I slam my trunk closed.  As I'm putting my head down and begin to shake my head in disbelief, a miracle happens.  My stethoscope was at my feet.  Thank the Lord!
• 0700:  With sweat dripping off my forehead, I look to the board and realize that I got the "nice" nurse today.  My morning just got twenty times better :).
• 0701:  "Crap, they started the change of shift report already" (F.Y.I:  the change of shift report is when the outgoing nurse give the incoming nurse info about the patient so that the incoming nurse can continue that plan of care).
• 0725:  I walk towards Room XYZ where my patient was sleeping soundly.  "Hello John Doeman!  My name is Nurse Edwyn and I'm an RN nursing student from Golden West College.  I'll be helping out with your regular nurse today.  How are you feeling this morning?"
• 0726:  I listen to patient talk while I'm thinking about what I want for lunch today.
• 0727:  "That good to hear you're feeling better.  I'll be right back to check your vitals and do a quick assessment on you."
• 0730:  "Where the f*** is the vital signs machine."
• 0735:  Finally I found a vital signs machine, time to check my patient vitals.
• 0740:  "Code Blue, Room XYZ.  Code Blue, Room XYZ. Code Blue, Room XYZ" I hear over the PA.  I rush back to my patients room, worried that I did something wrong.

Nurse Edwyn just seems to find himself in a compromised situation.  What do you think should happen next?  Stay tuned for another installment of Being Nurse Edwyn (Based on a True Story - of a completely uneventful day).