Endings and beginnings

So, last post was revision week.  I was stressed, worried and generally a mess.  So time to update!

Despite Miss M and myself getting every virus for 6 weeks straight, I passed with 2 distinctions and a high disctinction (translated: bloody fantastic).  I did a happy dance!

I’ve been on holidays for just over a month and it’s been quite awesome.

Semester two starts Monday morning, so more updates from then.  I’m hoping my life will be more than just uni this semester – it seems really shitty to think about 15 weeks focussed on one thing.urgh

(On a side note, yay for New Moon clips on youtube. Boys without shirts – squeee!)

revision week…

and damn facebook is so addictive, haha.

Anyway, I need to update about my week of woe.

The Friday after my last entry, I ended up vomiting all day. Fun times – in the car, vomiting into a bag with a screaming tired toddler.  Then on Monday, I had my final shift in the ortho ward.  I was assisting with a dressing, when I felt really hot all of a sudden.  I tried to concentrate on other things, but all of a sudden I could feel the floor rushing towards me and bolted out of the room.  It was so unprofessional – but it was leave or faint in front of the patient.  I apologised to my nurse and she sent me to lunch, and told me it was abnormally warm in there – she had to put the patient back to bed because he felt ill from the heat too.

By 2pm, I had an acheing throat and a rising temperature.  After running away from the ward secretary who was looking for me so she could start yelling at me again, I went home early to work on my assessment.  By 9pm, I had a 39.5 fever and felt like complete shit.  My throat was on fire!  By Tuesday, my mouth was full of blisters, my guns were red and bleeding and I felt like someone had slashed my mouth with razor blades.  From then until Sunday, I was on a diet that consisted of milk, soup and custard – even water was agonising.

So now I’m in revision week and need to study for the exam of death, that is next week.  Will write more then – need to concentrate!

and it’s week 12!

The end of semester is so close, yay!

So, this week.

Monday was an AM shift – my nurse was not normally on the ortho ward but it was a pretty awesome day (with 2 patients most of the day, 2 post-op after lunch).  Just the normal obs, bed making, sponge bathing.  Lunch was an hour long haha!  I was sent home at 2.15 because everything essential had been done.

So I went in Tuesday hoping it would be much the same – I was so wrong.  I woke up feeling like a cold was coming on which was not a good start.  I started off doing obs and teamed up with another student, which worked out well.  After our break, things just went rather crap.  Staff went to other wards, patients got a bit needier and time just seemed to stand still.  By lunch, the sniffles had well and truly set in and I felt horrendous.  I was eagerly looking forward to going home.  Just as I thought I could think of leaving, we were asked to assist with transferring a dependent patient from chair to bed, which was fine.  And then showering another patient – which took up 45 minutes after dressing changes.  I left at 3.15 feeling like death.

Today was OK – our last PBL for semester.  We met with our new tutor for our midwifery program and did our mastery of vital signs assessment (yay).  I have one more shift to do on the wards, then an assignment due next week, and then the biggest exam of my life – scary!  Hopefully I can manage it without freaking out too much.

first am shift

And it was kind of rubbish.

Why?

5am wake ups ARE VERY UNPLEASANT

Winter 5am wake ups are excruciating

(Hello, it’s dark outside.  It is not time to be awake yet!)

9 patients because of understaffing is so not cool.

Anyway, I got through it unscathed.  I assisted some patients with showers, made beds, did obs, fed one dependant patient (not one of mine, but students are handy for doing time consuming things like this) and did some care plans.  One of the long timers on the ward got discharged today.  I’ve cared for her 3 times so I went to say goodbye and she was in tears, the poor chicken.  She’s quite old and still quite ill – I hope she heals quickly, but her prognosis isn’t great.

Anyway, have to do more work and another 5am wake up. yuck.

evening shift, part 2.

Clinicals are over for the week, wahoo!  I was mentored by the same nurse for my second shift….we only had 3 patients.  One was completely dependent, 2 were partially.  I don’t know if it’s just this ward or in every hospital, but the older women are so much harder to look after. They complain and bitch about all the nurses, and are very fussy.  It’s OK when they have family with them (when they have family, they are a godsend to nursing staff when they can assist with toileting, feeding and fixing pillows), but once family have left, looking after 4 dependent post-ops is very time consuming.  Anyway, my preceptor left at 9pm, so I did as well – it was dead quiet.

I got my presentation results back – 14/14 so thats 19.5/20 for the PBL grades for NURS1002.  I wanted to dance around the room.  I’m presenting again next week so the pressure is on!  Feeling like shit today, need a nice long snooze….

evening shift, part 1.

Last night I had an evening shift.  I was very nervous after feeling like last week’s shift was a disaster.  Last night was OK though, lots of measuring fluids from catheters and blood pressure checks from post-op patients. We had 4 patients last nights with 3 who were completely dependent, which made us quite busy – we had no down time at all.  I still feel like a burden on the nursing staff (none were keen to have a student tagging along!)  but I am beginning to know my way around the ward and do things.

I had a chat to my lecturer about my struggles of study vs family.  She’s been through the same thing so it’s good to chat to someone who did survive.  It is hard on the children, but it will be worth it one day.  I really didn’t enjoy being a SAHM – at least with this career path there is a lot of variation from shift to shift.

Anyway, another evening shift tonight.  From 7pm drags – I keep looking at the clock willing it to be around 10.30 already. 

odd…

For some reason my published posts won’t publish until they are edited. Very strange.

week 9!

I can’t believe week 9 is done.  This semester has gone so fast.

Really though, this week I cracked it.  My shift in the new ward was not so good – everyone was telling me how great it was, but yeah, not for me!  Nursing older people just doesn’t enthrall me, at all – and there was so much to remember :/

My preceptor randomly disappeared for 3 hours and I was stressed out because I was worried about messing something up.  One of the nurses on shift (not my preceptor) was incredibely rude – not just to me, but also the other student nurse, like she was Queen Bee.  meh.

We only had 4 patients in our care, but they certainly kept us on our toes. lol.  One called us in every 2 minutes to complain, and another post-op patient kept trying to climb out of the bed to go to the toilet, despite being on complete bed rest with a catheter.  The end of the shift couldn’t come soon enough!

Wednesday, I was just tired and stressed and wanted to cry all day.  I was feeling very guilty about leaving my children in daycare all day and questioning my choice to be at uni.  I still feel bad, but trying to battle through it as the end is near.

And today we had another assignment to submit.  I made the mistake of drinking 2 V’s to finish it last night, without realising the consequences of caffeine and breastfeeding.  The children were awake all night.  It was a nightmare and lesson has been learned.  I think.

meh

So over it all right now….

week 8…

So this week indicated my final week in OPD.  I have mixed feelings – it was good experience but doing the same thing, for 8 hours gets tedious very quickly.  The hours were great – I am going to miss 8 – 4.30 for sure!

For the first time this week I got to do a BSL on a patient, it was cool.  First time I tried to take the twist top out of the lancet it flung halfway across the room – luckily my patient had a sense of humour!  Afterwards I took the nurses BSL to practise technique and it was fine ,and I was taught how to calibrate the machine.

I did really crappy on my first assignment.  It was the “average” mark, so not a fail, but I did want to do better.  The grader pretty much ripped it to shreds with her comments.  I had a cry to N, felt like I was doing the wrong thing doing nursing when my children need me so much more.  I still feel like rubbish, but I need to be more positive.

Oh, and lectures today featured Mr Montone – HAHAHA.  It was really hard to stay awake through that one!

Next week is only one shift – yay!  I start in my new area so am very scared – I’ve never sponged anyone or done a bedpan but these are post-surgery patients so there will be lots!  Hopefully I get a nice RN to work with.