Monday, October 31, 2011

O..M..G..

So I can't believe it has taken me this long to post! I know that I say it a lot, but it has been even more crazy around here than the last post... I am going to try to start writing in at least once a week, and on Sunday nights after church. I haven't been getting as many views, and I know it is my fault because I am slacking :( But hey! I am almost up to 750 views! So keep them coming! Maybe this information will intrigue you to keep looking back :)

The last day I wrote about was when I first started at the VA. I can only say this...
...AMAZING... 

I love it here.

I need to organize this before I go jumping from Tuesdays to Sundays to previous Wednesdays to nights I can't remember... (this is why I promise that I will try to start writing every Sunday so there is less confusion... and also did you notice that I promised to TRY... ya... TRY.. not really a promise...)

Friday - Oct 14th - I officially started at the VA and DID STUFF!!! I followed a CNA around to introduce myself to the residents and get familiar with the way things worked around the facility. Everybody (well some of them) were really nice and easy to talk to. I introduced myself to my patient and he was the nicest man I have ever encountered, except my papabear of course! I strutted myself down those hallways all night.
P.S. We didn't have to go in until 1600 today, so I treated myself to some sun... a little too much sun..


Saturday and Sunday - 15th -16th - I had LOTS of homework, again... But all I did was stay at home and do homework. Then Saturday night I visited a friend who was playing guitar and singing at Crave by the millenia mall. So I treated myself to some sushi and edamame (mmmmmm). Then of course, nothing else to talk about except homework.. bleh... no colorful words for this paragraph...

Tuesday - 17th - We learned how to set up an IV tubing today! There a lot more nooks and crannies than I thought. This is one of our possible final skills check off (we pull one out of the hat right before we do the skill for the final and whatever one you pick is the skill you have to do... going to be a great finals week..). Well they teach you about it for an hour, which is how long it takes to run through once, and then send you on your way. Luckily we have a recording of it so we can watch it again, but man oh man...

Thursday - Oct 20th - Back at the VA to see my residents! First we had a patient safety handling demonstration/class. It was actually a lot of fun. The VA has a lot of really neat gadgets....



Moving Lauren from a bed to a chair. Go Lauren Go!!!
When we got to our area, I got to follow a nurse and help pass out medications. I gave my first shot to a REAL person!!! He said I have a nice and gentle touch. Shots shots shots shots shots shots shots shots... EVERYBODY!!!! I also realized that I have a pretty good memory. After going through all the residents once, I was able to remember how they liked their medications in vanilla or chocolate pudding or if they liked it with just water. I remembered who got shots, at what times, and all of their names. Pretty cool... My patient wasn't having a very good day. I heard some coughing coming from his room and checked on him. He was really red, slouched over, on the phone, and eating dinner! I yelled for the other nurse and we were able to set him up and do the Heimlich maneuver on him. It was pretty intense but he was OK. One of the patients I grew a great connection with. He was very friendly and seemed to yearn conversation. I didn't see any pictures of family and was interested in his story. I talked to him and found out he had the same name as my papabear! We started talking about a lot of random things. Since then, I have stopped by to see him even if I am just around the area. I ended up finding out that he was injured in a head on collision on his motorcycle. A girl ran a red light and she died instantly on impact. Her name was Katie. I almost cried my eyes out as he was telling this story. It is crazy sometimes how God leads you toward people.

Friday - Oct 21st - I GAVE MY FIRST STRAIGHT CATHETER TODAY!!!! And all I can say is... wow... Most of the girls where in the room with me watching. They clapped when I got it in and it started draining. I felt like I was on TV... nothing more exciting than that. I passed out more meds and strutted myself up and down hallways :)

Saturday - Oct 22nd - I did some community service today! Alex and I volunteered with our church and we helped clean up a lake over in Apopka. We removed invasive plants and planted around 2500 in their place. We ended up getting free pizzas for our time and free chik-fil-a. Go community service!!!

Sunday - Oct 23rd - Mommabear and Papabear came into town today! They took Alex and I to dinner at Mellow Mushroom, then they came back to my house for dessert... I made homemade key lime swirl cheesecake bars. Melt.. in... my... mouth..

Monday - Oct 24th - SNA meeting today! I brought up the possibility of hopefully putting together a Valentines Dance... Crossing our fingers and tapping our feet :)

Tuesday - Oct 25th - We learned about trach suctioning today! Oh man. Again.. another possible skills check off and only an hour worth of teaching and one run through... man oh man... 



Wednesday - Oct 26th - So at 730 we had a debate this morning that we had prepared for about a week. I only commented on this day because of this one point.. We were pro... and the other group was con... Well.. the other group thought they were pro. Total bust.....

Thursday - Oct 27th - We had to drive to campus to take pictures for our Florida Hospital ID badges today. That was it. It took me longer to get up the 6 flights on the elevator than it did to take the picture. Again.. total bust... Then we still had clinical. So back at the VA! We didn't do much today. We had a lot of work due, so we were mostly in the lobby doing that. We seriously gave more attention to the pet dog that they have there than the residents... I know that doesn't sound very great...
This is Paco

Friday - Oct 28th - Today Lauren and I went around the whole section and did Accuchecks (blood glucose finger pricks) By the end of the night, we were pros. Accuchecks Accuchecks Accuchecks Accuchecks Accuchecks Accuchecks Accuchecks Accuchecks Accuchecks EVERYBODY!!! Afterwards, Alex and I went downtown with some friends. It was a great night. We went to our friend, Derek's, apartment downtown after we left Wall Street. We were up until 600 (oh ya.. still using the military clock..) playing some games and singing songs at the top of our lungs on the balcony. I love that all of downtown Orlando was our audience. We stayed the night and took a long walk back to Alex's car in the morning holding hands ( I had to add the smushy ushy detail).

Saturday - Oct 29th - Alex and I had an amazing dinner with some friends from church, the Delaneys. We had some amazing chicken parmesan, strawberry spinach salad, and I made a reese's pie for dessert. Omnomnomnom.

Sunday - Oct 30th - The usual Sunday, church and homework... and here is my list.. Which btw.. I have realized from here on out is going to be next to hell... We have assignements that never end week after week on almost every day. And on finals week... we have SIX FINALS WITHIN THREE DAYS!!!
But back to this week:
Sunday - Two test were due today.
Monday - Journal and a nursing care plan are due
Tuesday - a SOAP note is due
Wednesday - a powerpoint presentation, and a professional practice paper are due
Thursday - something is probably due, but I do not know of it yet..
Friday - a short form and a head to toe assessment is due
Saturday - I can sleep..
Sunday - two quizzes are due again and the madness starts all over..
Yup.. this is how my next weeks are going to go, and it is just going to get worse until the end of finals. Heaven help me now...

Other than that! I am in a great place and I am doing amazing! I am so happy to be in nursing school and I'm pretty convinced that I was born to be a nurse. I can't wait for all of the action. If I am having this much stuff to write about.. I can't imagine how much stuff there will be when I actually have a CAREER!!! AHHHHHH!!!! I AM GROWING UP!!!

On a nursing high,
Katie

Friday, October 14, 2011

Catch up

I haven't posted in so long!!!!

It has been crazy hectic and I haven't been able to take a few seconds to type on here... But let me catch you up really quick...

So that Monday (3rd) I had a test in my health assessment class and I did pretty good!

Tuesday - 4th - During lab we did a lot of fun stuff actually. We learned about how to properly make a patients bed if they were in the bed or not. Then we got in a line and gave each other back rubs! It is recommended that we give patients back rubs (if they need it) for even one minute a day. So this was actually a fun relief :) Then Grace and I volunteered to brush teeth! Grace was the patient and I was the nurse and I had to help her brush her teeth. It was hilarious. We got a toothbrush and toothpaste afterwards for volunteering :) Afterwards I stayed for openlab to practice for our skills checkoff in a week.



Wednesday - 5th - After class Alex and I went to our friends house for dinner. When we were done with dinner I was able to do a DDST (one of my assignments from health assessment lab) on their child. He is extremely smart and the DDST shows the developmental status in a short explanation. I haven't written the report up yet, but he was a lot further in the chart doing things that a 4 year old starts doing, and he is less than a month from 3 years old.. Told you he was smart. Afterwards Alex and I went to our rockclimbing workout.

Thursday - 6th - NO CLASS TODAY!!!! So at 8AM I met these two guys from UF at the millenia mall. They were doing a survey about the (STUPID) flashing speed limit signs on I4 that change during rush hour? Well you just drive their car from conroy to maitland and back, and they pay you $50!!! It was the easiest cash I have ever made. Then, I met up with some friends from highscool, and we went to LEGOLAND!!! It isn't even opened yet, but Brittany got four free tickets from her work for a "VIP" day. Basically, in the middle of one o the rides, I realized we were pretty much test dummies and it made me uneasy : / But this place is pretty cool. We rode all of the four rides... we saw a water ski show, and also there is this little area that is made COMPLETELY of legos. It has every main city pretty much in the USA. Las Vegas was there, NASA, New York, San Francisco. Any place you can think of, it was pretty much made out of legos and put there. Some of these building were at LEAST 5 foot. It was a really fun day.




Friday - 7th - NO CLASS TODAY!!! I went over to Kimberly's house and we made study guides for all next week because next week is... DUN DUN DUN.. MIDTERMS!!!! I stayed the night with Alex tonight. In the morning he was laughing at me so hard because I was talking in my sleep. I held out my closed hand towards him, and said... , "Take this needle... take it to the sharps box... be careful! Take it to the sharps box... Take this needle... " And I just kept repeating it... he said I was doing it so much and for so long, that he seriously thought that I had something in my hand! I guess I studied a good amount for my skills checkoff for Tuesday...

Saturday - 8th - So I studied all morning and then went over to Ray's house downtown. A friend, Kirsten, from Ohio was in town for the weekend, so we were over there hanging out with them all day today. It was really crappy outside. It rained all day. Alex and I had tickets to go with Brittany and Alejandro to UCF's football game but we passed. So Kirsten, Ray, Alex, and I went to get some monster margaritas!! We had a really good Mexican lunch, then headed to one of Alex's friend's house. We played some beer pong a little bit, then went back downtown to Ray's place. We all got ready and took a GOLF CART CAB to Frankenstein's. It was pretty funny. In the cab, we were really hoping we got the cash cab. But of course we didn't. So everybody started just asking questions and we were answering them. Even the driver got involved. Funnest cab ride ever. Afterwards, we got invited to the penthouse at solaire. It was GORGEOUS. $10,000 a month for rent.... The view was amazing, and everything was so modern. It was a great time and the people were amazingly nice.

This was just the master closet..
I love you!!!

 The sink in the hallway bathroom!

Sunday - 9th - Stayed the night at Rays last night. Woke up and went home all day pretty much. I studied and studied for midterms then went to church. When I was taking Bradley outside, I finally was able to catch the kitten outside of my apartment! I have been trying to get her for a while. I saw her about a month ago with other little kittens and a mom. This past week and a half it has been just her. I've been bringing her food. She is extremely little and skinny and looking for attention. I tried to get her but I never could. She is soooo fast. But today, she just walked right out of the bush and just meowed at me. So I walked up to her and she let me pick her up!!! She is soooo cute!!! I met up with my parents so they could take her because they have a cat as well and have cat food and a litter box on hand. I got really attached to her just like she got really attached to me pretty fast. There is a little bit more of the story behind it, but it is kind of corny... so if you want to know it, then you can email me :)



She is so freaking cute...

Monday - 10th - ESSENTIALS MIDTERM!! AHHHHH, I think I did OK, but I still don't have my scores yet.... I also found a home for the kitty!!! One of the girls from my CNC took her. I'm so happy I found a home for her :) She was adorable with Bradley though. His nose was about as big as her body. And they were sitting on the floor doing this weird stare/tilting head contest. Then the little kitty put her paws up to paw at him, so Bradley barely touched her with his paw.. and she fell over.. It was cute.. but ill shut up now..

Tuesday - 11 - ESSENTIALS SKILLS CHECKOFF!!! Alex came over in the morning to help me study. Bradley was my patient on the couch. (When I had to check his wrist band for name and DOB, he would hand me his paw... so cute) So this is how it goes.. you get thirty minutes with a one on one instructor pretty much interrogating you and asking questions about why and what you are doing. You have to mix insulin, give a subq injection, draw a medication from an ampule, and give a intramuscular injection. It is pretty simple, but extremely nerve racking when an instructor is standing right there asking you all of these different types of questions like where are the IM sites? and what gauge are you using and why? My instructor asked me if a pirate came into the clinic and needed insulin, which would you give him? I had no idea.. and I thought he was being serious... I started thinking.. ok.. well... pirates probably eat a lot of fish and not very much any other meat.. maybe they are malnourished from being at sea... and I just start going off.. well he laughs at me... and he goes RRRRRRRR ( the options were R, or NPH)... DUH KATIE!!! He was great. He made me not so nervous and the best part... I PASSED!!!! I was so excited. Afterwards we went to health assessment lab where we learned about the cardiovascular assessment. It is fun doing these assessments lately because one of us has to volunteer to be the patient, so we actually get to see the real thing (I volunteered last week for respiratory, and Leah volunteered this week). I also got to play with a neonate stethoscope. This is what I want to do, is the NICU, so it was really neat....


Neonate Stethoscope

Wednesday - 12th - Uhhhh.. class at 7:30 for Role of the Professional Nurse. She told us to come prepared on the steps of solving an ethical dilemma. And then she gave us a pop quiz on something that we have never seen before. After class, we had ANOTHER MIDTERM in community class. I did good on this though! I got a B! I didn't even start studying until about an hour or so before the test, so I definitely did good... I was so excited to be done with midterms. So I went over to Alex's house with two bottles of wine to celebrate.

Thursday - 13th - TODAY!!! Our first day at the VA long term care unit! It is going to be amazing. And everything is so up to date and electronic. Some things are even by fingerprint... It is a really nice facility. We are on night shifts now. We got our computer access codes, badges ( I have two badges now! I'm starting to look professional ), computer class, and a tour. Tomorrow we get assigned our patient and start doing the fun stuff!! We can now adminster shots and medications. So I am excited to see our next steps :) :) :)

Midtermless,
Katie

Sunday, October 2, 2011

Falling.

So Friday was my last day in the community. I got a Satisfactory in the class. 1 class down, 7 classes to go this semester! Myself and three other girls gave teaching presentations about stranger safety and dental hygiene to 3-5 years old. They were really cute. We did 7 presentations in 2 hours. It was a lot of running around. One little kid, when we asked him what a stranger was, he said somebody that would come up to you and have a snake or an alligator in their mouth. That would definitely qualify as a stranger danger.....

 I look crazy don't I? I'm suppose to be the stranger danger. My outfit is definitely dangerous....

This is the dental presentation.
Afterwards since it was our last day with our instructor until our last year, we made her a picture and we all signed the picture and a card. She loved it.



She's a fairy godmother.

Then Saturday we had to sit in a Long Term Care Orientation class at school from 8:30 to 3:00. It was horrible. Very long and drawn out. It could have just been put into an email or a module online. Some of the things we are doing at the LTC is pretty intense: sponge baths, diapers. But the best part is we start giving injections!!! I'm pretty excited about that. And actually being in a clinical setting every week... that will be a relief.

As to the rest of the weekend = stressful. One word. I will tell you that I do feel like I am falling, and not stopping at any point lately, but definitely picking up speed.
Took a break from Studying,
Katie
No colors today. I am not in a colorful mood. I am in a studying mood.