Found a Home

Today I had one of those pivotal moments in nursing school, the one where you know you have found the field you are meant to work in.... home so to speak. Today I won the "lotto." The prize was an extra opportunity to spend the clinical day in the ER.

I always thought I would want to spend my life working in emergency medicine, but with nothing to gauge it there was no way to be sure if I would even enjoy working in that field. I LOVED IT! I don't know if it was the diversity of the patients or the fact that not one patient had the same complaint or really what it was, but I was drawn in. I know one day I will end up working in that department.

In the seven hours I was on the floor there were patients aged between 3 and 92. There was everything between common cold symptoms, to EMS arrivals, to someone calmly being pushed in a wheelchair because he had a nail shot through the leg. There was hardly and down time; of course that helps the day fly by. In the long run, it is that diversity that will help prevent complacency.

Today I also had the chance to start an IV on a living person. Got it the first time! Unlike my lab mannequin experience this one didn't bleed all over. Nor did he scream or cuss at me like I imagined would happen. He was quite surprised to find out that was my first IV attempt.

For all the complaining I have done about the drive to the hospital, I take it all back. The location is great, the staff is even better. So much so I am considering putting in an application! Yes, the drive still sucks (well the waking up earlier sucks) but at least it scenic. I just need to come up with a constructive use of the 1 1/2 hour total drive time and all will be perfect.

Best quote ever

Today a classmate said the best thing I have heard in awhile, "after tomorrows class we only have 13 more classes!"

To sum it up nicely:
13 Classes
13 Case Studies
7 Weekly quizzes
3 Unit Exams
1 HESI Exam
and of course the Final

Seems like tons to do, but as the course instructor said today there is a light at the end of the tunnel.

Clinicals this time around are going to drive me crazy, we were assigned to a location by the school. For the most part, up to this point we have had some choice about where we are going or they at least allowed us to swap if there is someone that was willing to trade hospitals. This time we don't have the opportunity to swap.

Guess I am ultimately complaining because I am heading to a small medical center about an hour from my house; that is without traffic. Uggg, that means LEAVING the house at 0540 at the latest! Also puts me back in the house at nearly 1700. Okay done complaining. For the bright side, some of the rotations will be cool: ICU, ASU, PACU, ER and hanging out with the case manager for a day. A lot will be learned with these really sick patients.

Alright, suppose I should look over the notes from today's lecture...first quiz is tomorrow.