Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Nursing School Greatest Hits


I was going to entitle this Sunshine, Lollipops and Rainbows and Everything because I need a little too much happiness around here. I have two more weeks of school left before I finish my second level

(and, no, people tell me that you don't count the week you are currently enmeshed in EVEN if it is Monday (and it isn't Monday it's Tuesday), so this week counts even less. And you don't count finals week. Finals week is like a couple of hours of tests and lots and lots of procrastinating flecked w/ some studying, so, that really doesn't count either. Heck, I'm just going w/ the program here, folks I didn't make these rules.)

I've been such a grouch and I'm so sick and tired of nursing school and all that it means to be a student nurse so I've decided to talk about my favorite things from nursing school. Then I can say (in a I'm-Talking-Myself-Off-A-Ledge sorta way): "See, it's not *all* bad! Cheer up, li'l student nurse. Dust off those crappy care plans, buck that daily lack o' respect, forget your feeble skills and failing confidence and lookee here..."

1. How about those psych ward burritos? Not too bad for psych ward burritos. Every Monday night in my first rotation this year we - my adolescent psych ward buddy and I - got to serve and eat burritos w/ our anorexic and/or psychotic patients. Yum!

2. My peri-op instructor. The most patient instructor in the world. I would never, ever want to be an OR nurse, but it was my one of my favorite clinical rotations because of the instructor. And I loved doing a day in ICU during this rotation. I, pretty much, have never done so many skills in one shift AND my patient, in multiple organ failure and looking really grim (um, yeah, hard not to w/ multiple organ failure) survived to kidney punch one of my fellow students later in the week.

3. My geriatric rotation. Loved telemetry. How reassuring to see those P waves. How lovely when the QRS complexes march out so neatly. How gripping when they don't! How many PVCs do they allow around here, people?! And loved the patients with all of their pathologies and stories. One of my patients had had St Vitus' Dance when she was a kid. Who gets St Vitus' Dance these days? It was just rewarding on so many levels most of the time.

4. My night in Hem-Onc during pediatrics. My pt, a teenager, had a below-knee amputation (BKA) d/t (oh, sorry, the nurse-ese creeps in: that's "due to") cancer and hadn't left his room in a month. I got him down to the special "teen area" and asked him, "Oh, how many times have you been here." and he: "Not often. Uh, never. Uh, this is my first time." He made a t-shirt for his mom, painted it with glitter paint. It was beautiful and careful and I helped hold the stencil and he was proud of it. And then we went around the unit, he in his wheelchair. I decided to make him famous. I introduced him to everyone I knew: pretty much every nursing student and most of the nurses, some of them high-fiving the kid and everyone jovial and happy to see him. By our third time around the unit he was waving like a celebrity and grinning.

5. In L and D my instructor was hoping I'd see a c-section on my last day there. She sent me to a delivery room of a patient who'd been at 10 cm and pushing for the entire night, sure she'd be "sectioned". Half an hour later the patient delivered a little boy vaginally, occiput posterior (that's sunnyside up, or face up to my non-nurse-like readers...a tough way to deliver), while I held a warm cloth at her perineum. Half an hour later I was in the hallway with my nurse and there was a "code stork" announcement. That means someone is about to give birth in the ED or in some non-L and D area. I ran with two nurses to the ED, missed the pt who was screaming in the elevator on her way up to the unit. No one had any idea who this woman was and twenty minutes later, with me holding her leg, she delivered a little girl... occiput posterior! The midwife (same one for the previous delivery) was amazed. Two in a row in under an hour, both sunnyside up!

6. My current clinical group. I'm sick of nursing school, I'm sick of everyone. I'm grumpy as anything and, yet, they're just fabulous! We did a group project together and it went so smoothly and no one cried and we got good reviews and a good grade plus there was a funny video! World's. Loveliest. People.

7. And, finally, TWO WEEKS LEFT.

(those are some of my spring freesias. My garden is having an in-between moment right now (read: my neighbors hate me) eh heh heh. Wait'll I get my hands on those weeds. And how long are we waiting? Yep. TWO WEEKS!!!

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Nice to hear some of the good things that you did this year and to know that nursing school wasn't all bad. It's hard to believe that we only have two more weeks left. Yay, we survived Level II! Great job on your presentation.

Molly said...

Thanks Marlene. I forgot to mention doing the flower arrangements w/ you for our holiday shindig as one of my favorite things!

Kitt said...

Hang in there!

"No one cried" could be a good epitaph for a lot of endeavors.

Molly said...

Thanks Kitt!

Yep. That's my new standard: things went well if no one cried.

Anonymous said...

1% awesomeness and 99% "other"....sounds like nursing school.

Molly said...

Yes. "Other" about covers that 99%. It's a 3 day weekend here, so I'd say the awesomeness part may even be 5%.

But I'd still leave the other at 99%...

Anonymous said...

Molly, you continue to encourage me - just finished the first year of two and, truth be told, can't believe "I'm still standing... yeah, yeah, yeah!" And L&D or Med Surg, you'll be a wonderful nurse with your sense of humor - keep your options open.

Are you graduating at this point or still more to go? Will have you in mind as I help usher the pinning ceremony next weekend! Keep yer chin up, lil buckeroo :) One week to go for you!
~Danielle

Molly said...

Thanks Danielle!

I have 2 more quarters starting in the fall. I do my preceptorship and a quarter in community health.

Congrats on getting through the first year!