The Long Week

oops. I wasn't able to do my post yesterday. I had my first clinical today and I had my first pharmacology test today and I had to wake up at 5:30 AM and somehow make it happen. The clinical was at a skilled nursing facility. Today we just followed around nurses and CNAs and tried to stay out of the way and help as much as possible. The first CNA we followed was not the friendliest person around. She mostly gave bed baths to patients (not one of whom was younger than 90) and checked blood pressures. My partner and I were cringing. She didn't use bath blankets on any of the women we saw her bathe. She squeezed a wet washcloth on the patients so the water splashed down on them in a startling way. She was rolling the patients over like they were slabs of beef. One woman (she was 104!) -when the CNA left the room - said, "She's a terrible teacher! Use your own discretion." I think I will pick her as my patient for next week so that I can give her a more gentle bath. I mean, she's 104. That's amazing. She shouldn't be rolled over like meat. The next CNA was very gentle with the patients. Introduced herself, touched them gently, chatted with them. I realized today that, hm, maybe I can do this. Maybe I will be a good nurse. I enjoyed talking to the people who were able to talk. It was exciting to try and find the pedal pulse (top of the foot) on a patient who had had knee surgery. She also let my partner and I test her for pitting edema (I'm a gal who knows how to have fun!). The elderly folks had such interesting bodies that were actually lovely in their own way.
The downside: well, I'm not that into making beds and we had to clean up a poopy bed. The nurse we attempted to follow was not thrilled to have a bunch of nursing students dressed like marshmallows (remember, we have to wear white from head to toe) hovering over her. And, it seemed like the nurses spent all morning scanning medications. We had our first pharmacology test afterwards so I was trying to read all of the labels and detect possible drug-drug interactions (The only one I came up with was Tums and ferrous sulfate).

The pharm test? I knew right off that I got the first question wrong. Pharmacotherapeutics isn't reeeally a word, is it? Um, apparently, but tell that to my spell checker. I did ok, somehow, but it was a squeak.