HEY EVERYONE!
I can officially say my days at BC Children’s Hospital are going by fast. For those who know me, I like to be on time for anything and everything. I HATE tardiness... and so does my clinical instructor. Last night I decided to carpool with a girl in my group. This meant I’d be picking her up on my way as well as leaving the house a little earlier than planned. For me, this was no big deal... at least I’d have someone to socialize with and wake me up! It was a nice little visit! Anyways, I figured I’d give those of you who want to know... the rundown of my long day!
0030: Woke up to horrible stomach aches and cramps. Rushed to bathroom where I spend 15-20 minutes feeling like I was about to upchuck everything I had for dinner. I then contemplated calling in sick... but decided to go back to bed and sleep it out (this is what happens when your nerves take hold of you – clinical stresses me out BIG time).
0345: First alarm goes off (decided I was feeling better and decided to go to clinical
0400: Second alarm goes off (not yet ready to get out of bed)
0405: Somehow I manage to roll out of bed (literally). I then walked to the bathroom where I washed my face and brushed my teeth (attempting to wake myself up)
0440: Finished getting ready (changing, hair, grabbing lunch etc).
0450: Walked out the front door and jumped into my green pea (car)
0510: Arrived at my friends house. While waiting I began to day dream about being back at home, tucked in my warm bed.... fast asleep.
0540: Arrived at Children’s Hospital (sat in the Lobby while waiting for a couple other girls to show up)
0600: Went upstairs to 3M and put all our stuff in our lockers.
0615: Met on the floor (on time) and got our patient/family assignments.
0620-0705: Looked through our patient’s charts, familiarizing ourselves with the history and their care plan.
0710-0730: Listened to morning report while standing in a squishy office with 20+ others.... definitely was getting hot in there.
0745-1750: Went and did first assessment with my RN. We did the head to toe assessment; making sure all the body parts were there (no joke....... ok... maybe just a little joke), but we assessed all the systems (CV, RESP, GI, GU, SENSORY, MUSCLE etc) and did some vital signs. My patient was the cutest little button I have ever seen. He’s 8 month old who was on respiratory isolation. This entitled me to gown up and put a mask on every time I went into the room; preventing the spread of his virus. His diagnosis was RSV Bronchiolitis and boy did it sound wet. He was coughing up a little storm with a snotty nose while little tears trickling down his cheek. For the first bit of the morning, he wasn’t too happy... was really having a hard time breathing. We did a lot of suctioning in his nose (got a TON of goo out of it) – that was really cool and I also go to play with him for a bit. During the course of the day, I was required to do hourly checks; which meant that I was keeping a close eye on his respirations, heart rate, oxygen saturations etc. This is required for all patients on the unit. With kids, you have to understand that their status can change at any minute, hense the hourly checks. Every 4 hours, I’d complete a full vital assessment (Blood pressure, O2 sat, resp, heart rate, temp etc). During the breaks in between I found myself charting, listening in on doctor rounds, researching medications etc. I didn’t get my first break till after 1230. I was hungry by that time, seeing I never had breakfast! I gobbled down my lunch and was back on the ward in a giffy. We had a speaker come in to talk to us about the spiritual health program they have at the hospital and resources available to families of all religious backgrounds. I was so interested and found this rather appealing. With the last few hours on the ward, we all finished calculating our kids Ins and Outputs and did last minute documentation. In our post conference we went through some medication calculations (seeing we never did medications today – for we’d do that next week). When we finally all said goodbye I felt like my whole body ached. As my friend and I walked out to the car, I was ready to pass out on the lobby floor and sleep for a couple hours. Fortunately it was raining out and I froze while walking to my car. I swear my bones felt like they were turning into icicles.
1800: The drive home was hilarious. My friend and I had some good talks. She’s going to Africa this May (with the travel study I did two years ago) so I told her some of my funny stories... (for example... How to pick up a parasite – cause I did it!). Not only that but as I neared her house, she was explaining something to me about nursing but when she said it... it came out as “NURTHING” ... oh man, we howled the rest of the way to her house. We were so tired at that time we couldn’t stop laughing. I finally arrived back home around 1855 and had some wonderful dinner. Since then I’ve played it cool! I’m thinking I might hit the hay pretty early. Not going to lie, I’m definitely on the verge of passing out right now!
Anyways, I wanted to fill you all in on my wonderful day! I hope you all had a great Friday and have a even better weekend! 0345: First alarm goes off (decided I was feeling better and decided to go to clinical
0400: Second alarm goes off (not yet ready to get out of bed)
0405: Somehow I manage to roll out of bed (literally). I then walked to the bathroom where I washed my face and brushed my teeth (attempting to wake myself up)
0440: Finished getting ready (changing, hair, grabbing lunch etc).
0450: Walked out the front door and jumped into my green pea (car)
0510: Arrived at my friends house. While waiting I began to day dream about being back at home, tucked in my warm bed.... fast asleep.
0540: Arrived at Children’s Hospital (sat in the Lobby while waiting for a couple other girls to show up)
0600: Went upstairs to 3M and put all our stuff in our lockers.
0615: Met on the floor (on time) and got our patient/family assignments.
0620-0705: Looked through our patient’s charts, familiarizing ourselves with the history and their care plan.
0710-0730: Listened to morning report while standing in a squishy office with 20+ others.... definitely was getting hot in there.
0745-1750: Went and did first assessment with my RN. We did the head to toe assessment; making sure all the body parts were there (no joke....... ok... maybe just a little joke), but we assessed all the systems (CV, RESP, GI, GU, SENSORY, MUSCLE etc) and did some vital signs. My patient was the cutest little button I have ever seen. He’s 8 month old who was on respiratory isolation. This entitled me to gown up and put a mask on every time I went into the room; preventing the spread of his virus. His diagnosis was RSV Bronchiolitis and boy did it sound wet. He was coughing up a little storm with a snotty nose while little tears trickling down his cheek. For the first bit of the morning, he wasn’t too happy... was really having a hard time breathing. We did a lot of suctioning in his nose (got a TON of goo out of it) – that was really cool and I also go to play with him for a bit. During the course of the day, I was required to do hourly checks; which meant that I was keeping a close eye on his respirations, heart rate, oxygen saturations etc. This is required for all patients on the unit. With kids, you have to understand that their status can change at any minute, hense the hourly checks. Every 4 hours, I’d complete a full vital assessment (Blood pressure, O2 sat, resp, heart rate, temp etc). During the breaks in between I found myself charting, listening in on doctor rounds, researching medications etc. I didn’t get my first break till after 1230. I was hungry by that time, seeing I never had breakfast! I gobbled down my lunch and was back on the ward in a giffy. We had a speaker come in to talk to us about the spiritual health program they have at the hospital and resources available to families of all religious backgrounds. I was so interested and found this rather appealing. With the last few hours on the ward, we all finished calculating our kids Ins and Outputs and did last minute documentation. In our post conference we went through some medication calculations (seeing we never did medications today – for we’d do that next week). When we finally all said goodbye I felt like my whole body ached. As my friend and I walked out to the car, I was ready to pass out on the lobby floor and sleep for a couple hours. Fortunately it was raining out and I froze while walking to my car. I swear my bones felt like they were turning into icicles.
1800: The drive home was hilarious. My friend and I had some good talks. She’s going to Africa this May (with the travel study I did two years ago) so I told her some of my funny stories... (for example... How to pick up a parasite – cause I did it!). Not only that but as I neared her house, she was explaining something to me about nursing but when she said it... it came out as “NURTHING” ... oh man, we howled the rest of the way to her house. We were so tired at that time we couldn’t stop laughing. I finally arrived back home around 1855 and had some wonderful dinner. Since then I’ve played it cool! I’m thinking I might hit the hay pretty early. Not going to lie, I’m definitely on the verge of passing out right now!
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| Children's Ward in Zambia |
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