Pharmacology….A
Pathophysiology…. A
Foundations of Clinical Practice II…. A
Women and Children…. A-
Medical Surgical Nursing/Adult….A-

I am just so happy to be done with it all this semester!! Now if I could just learn how to fix lawn mowers…

But, putting a patient with chronic, stage 4 kidney failure on 600 meds is probably not a good plan.

I am exaggerating a little, but my patient is on at least 20 medications right now. This person has CHF and chronic renal failure. Yeah, how are most drugs excreted? You guessed it, through the kidney. It just drives me bonkers that they put people on so much medication. Doctors don’t seem to want to take the time to check all the meds and they just keep giving more and more.

On a happy note, it is Friday and Penelope and I are going out tonight!! In all actuality, I am looking forward to starting my new clinical next Monday. I just like to complain about all the stupid shit that people do.

Keep this snow a melting!! I know, I’m a dork. I am just loving the sound of water rushing down the drain things outside!! I was so upset when we got all that snow on Friday. I was so sure it was over. At least it is making a quick exit

Yup, I am skipping school today. Of course, I have permission to for both classes. One professor posted lectures for the week online and my other professor gives us one free day. I decided to take it today instead of driving to MKE for one class. I’m already doing that on Thursday. It is cool though, going early will give me time to practice my IV skillz, yo!!

I hope everyone had a Happy Easter! I sure did Hope you ate lots of food and that the Easter Bunny was good to you!!

Back to school for me today. Wow, it was really nice having a week off!!

““Not everything that counts can be counted and not everything that can be counted counts.”

~Albert Einstein

As nursing students, we are tested to death! While I think they measure, to some extent, what we are learning, we don’t need to take 100 of them per semester. Where it really counts is delivering patient care. Granted, we have to understand the pathophysiology to understand the treatment, create a care plan, etc. It just seems like there is so much pressure placed upon us to be outstanding in the classroom when we all know that you don’t have to be a 4.0 student to be an outstanding nurse! Some of the smartest people in the program have either no personality or a shitty one.

On a happy note. I am finished with my long term care clinical and will start in acute care three weeks from today. We will be at a nice facility and hopefully have nice nurses showing us the ropes. Of course, I heard for the first time last semester that nurses eat their young. EEEKK! I hope that is not what I encounter in my clinical experience. I do have a great instructor though, so that makes it a pretty awesome experience.

I almost forgot, I got to help dress a wound today. It was a nasty bugger. I was sort of happy that I did not have to take the old dressing, etc off and clean it, but I was all good wrapping that bad boy up and assisting with the cleaning process. My other classmate got the privilege of cleaning the wound. Pretty sweet I tell ya. Our instructor seizes every opportunity for us which is more than I can say for a lot of other instructors!

Today we had a speaker come and talk about women who have experienced the loss of a child. Not all of these mothers got to bond with their children because they passed before they were delivered and some had a short time to bond before their babies passed. Not an easy topic to sit and talk about. Very sad, and quite a few of us were crying.

The content was amazing and really brought a lot of things into perspective for several of us students. Each and every day I realize more and more what kind of responsibility I have to my patients. Sometimes I’m scared and other times I could not be any happier. Being a nurse is a huge responsibility and a lot of times we make the experience what it is for a patient.

A patient’s perception of care is everything! I never want to be the nurse that made someone’s stay miserable or less than wonderful. As nurses, we are the patient’s advocate.

Okay, so it was more like food colored water.

We are learning how to install IV lines right now. (No, I would never say “install” to a patient, but it sounds kind of fun). Wow, what a challenge! I put on a gown to protect my clothes, but water is much thinner than blood and it went all over the place!! I had a major spurting issue at one point and it went right through my pretty little gown. I guess my arm was a good bleeder. Yup, we just have arms. There is a lot more to putting in an IV than I had ever imagined! I will be practicing a LOT in my spare time.

Also, I have to prepare a presentation for the 5th graders next week. I am speaking in my son’s classroom. He so lovingly volunteered his ol’ mom to talk about the human body. Should be a good time. I just afraid of boring them to death. Hmm?

Not much exciting happening here this week. They are still talking about Brett Favre on the radio. That hasn’t gotten hold…..riiiiiight.

Said the insane nursing student.

As nursing students, we are all pretty neurotic and I will admit that. However, some girls are extremely neurotic and maybe a tad on the psychotic end of the spectrum. Today in patho, our teacher asked if we wanted to switch our test date from the 11th to the 13th. Most of the class was in agreement that this would be okay. All except the one neurotic, psychotic girl sitting a few seats away from me. At first she claimed she, “Just wanted to get it over with!” A few  moments later I hear her say, “It just isn’t fair..” I really could not hear the rest of it so I asked the girl next to me what her malfunction was. Apparently she was all pissed because the people who are not taking Women and Children this semester get “an extra day to study” because they get done with classes a few hours before we do. Uhm,  they do not get an entire day AND she chose her schedule! Seriously?

Something most of us learned in elementary, life is not always going to be fair. Geesh, she is a grown ass woman bitching about how it just won’t be fair. I have no idea where she plans on working when she is a nurse, but I’m going to go out on a limb and say, everything will not be fair there either.  Get over it! Adapt, grow, learn, change, and just be an adult for shit sake!

Morphine was named after Morpheus, the Greek god of dreams. Probably because of the euphoric effect this drug can have. That and it is used for all kinds of stuff, not just to get high

A fun fact brought to you by: Richard A. Lehne, the writer of my awesome pharmacology book titled Pharmacology For Nursing Care (6th edition, btw). Wow, I am a serious dork!