Monday, February 7, 2011

Clinicals and Advice Needed

Finally got to go back to school today! Whoohoo! Lecture wasn't all that great though, the teacher couldn't seem to stay on track and some sentences took her at least five minutes to get out!

Tomorrow is my first day back at clinicals. I am doing Med-Surg tomorrow. I am not to fond of Med-Surg, but I will suck it up and move on. The worst part is going to be waking up at 0400 and not getting out of clinicals till after 1630, plus I have an hour drive home. Tomorrow is going to be a long day.

Hopefully after clinicals I will have a chance to update about my day. I hope I get to see something tomorrow other than the usual, not to wish death on anyone but working a code would be fun. I still haven't got to do it, I doubt I would be able to even move! haha! I just want something to do other than assissting elderly go to the bathroom,pick out their food for the next day,and do all of their A.M care. { I am already a CNA, I have worked as one for 2 weeks shy of one year} I might sound bad but I want to do some skills I have been taught to do, I am eager to learn!

How was your first code? Were you scared?

Your advice is needed: I have only received one flu shot during my entire life. I am debating on getting one since I am doing work in a hospital right smack dab in the middle of Flu season. I did work in a nursing home last year and I didn't get sick other than a minor cold here and there, or a 24 hour bug. What are y'alls opinions on the Flu shot? I am going to be a nurse so I know I should be all vaccined out, but honestly the flu shot scares me for some reason, I guess I need to grow up and do my research.

15 comments:

  1. Yes get a flu shot, but it takes your body some time to make enough antibodies to be able to fight off the flu, so it won't be effective immediately.

    I'm surprised it's not required by your school. It's required at mine or a statement as to why you are refusing it; religious reasons, allergy, or educated research as to why you shouldn't have one.

    It's in your favor to be honest. The less chance you have at being sick, the less chance you have at missing school and needing to miss much needed clinical hours.

    Also, I was wondering... you said take med/surg and move on? Do you only have 1 med/surg? I have to take 4 different med/surg classes... 1-3 and then advanced. It comes back to haunt me every semester.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I prob should have gotten it a while back. I will def think about getting it cause I don't want to get sick!

    Our school is weird, our classes aren't broken up like that. We had a lot of Med-Surg, and pediatrics last semester. We had 4 med-surg clinical days last semester and this semester we have 6 but the days are a lot longer this time.
    I don't exactly know how to explain our classes, they aren't broken up. I go MWF 8-10. T/TH are clinical days. We just have one set class all semester {16 weeks}, but within that semester we go over everything split up in units. I am in a associate degree program, I am transferring to a university after I graduate so I can get my BSN.

    ReplyDelete
  3. The only year I got one I got pretty sick. So I don't get them. But if I worked in a hospital? I don't know. It would be a hard decision then. Do you take extra Vit. C and Vit. D during the winter?

    ReplyDelete
  4. Another nursing student!
    LOVE IT!!!!
    haha
    Thanks for following, and your pets are too cute!

    The poem is so pretty!

    here is the full version(:


    i carry your heart with me(i carry it in
    my heart)i am never without it(anywhere
    i go you go,my dear; and whatever is done
    by only me is your doing,my darling)
    i fear
    no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet)i want
    no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true)
    and it's you are whatever a moon has always meant
    and whatever a sun will always sing is you

    here is the deepest secret nobody knows
    (here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
    and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows
    higher than the soul can hope or mind can hide)
    and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart

    i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)


    amazing right?
    Your husband is headed for a deployment?

    ReplyDelete
  5. I do when I remember, and vitamin C has never really been proven to help fight off sickness. It sure does help me when I get sick if I take it in mega doses though.

    I am going to do some research though, I might call my nurse practitioner and see what she thinks. I have only had one when I was younger and didn't really have a choice, I am scared if I get one now that I will get sicker. I can't even remember the last time I got really sick was. I get sick with a cold/sore throat but it is functional and I can still carry on with life.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Yeah mine is an associate program too, 6 semesters total, and med/surg in all of them except the first semester we just had fundamentals. We also break it up by unit, and system, and as you progress you learn more detailed information about each system; 16 weeks. Clinicals are 10 hours once a week for those entire 16 weeks as well.

    The fake 1st semester you take intro to nursing- lame class about study skills and terminology, nursing process.
    the REAL First semester you take Fundamentals of Nursing with a Clinical in LTC.
    2nd is Pharm and Med/Surg 1- with clinical
    3rd is OB and Med/Surg2- 2 clinicals, 1 m/s, the other OB
    4th is Peds and Med/Surg3 with 2 clinicals again
    5th is Geri/Leadership/ Advanced Med/surg/ Psych/ preceptorship (this semester scares me because there's like 4 different clinicals that goa long with it)

    AHHH!!! I'm in the 3rd semester right now, and it's cake compared to the 2 semesters before. Pharm is evil...

    ReplyDelete
  7. Wow, y'alls is very organized if I may say so! We get the mixed pot. Ours is four semesters too! That is crazy, I picked my school because the director of nursing up there is also on the state board of nursing for OK. I thought it would be a really good college. I find it to be a good college besides in the skills area. Our stuff that we use is so outdated. I wish ours was as organized as y'alls. Some days I wish I would have went another college.

    ReplyDelete
  8. I've only gotten it once, when I was pregnant, but before I did I did my research. I'm definitely not anti vaccine, but I like to know what I'm putting in my body.
    It's not a live virus vaccine, so while some people do have negative reactions to the virus, they do not in fact have the flu. Most people experience little to no side effects.
    Also, since you will be exposed to so many germs, I think it would be a good idea (most hospitals require people working at it to get the vaccine) The reason you need to get it every year is because they manufacture it to be the most common strands of the flu for that year (which means even with the shot it is possible to get the flu if it's another strain of the flu)
    Hope that helps you decide :)

    ReplyDelete
  9. I'm not anti-vaccine either, but for some reason I am sort of against the flu vaccine if you are not young,old,or have some condition that puts you at risk for dying from flu complications. The more I think about it though I just don't want to get sick! I don't really want the vaccine though because I have went this long with out getting the flu, maybe my immune system is strong enough? I don't want to jinx myself though, so I think I have decided to get the vaccine. Now I just have to make an appointment.

    ReplyDelete
  10. One thing to think about:
    When you work with patients, it's not so much about YOU contracting the flu, but much more about unknowingly passing it on to vulnerable patients. You are contagious with the flu for a day or two before you even begin to have any symptoms. Therefore, you could be giving it to your immunocompromised or pregnant patients without even knowing it. Obviously, it's a much bigger deal if they get the flu from you than if you get it from them. Yuck.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Very true Dr.Army Wife! I never really thought of it like that, I could handle getting the flu but some people would die from it easily! Now I am sold because that would be horrible!

    ReplyDelete
  12. I agree with Dr. Army Wife. One less germ for immunocompromised patients.

    My first code? Very first day of med/surg clinicals and I was completely useless as a nursing student. I experienced TONS of codes working in a MICU as a PCA. I did more learning there about meds and intubation than I did in clinical. Just ask the nurses and I am sure they will explain after they calm down. My first code as an RN was kind of an adrenaline rush. Now I stay calm and just roll with it. You don't even have to think after a while. It just comes naturally. You also learn to yell "who is giving orders?" when everyone and their mother wants to be a part of the code (which is NEVER necessary).

    ReplyDelete
  13. That would be crazy, experiencing a code on the first day of med/surg! I am glad to know you were a "useless" nursing student, I am smart and I make a good grades most of the time, but when I get into clinicals I feel incompetent half the time. There is stuff I have learned a million times but I freeze up and forget when asked on the spot!

    I would like to be apart of a code but I will def sit back and watch the first time!

    I am going to call and make an appt to get one tomorrow. I realize it is important.

    ReplyDelete
  14. My school required it, so i got mine like 2 months ago. I say you should get it. It's important so you dont get sick, but also to not get your patients sick either.

    ReplyDelete
  15. I planned on getting my flu shot this year, but I never made it in to the docs. I am actually going this week and I will ask if he can do it now. I'm spending slu season in an inner city school so yeah, chances of me picking it up and then bringing it to my OB rotation is pretty good. I HAVE to get on it.

    As for the codes, I've only seen one (2nd to last semester of RN) and it was in the ER. Our school allows us to observe different parts of the hospitals each semester. One at a time we each spend a shift in endo, OR, ICU, ER and we have a day where we are on the regular Med/Surg floor but we listen for security codes, then when they are broadcasted we run down to security. For instance Code Pink = newborn missing. Never saw that but I did see a "paging Dr Armstrong" which was a guy requiring restraints; very combative.

    ReplyDelete

Please feel free to say what's on your mind. Your thoughts are welcomed and appreciated very dearly!