Another week gone

Hello all,

Again begging for your forgiveness for another week without posts. This last week was a killer, extremely intense and exhausting, both physically and mentally. We were back at Milford Hospital for our rotation in MedSurg Nursing. All the highs I was feeling after my fabulous rotation in Maternity were quickly thrown to the ground as we spent the week calculating IV drips, and fumbling with new equipment under the eye of our new professor who in my opinion was more concerned with showing us how much she knew, rather than being in tune with the students' needs. It was a rough week, but I survived mostly unscathed. I faced some great challenges and made some great bonds) I gave a bunch more injections and finally feel comfortable with the skill. We also did lots of work with IV meds which were tricky at first, but by the end of the week I again feel confident in my abilities.

My issue was with the professor who after the first day on the floor had no positive feedback for any of us and instead disapprovingly told us that "We had to be a lot faster with the IVs or we would never be able to progress to more difficult skills." And I thought to myself, well of course we will get faster with this. And of course it is going to take us longer at first. This was our first day working with these meds on real patients. I went into the rotation assuming we would should take things slowly as we got used to the many new med bags and tubing that we didn't have in lab, and that with each day we would get better and faster. I was not expecting to be reprimanded on speed on the first day and it really threw my confidence level way off. I know others in the group felt the same. So it basically took me the rest of the week to feel better about myself. And I am mad that I let her get to me as much as she did, but it is hard because her opinion of me is what our grade is based on.

And I had other issues with her as well. When I asked her if she had any suggestions on how to communicate with patients with a language barrier, I received a glib response and was told, no joke, " Well, she is obviously fine cuz she is not screaming in pain." And I thought, well I would HOPE that as nurses we are aspiring to a higher level of care than 'patient not screaming in pain'. I was aiming more for 'patient is as comfortable as possible'. But that didn't seem to concern my insturctor. So instead I went home and learned how to say some phrases in Portuguese that would allow me to assess my patient's pain levels and where the pain was coming from so I could treat her as efficiently as possible. And my patient seemed much happier the next day and that made me feel good.

So now I have a week off. Thank god. I spent most of the day saturday and sunday sleeping. I would try to get something done, but was just too pooped. Jane and I would try to watch a movie, and I would fall asleep in the middle. Finally feeling more rested and am hoping to get a few productive things done today. My study is a complete mess, so I need to clean that up before the semester starts. Was also hoping to get some unpacking done, laundry, pay some bills, get school supplies and other grown-up tasks that I have been ignoring. Oh, and to have some fun!!