Week 2 in Med-Surg Nursing

This past week in clinicals further convinced me that going to nursing school was the right decision.

I cared for the same patient (a very sweet and lovely elderly woman) for two days. My official responsibilities were to administer scheduled oral medications, and to perform the morning and afternoon nursing assessments. Other responsibilities include trying to jump in and help out or observe just about anything cool or interesting that happened on the unit.

Medication administration went pretty well. Janet (my instructor) has been sharing tips for how to deal with my shakey hands. The more meds I administer, the less my hands shake; looks like it's just going to take lots of practice.

I liked explaining the therapeutic effects of the different medications in patient-friendly terms -- i.e., sans medical jargon. I know it's important for me to understand the pathology of a disease or a drug's mechanisms of action and side effects on a smaller level, but I found that being able to put things in a "big picture" perspective was both helpful and satisfying.

My assessment skills are getting better, too, but I still can't wait until the end of the semester when I finally have a good, systematic rhythm.

I also got to see chest tubes get removed, measured input and output, emptied a foley catheter by myself, cleaned a bedpan for the first time, gowned up to help care for a patient in contact isolation, tried to act as an advocate for my patient and helped her ambulate in the hallway.

The most important thing I learned, though was how much the caring things a nurse can do (like offer a patient a warm washcloth to wash their hands and face before breakfast) can make a positive impact on a patient's hospital experience.

When we said goodbye on Friday, my patient insisted on giving me a hug and thanked me for taking good care of her. As she said, "Even just a little TLC makes all the difference when you're sick."