Week Two

Still getting in the groove of my job. Going pretty well. Getting lots of positive feedback from patients and families. The sister of one patient today asked me why I want to be a nurse. Two reasons came to mind immediately.

1) I love interacting with people up close and personal. I like getting to know them, having conversations, sharing stories, making them laugh, offering them a listening ear.

2) It's amazing to be able to help people in such a tangible way. Example: One of my patients this week was having bladder issues. He was not able to urinate at all, despite being well hydrated, and he was very uncomfortable. I scanned his bladder, saw that it was indeed very full, and then drained it using a straight catheter. He felt so much better, and it improved his mood.

Some of the new things I've done this week:
-put in catheters (on both males and females)
-empty colostemy bags
... Ok those are the only new things I can think of. But I have found that I'm getting more confident with my basic skills, like taking blood pressure and whatnot.

I've had several days where I worked a full shift at the hospital, then drove straight to the assisted living place and worked another three hours. Those are long days, but the jobs are different enough that they require different parts of my brain. The hardest part is being away from R and Sweet Pea for such long periods of time. I leave the house at 6:30am and get back about 13 hours later. Just enough time to feed Sweet Pea, snuggle with her for a few minutes, then put her in bed.

BUT in another week, I'll be on evening shift at the hospital and won't ever be working both jobs on the same day.

School starts up again in just under two weeks. All I have left to take is A&P2, and I'll be turning in my application for the nursing program in the next month.