Clinicals - Day Two

I'll start by saying that I can't believe it's already been a week since my first clinical; time is absolutely flying by these days, and I'm pretty sure I'm going to be graduating and taking the already-dreaded NCLEX (more on that later too) before I know it.

Today's skills were vital signs (temperature, blood pressure, pulse, respirations) and nasogastric (NG) tubes; luckily I had learned how to do vitals in my high school health science class and somehow still remembered. We practiced on the dummies and on each other, and everyone caught on pretty quickly, which was especially impressive for everyone else, who hadn't ever learned it like I did. I'm proud of my little group :) Though I did notice something about myself: when we practiced on each other in high school, it was awkward because, as weird as it sounds, I had never touched another person in a medical, non-friend kind of way; I could find pulses on myself all day long, but it's another story on someone else. So this time around, whether because of being so gung-ho about nursing or just having grown up so incredibly much since high school, I was totally fine with it. I could go off on a whole tangent about this, but I really think the experiences I've had in the last couple/few years have really made me more confident and more capable to do things in nursing, even if said things weren't directly related; for example, my semester abroad put me into a whole new realization about what I really am capable of and how far I can push myself out of my comfort zone. It sounds really sappy, but without these experiences, I don't think I would ever have had a chance at being a good nurse. Speaking of confidence, my instructor told me at our evaluations from last week that I was probably the best one in the group and that really all I could do for improvement was to get experience. I promise I'm not trying to brag, I just want to point out that I've never been this confident about anything I've done before; I think I'm lucky that I "get" some of the aspects of nursing already, and I have no doubts that my classmates will all be great nurses by the end of 2 years, but it's so reassuring for me to find out that I'm both good at this and passionate about it. It's hard now to believe that I wanted to switch out of nursing second semester freshman year and even doubted my decision as recently as the night before my first clinical (dude, those skills videos are that unenjoyable); I'm sure I'll have doubts once I stop "honeymooning" and some of the less-than-ideal aspects are revealed, but for now, I'm in love with nursing.

Wow. So much for not getting off on a tangent. Let me quickly go off on another: I would be really interested to compare nursing school even 10-15 years ago with nursing school today, largely in terms of the technology. We have these dummies used for simulation that are so incredibly realistic; ya'll, they can breathe and blink and talk and pee and can be programmed to have different symptoms and reactions and - here are the best parts - ONE OF THEM GIVES BIRTH(!) AND THEY CAN DIE. Is that not the most amazing thing you've ever heard of?! I just feel so lucky to have things like this available to me, which I might not have if I had gone to NYU like I wanted to (destiny, my friends); it's no substitute for a human being, of course, but I think we'll be more prepared because of it. And I just think they're the coolest thing $20,000 can buy.


After lunch, we learned how to put in NG tubes (if you're not familiar: it's one method used to tube-feed patients who have functional gastrointestinal tracts but who can't swallow correctly); it was pretty straightforward, though it requires a lot of steps, but I think I'll be terrified the first time I have to do it on a patient. It's one of those things that are really unpleasant for them but at the same time necessary; it's tough to see someone suffer, literally at your hands, but when it's for their benefit overall, hopefully that will help me be strong enough to do it.

We don't have a clinical next week because Monday (our clinical day) is a day off for Labor Day; admittedly, I'm more sad about not having clinical than I am excited about having a day off from school. Geez, I'm a nerd ;)