I had a great opportunity to follow a district school nurse in the small town of Winton, CA. All I can say is that it was the cutest thing I have ever seen. The nurse, health aide, and I were assessing the children that were going to attend kindergarten. The assessments that were included were height, weight, and vision.

It was very interesting to see the different personalities. Some of the children were happy to do it, the other were not. Those that did not want to participate were scheduled for a later date. After we were done screening some of the children, the school nurse and I went to another school in the district to assist a child with type I diabetes. The child understood how to administer her own insulin shot and was able to calculate all the sugars and carbs she had eaten in order to give herself the proper dose. As we were doing that, there were two other children that collided with each other while playing. Both were fine just a few bumps; the health aide helped the two kiddos involved in the collision with an ice pack and called their parents. It was as if it was a mini ER. Children can go to the health aide or the registered nurse if they have a complaint including stomach ache, head ache, or fractures. The aid or nurse will make the decision to call the parents to pick them up, 911, send the child back to class, etc.

It was such a great experience. The staff from the school district was great. The nurse was a former CSU Stanislaus nursing program graduate and she was phenomenal. I can definitely see myself doing school nursing sometime in the future. Not necessarily as a new grad though.

Although this was not my favorite clinical, I learned plenty during mental health. Many, including myself, are scared of patients with mental illness. After this clinical, I realized that society has influenced us to have that fear. Patients with mental illness did not ask for it and it should be viewed as other illnesses are viewed.

I performed my mental health clinical in a locked facility called Doctor’s Behavioral Health Center, in Modesto. The center is split off into three areas: C1 (most functional), C2 (somewhat functional, mixed), and D (patients that are unstable and less functional). We did several days in each area. During other days we did get to go to outpatient locations to observe what forms of psychiatric care is available in the community.

I was given the opportunity to get to interact and practice our “therapeutic communication” with patients. I realized that there is no need to be afraid of these patients. There are treatments available that can improve the condition of a patient’s mental illness.

I am not going lie, it was sometimes VERY entertaining. It is our job to re-orient the patient, but when they state that they are someone famous or other “out-of-the-box” remarks, you can’t help but smile at the end of the day. One of the issues that I had was that we did not practice any nursing skills besides assessing the patients, giving out medications, and therapeutic communication. I don’t feel that psychiatric nursing may be for me.

Now that our baby-mama semester is over, it is time for 4th semester. Our 4th semester consists of Mental Health and Community Health. In mental health we care for patients with mental illness. Those illnesses may include bipolar disorder, depression, and schizophrenia. I was very intimidated and still are. It is important for us to learn therapeutic communication and to utilize it appropriately towards these patients.

Community health nursing, also called public health nursing, is one of the unique experiences that differentiates an Associates Degree nurse vs a Bachelor’s Degree nurse. A public health nurse (PHN) is involved with the health of the entire community rather than just solely focusing on the health of an individual. A PHN also performs home visits to different clients’ homes providing nursing interventions and teachings. We have yet to perform home visits on our own, but I am very curious about it.

What can I say about labor and delivery?

I had the opportunity to observe several vaginal and cesarean deliveries. The experience of being next to the mom, helping the father get involved in the delivery was indescribable. It is that special moment of being able to see a human being in brand new condition, hahaha! My opinion of the birth process is that it is very traumatic. There is nothing more terrifying then seeing a woman in such a vulnerable position.

We monitor the baby’s heart rate and the mother’s contraction. Decisions are based on how everything is advancing. I feel like L&D is somewhat calm followed by a panic the WILL happen.

One of the things that we had to do after the delivery was to take the newborn’s vital signs including length and weight, APGAR score (general health of infant), and provide the infant’s first vaccination of Vitamin K to prevent bleeding. We also provided Erythromycin in the infant’s eye to prevent eye infections.

We monitored the moms regularly before and after the delivery, inserted IV’s, gave fluids, gave medications to prevent bleeding like Pitocin, then we sent them to postpartum.

It was a unique experience to be able to witness deliveries and get to see babies!

Wow, it has been a while since I posted, so here is my round up.

My post partum days were nice and calm. In post partum we take care of women that have just given birth and their newborns. This specialty is the most teaching intensive clinical that I have been on. We have to teach a new mom from how to swaddle, proper breast feeding technique, and bathing an infant. Of course, these are just a few of the subjects taught.

One of the most important things to assess during post partum is to make sure your patients are not having a hemorrhage. We assess the woman’s fundus (top part of the uterus) to make sure that it firm and that no excess bleeding is occurring. We also try to keep the mom as comfortable as possible and did plenty of charting.

I want to eventually become an ER nurse, so this floor was a little too quiet for me.

My day in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) was a wonderful experience. I had to care for an infant that had a heart defect due to having Down Syndrome. I also got to assist the nurse with the other infants she was assigned to. It was a very unique experience to see infants and neonates that have unique medical problems or a varying premature age.

My Down Syndrome infant had the classic signs of Down Syndrome like the oblique eyes, low muscle tone and the tongue thrusting. The infant needed to be tube fed because the infant struggled to swallow without a gag reflex. It is a little sad having to tube feed a child when normally you would expect to see an infant suckle from a bottle or breast. Thankfully, my infant was stable enough to be discharged while the parents wait so that she grows more. The infant needed to gain weight in order to be able to handle a heart operation. I loved the NICU and will remember the experience.

Our Loading Day was Monday last week. We learned information regarding care for pediatric patients, how to change diapers, how to teach new mothers how to breast feed, etc. We also took our medication math test. That is the test we must pass each semester with 100%, thankfully, I passed on my first try. We also got to meet  our clinical instructors.

These past 2 weeks have been interesting. I bought my clinical syllabus which is the fattest syllabus I have ever seen. We have had entertaining chats about sex and STI’s in regards to OB nursing. Our instructor for OB is hilarious; she is the most open instructor I have ever met and kept the entire class giggling all day.

Besides that, we have several weeks before our OB/Pediatrics clinical rotations start. I am excited, but very nervous. Nothing is more intimidating than a woman screaming out in pain or having to give children potent medications.

Wow! I can’t believe the summer has officially ended and school is finally starting. I am excited to start this semester. After this Fall I will be exactly half way done with the nursing program.

This summer I have been working as an ER Scribe at Emanuel Medical Center, a small hospital located in Turlock, near the campus. As a scribe I assist the Emergency physician with the collection of labs and other information regarding the patients. Our job is to make the physicians more efficient while providing quality care. Thankfully, I have not been forgetting my nursing skills and important medications because I get to see them on a regular basis in the ER.

I start my first day at school tomorrow, Wednesday, with a Frontiers in Biology class. Thursday I have my Reproductive Health Nursing class and my Transcultural Nursing class.

Of course as always… my birthday is on the first day of school on August 22nd.  So… Happy Birthday to me. Besides that… I am ready to start!!!

Wow, the last weeks were rough.

As our clinical shifts winded down, it got crazy. I had a patient that ended up having  a mucus plug from a stoma (a whole made on the trachea/neck for breathing). The mucus plug covered the patient’s airway and we had to call  a code blue because of it.  The RN’s told me I did a good job for trying to suction the patient’s stoma, but it was still a very scary and adrenaline filled experience. Thankfully, the patient was fine at the end of the day and got to go home.

The last patient was a tough patient because I didn’t understand how difficult it was to manage a patient with pancreatitis. My instructor praised me for having the cajones to pick that patient just because there are many labs and considerations that must be taken and assessed in a patient with that condition. At the end of the day, I was happy I made it through the day and finally ended my clinical experience of second semester.

The semester ended with my classmates and I taking ATI tests, which are tests that we need to pass in order to continue the program. We all passed them, got through our finals and now wait for the beginning of third semester on August 22.

Next semester will be our mama-baby semester, so I will be looking forward to it.

It has been a while since my last post. They are not kidding when they say that nursing school keeps you busy.

Week 4:

In this week I got really sick that I had to miss school for 2 days and clinical, which was very disappointing because I had a clinical to make up now.

Week 5:

This day was GI Lab day. Besides more assessment, the only skill learned was inserting IVs, IVs, and more IVs. I also got to see a colonoscopy…..live. This was a pretty fun day.

Week 6:

In this week, I was caring for two patients. One that had cancer and the the other had gotten admitted due to dehydration. This day was full of learning . The cancer patient had a tracheostomy tube, so I got to suction it and he also needed a PICC line dressing change, which I got to perform as well. I also got to learn how dehydration affects the body.

Week 7:

This clinical week was lame; we had a simulation to perform in the simulation lab on campus. Enough said.

Week 8:

Like GI Lab, this week’s clinical was at Same Day Surgery, in which it was all about practicing IVs. It was a little more disappointing because many of these patients only had one vein access, which meant that I wouldn’t be able to practice as much as in the GI Lab. I pretty much learned the process of clearing a patient for surgery.

Week 9:

In this week’s clinical, I cared for two patients with respiratory issues. One had pneumonia and the other had lung and brain cancer. I learned more about assessing for neurological function today because my patient with brain cancer was worsening and was having a decrease of neuro function. Overall great day. I made up for the missed clinical by writing up two care plans this week.

I am almost reaching the end of this busy semester, but it can’t go any faster. All I can think is 5 more weeks……………………………………………….5 more weeks.