We have one week left (i.e. a Tuesday and a Thursday) in our first clinical rotation. Today was probably both the most rewarding and most difficult day I’ve had yet.
To get the unpleasant stuff out of the way–I gave my first injection. Well… sort of.
There is one woman on the floor who gets Accuchecks and insulin. This is our only opportunity to give injections (unless there is a new admit who needs a TB test–rarely), so each day a different one of my classmates gets to check this resident’s blood sugar and give her insulin. The resident is great… she loves the extra attention, especially the first couple times when our entire group of 8 nursing students + instructor would crowd around her as she received her injection. Luckily, watching the procedure has lost its appeal for my classmates, so it was just my instructor and me as I prepared to stick a needle into a person for the first time. I knew the procedure “by the book.” I can inject a silicone practice pad like a pro. Unfortunately, no one will pay me to inject silicone practice pads.
I did the Accucheck, prepped the site for injection, and with as much confidence as I could muster, I stabbed the poor woman. An involuntary “Ouch!” crossed her lips as she jumped away from me and the needle slid back out before I was able to depress the syringe. Uh, she didn’t do that when anybody else stuck her. Whoops.
Apparently I hadn’t pinched her skin the right way, making the injection more painful. Luckily my instructor stepped in to finish the job, and the lady didn’t even flinch when she did it. I felt terrible. :( She was a good sport though, and told me, “I’ve had it hurt a lot worse than that!”
When I came home today, I laid down to take a nap, and woke up in a panic when I remembered I hadn’t put the insulin vial away. Argh. After botching the injection, my focus was gone. My instructor had the needle, so I kind of just walked away and went about my business without thinking, leaving my instructor to clean up. I’m such an irresponsible student!
Side note: I also was reprimanded by the unit manager today for not using a gait belt on a patient while transferring her to a wheelchair. I would love to use a gait belt if I could find one! Honestly, the hardest part of nursing thus far is making sure you have all the right tools/supplies when you need them.
Enough of the negative… now onto the highlights of my day.
One of my patients, Daisy, is 100 years old. She likes to sleep, and sometimes eat. She does not like to be aroused from her slumber for assessments, medications, or bed baths. She does not like having to get out of bed, for anything. Despite the fact that I wake her–for assessments, medications, and bed baths–and even force her to get up and sit in a chair once in a while, Daisy likes me! After caring for her for two weeks, I told her that today would be my last day with her. “Oh, nooo!”, she said.
I told her, if she’s lucky, she will have one of my classmates assigned to her next week. She said she hoped that would be the case, and told me, with the sweetest smile on her face, that she “could get real nasty if she had to!” In other words, she plans on demanding she have a student assigned to her next week! I must have made a good impression. :)
I think our presence on the floor is welcomed by everyone… except maybe the unit manager, who doesn’t let us use the computer on the med cart when we pass meds, and sends us running back and forth to chart at the nurse’s station instead. (Ridiculous. None of the other nurses mind sharing their computers!) The nursing aides love us, since their work load is cut by 20-25% when we are there. The residents love us because we have time to focus on them. As one resident told my classmate, “I like how you listen to me. Nobody else ever listens to me.” And having the extra time to really listen and think about our patients allows us to go the extra mile. And what happens during that extra mile is why I got into nursing.
Today while I had some down time, I was talking to a resident about her roommate situation. She has a bed in a 4-person room. One of the roommates has dementia, and “sings” all day. Repetitive, monotonous syllables. For her alert and oriented roommates, it is understandably annoying. The resident I was talking to, Molly, explained that she wished she could move to a 2-person room, but she’s very fond of one of her roommates, Helena. Molly told me that she had enjoyed a semi-private room in the past, and that she had grown close to her roommate at the time, Daisy. Excitedly, I explained to Molly that Daisy was one of my patients, and I was enjoying getting to know her as well.
Apparently, Molly is transitioning to using a wheelchair. She does great with a walker for short distances, but a wheelchair will give her more freedom and mobility. Since Molly was already in her wheelchair, I suggested we go pay Daisy a visit.
Now, I don’t know if this lady has a terrible sense of direction, a terrible memory, or just never gets out of her room, but she was LOST once we got into the hall! She asked me how far it was to Daisy’s room (4 or 5 doors down), so I went and stood by Daisy’s door while Molly slowly wheeled herself toward me. I have never seen Daisy so happy to wake up as she was when Molly rolled in! I’m guessing it’s been quite a few months since the friends had seen each other, despite the fact that they are only a few hundred feet apart. The visit only lasted a minute, maybe two, but it was a bright minute in an otherwise dull day in long-term care.
A twist on the cliche "older adult hand-holding" picture, haha!
