Nurse Sean (dot) com

YAY! I’ve been tagged! Julie over at Life in the NHS has asked me to list five things I couldn’t live without as a nurse.

1. My electronic gadgits. These include the following: iPod, Sirius Satellite radio, iBook, satellite television, Xbox, World of Warcraft…the list goes on and on. These devices do everything from entertain me on my walk to work, help me research nursing stuff, and more than anything, help me relax between shifts and on days off. My latest obsession is my Stilletto 100 that helps me listen to Sirius Satellite Radion. I am particularly in love with OutQ 109.

2. The intangeble parts of my personality that are improving, and allowing me to grow into this profession a little bit more every day. These include: the increasingly thicker skin I grow to protect me from the attitudes of other nurses and allows me to learn from them instead of cower, my growing ability to take control of medical/psychological situations with patients, and the increasingly positive attitude that I find myself going to work with…and seeing the effect it has on the people around me.

3. Student Nurses. I knew that going into this profession I would fall in love with the idea of teaching. Even in the early stages I love when I am buddied-up with student nurses. I love showing them new skills, explaining disease processes, and telling them stories of my “first time” doing things…which was usually much more disasterous than their’s. I especially love that every time I have a student with me, they are able to teach me more about the patient and their condition. More than anything…that student that said, “I never would have guessed you just graduated! I would have thought you were a full on RN if I hadn’t seen your name tag.”

4. Patients. Sometimes. I worked five days in a row last week, and I had the same patients almost every day. They were wonderful, supportive, interesting, kind people. I realized this week that increasingly strong skills, mixed with a touch of confidence, makes you feel like you’re starting to really deserve that RN title that is hopefully on its way (They’re probably marking my test as we speak). I even love that one patient this week that went “off the deep end.” She had a long psych history and when we tried starting an IV on her she FREAKED and started screaming and yelling. I drew from my psych knowledge, set boundaries, told her exactly what was appropriate and not…then I used my communication skills to have a long conversation with her about why she needs the IV. A few minutes later, my manager complimented me on how quickly I diffused the situation. Then a patient who overheard said he was a teacher, and he felt my abilities to work with a “problem patient” were wonderful. *warm fuzzies*

Psych nurse Sean? I always did love Psych nursing…

5.) My coworkers! I will make this simple. I have learned more from my coworkers in three months than I did in my entire four year nursing degree!

Sean

So, last Friday at 7:00am I had my first code blue. It’s a moment I have been fearing…but it really wasn’t too bad. Around 6:00am, my patient started going down hill. I kept increasing her oxygen rate, changing her to a more powerful oxygen delivery device…nothing worked. Her vital signs became increasingly difficult to get as the blood flow to her extremeties became worse by the second. She was in some kind of shock, but as they rolled her (intubated and being pumped full of blood) to the ICU, they still hadn’t really figured out why. Hemoglobin was fine, lungs/heart looked good, temperature was fine etc.

I learned a lot from this experience, including a few warning signs that I could have grasped onto earlier. But this is how nurses learn…by reflecting on what they did, how they did it, and what they would do differently in the future. I have already done this to death over the several nights following that night, so I won’t go through it here. I will just say that although I could have done things better, I still did things well, and correctly. I may have saved this woman’s life. I am very proud of myself.

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On to happier things! Over the long weekend, Richard and I decided to drive down to visit our neighbors to the south. We went to Great Falls, Montana!

I used to go to Great Falls all the time as a child. My parents honeymooned there, so it was almost exclusively our first stopping point on our family road trips. Great Falls would be followed by Spokane, then Vernon, then home.

Being a know-it-all, I thought I knew exactly how to get there. Drive south to Fort McLeod, then continue south to Sweetgrass where the border crossing is (has anyone detected the flaw in my thinking yet?). In Fort Mcleod, we took a wrong turn. Actually, we reached a fork in the road and chose the wrong fork. As a result, we ended up in Lethbridge, desperate for a map. So, map in hand, I saw our flaw and we drove back to Fort McLeod. We were now an hour over our expected time of 5.5 hours of driving (this time was well memorized by me from my childhood road trips).

We drove south from Fort McLeod on a very dark, windy road past Cardston (the Mormon temple is beautiful at night), and to the boarder crossing. Something seemed “off.” I remembered the road being a very big highway all the way from Calgary to Great Falls. This was a very tiny road in the middle of nowhere. Also, there was no town of Sweetgrass to be seen.

I chalked it up to my Dad occassionally taking different boarder crossings. Sometimes we would skip Great Falls and go Straight to Spokane etc. So, I’m wasn’t worried. However, the crossing guard told us that it would be about four hours until we got to Great falls. I thought this was very strange since I remembered it being only two hours.

After the boarder we were literally in what felt like the middle of nowhere. We were on a very tiny, ice, windy road that seemed to climb up and down mountains. I kept saying, “I could have sworn this was supposed to be a major highway!”

You know those movies where a stranger walks into a bar where they are VERY out of place, the music scratches to a stop, and everyone is silently staring at you. We had one of those moments as we bought gas in Browning. It was obviously an all Native American town, and while we were never made to feel unwelcomed, it was obvious that they weren’t used to seeing caucasians stop and get gas…there was a lot of strange stares going in our direction.

Back on the road, I finally decided to check the map Richard picked up at the Boarder. You should have seen the look on my face when I realized we had taken the wrong road! We were most definitely on a road that would end up in Great Falls; however, it was a long winding road that went way out of the way through the Blackfeet Indian reserve.

Even more astounding was that the road I DID want to take was straight down from Lethbridge. ACK! We were in Lethbridge but turned back because we thought it was the WRONG way! *CRIES*

We just looked at each other and decided that eventually it would be hilarious…

So, ten hours later (this includes, going the right way by accident, lunches, going the wrong way etc. etc.) we checked into the hotel. I was exhausted since I only had 2 hours of sleep (hard to sleep after a code blue). We still managed to order pizza and go to bed at 1:00am

The next day we drove around, shopped. I love buying all the products that haven’t hit Canada yet, and I love buying drugs that are prescription here, but over-the-counter in the US.

This was some kind of plant near the military base in Great Falls. I loved the mountains hanging out in the background. In this area, mountains stick up here and there, rather than all together like the rockies.

This is a similar mountain that I saw on the way home.

Here’s a nice picture of the nice big highway that we took back. Yes, this is the one we were supposed to be taking there. The trip back was only 5 hours long…now that we knew the right way! And yes, there was such a place as Sweetgrass!

Great Falls reminded us A LOT of Moose Jaw. It was about the same size, had the same lonely and run down “feel,” and was surrounded by similar prairies. We did notice that the customer service in this town was over-the-top incredible! I was left wondering if it is just really good, or if Calgary’s has become so bad that it was just relatively amazing. People were so friendly and were always going out of their way to help us.

There was even an awesome woman in the Albertson’s grocery store who had an awesome southern accent. She spent a good half an hour looking for Richard’s favorite snack food for us. She was so apologetic when she couldn’t find it. I loved the way she called us “honey.”

Ugh…and now I have to go back to work tomorrow after six days of freedom.

*sigh*

Before I say anything, I want to promote a new website I found today. It was actually mentioned by William on his blog. It’s called Nurse Linkup. I would compare it to myspace, but for nurses, and with a much cleaner interface. Check it out…it deserves our support!

I had a pretty casual day. I woke up at noon, even though I wanted to sleep until three or four in the afternoon. As a result I have been a little more tired today than usual. I still managed to get out for an evening of delightful consumerism. I bought an expensive hand held massager, some new clothes from Old Navy (which sadly has led to my discovery that I’m becoming a XXL rather than just an XL….ugh), and a smart cleanse kit from the health store.

We spent a good chunk of the evening giving each other massages. I must admit…it’s a good way to spend a couple hours!

I made the decision today to start taking the Advanced Studies in Critical Care Nursing Certificate from Mount Royal College. This is a highly regarded program that I can do at home and at my own pace. This means I can spend a couple years doing the theory courses while gaining experience working on my current unit. Then I can do the required practicum, and ease my way into critical care nursing.

To be honest, the ICU and ER are so short staffed that In a year or two I could apply and would probably get a job. However, I want a good solid basis in med/surg nursing and some critical care theory before moving on to the ER/ICU. In the mean time, I work on such an acute unit that the courses in advanced assessment etc. would be extremely beneficial.

The only decision left would be whether I wanted to focus on emergency nursing or ICU. It’s a tough choice. I went into nursing to become an emergency nurse, but in reality, I often wonder if working in the ICU would be more my style.

Or perhaps I would realize that I hate them both…ACK! I doubt it

This is supposed to be a great close up shot of my new grad ring. Unfortunatley, the battery died before I could figure out how to get a nice clear close up. Oh well…I couldn’t be bothered to wait for the batteries to charge. So, I’m going with the “abstract” version.

The ring is a beautiful 10K white gold (I couldn’t justifying paying more than $100 more for 14K). It has “BN UofC 07″ on the outside, and my name in script on the inside. I really friggin’ love this ring! It’s subtle, classy, and is a great momento of my degree in nursing.

I also finally got my ass in gear and sent in my grad photos. The package with my photo proofs has been sitting in front of me for months! I can’t wait to get the portraits so that I can proudly display one on the wall of my apartment. Of course, I will be spreading the joy by sending my mom/grandmother/sister a copy. But the ever egotistical me will be keeping the largest copy.

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I’m sitting here at 03:30 desperately trying to stay awake. I work night shifts next, so I’m in the process of turning my schedule around. So, I’m playing World of Warcraft, watching some TV, and listening to the Broadway channel on my Sirius satellite radio.

I have been in an “I love nursing” mood this week, which is much better than the “oh my God, I hate nursing!” mood I have been portraying in my posts recently. I had an absolutely great week, even with having to work day shifts the entire time. I had a good patient assignment, I was well organized, on top of my care. On top of that, my successful IV start streak has continued. Granted, they have all had great veins, but I’m still overjoyed!

I must say that life in general is started to fall into a nice groove. Everything seems to be exactly how it is supposed to be. It would feel a lot better without all the debt though.

*cries*

Jeffery over at I wanna be a male nurse posted a poem called “The Dresser” by Walt Witman. I loved the last stanza.

Thus in silence, in dreams’ projections,
Returning, resuming, I thread my way through the hospitals;
The hurt and wounded I pacify with soothing hand,
I sit by the restless all the dark night—some are so young;
Some suffer so much—I recall the experience sweet and sad;
(Many a soldier’s loving arms about this neck have cross’d and rested,
Many a soldier’s kiss dwells on these bearded lips.)

I found it fascinating that Walt Witman took his turn at nursing. I also loved the remarks at the end that refer to his homoerotic experiences with soldiers. YAY!

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I wrote the Canadian Registered Nurses Exam on Wednesday. I am pretty sure it was one of the most difficult and exhauting days of my life. I sat in that crowded exam room for eight hours answering the hundreds of multiple choice and short answer questions. Did anybody else out there do that this week?

I hate the fact that American nurses get their results in about 48 hours, while I have to wait 10-12 weeks. I sit here waiting desperately just to find out if I passed or failed. As I was warned by many people who have written the test in the past, everyone leaves the exam with a strong feeling of having failed. I (and most of my cowriters) were no exception.

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Thursday, I worked a twelve hour shift. I normally work eight hours, but ended up working a longer shift after switching shifts with someone who didn’t warn me (after asking her if it was eight or twelve hours) that it was a twelve hour shift. I love twelve hour night shifts, but the day shifts kill me. I can barely keep up that pace for eight hours, let alone twelve.

On top of all of that, it was possibly the busiest day I have worked so far. However, I noticed that no matter how busy it got, I generally felt “on top” of what I needed to to, even if I did frequently fall behind. Yay for improvement!

Unfortunately, it was just one of those days where you have to make very tough priority decisions. For example, I found one of my patients sitting on the toilet, covered in her own feces, crying. I couldn’t stop though, I had about three more pressing issues to worry about first. And of course, when I asked for help from the NA, I was told “sorry, I have to hand out meal.”

I’m thinking, “A women is crying and sitting in her own poo, and you think delaying meal delivery by five minutes is more important?”

So, there she sat until I could help her about thirty minutes later. It was just one of those moments that makes you hate your job. I wish that prioritizing never left people in bad situations. I wish that the current state of my job didn’t prevent me from stopping and talking to a crying patient.

*sigh*

*****

At the rist of cursing myself, I have to say that I think I’m getting better at IV starts. After a million failures, I have had almost full success this week. I think I just might be winning the battle between IVs and me!

I have a new best friend….

I am in love with my new Stiletto 100 portable Sirius radio. I have been wanting to buy one for awhile now, but didn’t have the money for it. So! I decided that it would be a present to myself for writing my RN licensing exam. I don’t even care that I haven’t written the exam yet! That would be occuring on Wednesday.

I was doing some pediatric practice questions yesterday. I got almost all of them wrong. Unfortunately, I just don’t have all that much time to go back and learn more about peds. Instead, I need to focus on practicing the written questions. I will also be spending some time on cardiology since previous exam writers stated that there was a heavy focus on the good old heart.

Ugh! I just want to pass the test and move on with my life.

Anyway! Back to the Stiletto 100. Could there be a greater invention than satellite radio? I spent a couple hours this morning listening to the OutQ morning radio show which I instantly loved. I listened to the Broadway channel as I walked home today…which I love. Other favorites are CBC radio one (of course) and Alt Nation who did a 90s music weekend.

*swoon*

The greatest part is that when a song I like comes on, I hit the “love button” and it instantly records the song to memory so I can listen whenever I desire. I can also program it to record chunks of time. For example, I’ve set it to record the Broadway station every Monday because they play an entire musical start to finish.

Anyway…back to the studying…*cries*