Hold on TIGHT!

After my last post I feel bad about not being more descriptive or enthused. But this week was a much better week and I hope to make for the slack in the last one with this post right here. So HOLD ON TO YOUR SEATS...cause its going to be a great one! Monday in our theory class we had a lecture about the pain assessment, and honestly it was better than I thought it was going to be. We talk about pain medication all the time but I think its easy for use to forget about comfort care measures that we can take to help reduce pain as well. Our professor did this little experiment with us in which we put a clothes pin on part of the skin of our hand. Then we placed a little ziploc bag of ice in different locations to see what helped with the pain the most. We put the ice distal (more towards the fingers)to "the injury," proximal (more on the wrist/lower arm) to " the injury," and on the opposite hand. There wasn't one method that worked best so it goes to show we can try many different positions/place to help relieve pain. Then also on Monday we had our diabetes lab. The first lab in which we actually got to make another person bleed! (I know it sounds strange but when we are finally able to practice a skill on a real human- that's exciting!) Anyway we talked about different types of insulin and how to count carbs and what types of insulins can be mixed with which. Its all rather confusing but I'm getting it. Then we got to poke each other and measure our partners blood sugar level (hence the blood).

Tuesday I had lab for 3 hours bright and early. The topic for this lab was respiratory alterations. They had 6 stations set up in lab and we were splint into groups of 5 or 6. Each group had a station. For example I was in the group with the chest tube station. Then we had to read about it and learn with some help from the professor all about out topic and how all our material worked. Then after about 1/2 and hour or so each group taught the rest of the class about their station. So we learned about different inhalers and nebulizer treatments, different ways to help loosen mucous secretions in the lungs, different types of suctioning, endotracheal tubes, chest tubes, and different types of supplemental oxygen. For our theory class we had a lecture on respiratory alterations which went perfectly well with our lab early in the morning. And the lecture was packed full of information on pneumonia, COPD, and acute respiratory distress syndrome. After that class I have my nursing research class and we got to play JEOPARDY! However, my team lost in the end, although we still gave it a really good effort and we all got candy in the end!

Wednesday I had clinical at Zeeland Hospital. My patient was a rock star. Not literally a rock star but probably one of the most fun patients I have worked with yet, and I have had some other really great ones too.


I'm excited for my last two day of clinicals next week because I get to be in the OR (operation room for those of you who didn't know)!

That's the end of the ride. I hope everyone is still fastened securely in their seat. You may now unfasten your buckles and exit by clicking on the "X" or back arrow button. Thanks for reading!