2/9/11

What does a typical day consist of me doing?....Well I usually have two shifts, one around 11 am and another after school at 4:30. Anywho, I attend the daily nurse meetings at 11am and then Gaily (my sponsor) informs me on her patients health...she usually has 4 patients. I follow her to get medications for her patients and watch her take their vitals (which could be taking their blood pressure, their pulse, temperature, and/or respiratory rate). She inserts IV's in all of her patients and sometimes she has to educate her patients on how to better deal with their conditions. I would say that you would definetly have to attain people skills in order to deal with some the patients. Gaily possesses this important skill. She introduces me to all of her patients as a student shadowing her...sometimes they question me about things like my status in school. Before taking off to school, we take a 30-minute lunch break. The second shift is concluded with Gaily reporting her patients and their health to the nurse's that work nights and take over her patients. This takes about 30 minutes, and then I watch her chart...(order sometimes reversed). Keep in mind that this a typical day. Everyday is mostly differently, but the previously mentioned tasks are what usually sums up the day in what I watch my sponsor do. As you can probably tell, I spend my time observing various things. Which is a huge part of the learning experience.