Week 2!!!

Hi everyone!!!

So I have just finished my 2nd week of the program! Now that we are done with all the general introductions to the classes/instructors/ etc, it is time to get down to business! Due to Labor Day cancelling our first Monday classes, I finally had my first Clinical Pharmacology class. The professor seems fun and will try to make the information as interesting as possible. Right now, the material covers a lot of introduction to biochemistry and organic chemistry. This is also my largest class due to the fact that every student in my program is registered for this time slot. Thankfully, after recently taking nutritional biochemistry at Merrimack College, I do not feel too overwhelmed.

Since there is so much material to cover in such little time, we found ourselves behind in the syllabus in both professional nursing and health assessment. In order to cover all of the material, we had only lecture and no lab in health assessment and need to come in 1 hour early next week in order to make sure that everything is discussed. I found the health assessment lecture to be extremely interesting. We learned about the respiratory system and got to see demonstrations of lung sounds. This was my first experience with the highly advanced technology we have here at Regis. There was an electronic board with a diagram of a torso on it. This was connected to a microphone and when a stethoscope was held up to it, you could hear the different sounds of the lungs and heart. You could also change the settings to mimic different disorders. Another highly advanced piece of equipment I became familiar with was the simulation dummies, Annie and Regis Jim. These could simulate a majority of disorders and even talk to you throughout practicing evaluation skills.

Friday was my first day at Lahey Clinic in Burlington. The day was spent orienting ourselves with our wing and with the tools we will be using throughout the semester. My favorite part was getting to see the Pixis machine. This machine is used to obtain medical equipment and medications for patients on the floor. We were signed in to the system and will be able to use it once we begin working with patients. We were also able to familiarize ourselves with the paperwork process in the hospital. As of now, everything is written down. The patients' medical records were complicated and we were allowed to look through them to get practice extracting information from them. However, each of the nurses were being trained to use handheld devices in order to record data about each individual patient. This might take a while to get use to for most nurses who have become accustomed to using paper and pen. However, this shows that technology is advancing in the medical field.

That should be it for now... Next week will have my first professional nursing quiz and I will be tested on vital signs in order to get signed off in lab.

Thanks for reading!

- Katie Kefalas : )