Week 3

This was a very exciting week for the GM program. Every class was preparing for the first exams starting up during week 4. We had our very first Professional Nursing lab quiz. It turns out that my whole class did very well on the quiz and we felt very prepared for the material. This quiz covered material including: vital signs, hygiene, methods by which the spread of microorganisms can be prevented, restrains, etc. We also began the process of being signed off by our professors to perform vital signs on our patients at our clinical settings. Unfortunately, although I felt prepared, I was only able to complete blood pressure since our group was too large. I would need to be signed off on temperature, heart rate, respirations, and apical pulse next week.

In health assessment, we needed to catch up on a lot of the practical material in lab since we have mainly been doing lecture. After the lecture portion of the class, we began to do abdominal evaluations, heart sounds, and lung sounds in lab. I found it extremely interesting to hear the different heart, lung, and bowel sounds. Although I have practiced a lot of evaluation skills since undergrad, we never really concentrated on these sounds. I did, however, feel prepared for the abdominal evaluation. More practice is definitely necessary for distinguishing between different heart and lung sounds. Next week, we will have our first written exam next Wednesday on all the material learned up to date.

Finally, in clinical, we were each assigned to a Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) due to the fact that the nurses were learning how to use the new handheld electronic documentation. This is when I realized just how necessary CNAs are to the nurses in a hospital. We began the day by going around to her assigned rooms, delivering breakfast, and feeding the patients if necessary. The rest of the morning was spent making beds and giving patients bed baths or preparing them for partial baths. Although we did come across one incompliant patient, most of the patients were very willing to have the CNAs do their job. Finally, I spent the rest of the day researching the medical records of a patient in order to create a Functional Health Pattern worksheet. Although HIPAA prevents me from revealing any information about the patient, I can tell you that you can learn a lot from their individual charts.

Well, that's all for now!!! I'll let you know about the tests next week!!!

- Katie : )