This is an unbelieveable shitload of work. (sorry mama) But, for real, it's un-godly. I was as prepared as I could be before I came here, but this is mentally exhausting. I am trying to think of a way to explain to you all what the work load is like, but it's confusing. People have asked me what a typical day is like, but there are no typical days. As soon as you think you've gotten a routine down, it changes, and that's really hard for an organized, logically thinking person to get used to.
Just as soon as you think you've learned even the smallest nugget of information, you realize you don't know anything about it. So far I have learned (or, more acurately, been taught) the "nursing process," basic assessment, holistic nursing care, fluid & electrolyte balance (you would not believe how much there is to know about this, and it was all cramed into a two-lecture series), more than I ever, ever, ever wanted to know about the heart (with yet another lecture to come), edema, edema, and more edema and guess what. I learned all that in only 4 lectures of MED SURG class. There are 3 more classes that I could rattle off equally long lists for. (Pharmacology, Biomed, and Anatomy/Physiology) All that in 7 days of class. Not to mention the hands-on stuff we learn daily (blood pressures, temps, pulses, bed baths, restraints, how to make those darn "hospital corners." Did you just click on that link? Did you see how somebody turned making a bed into a damn 50-step process? Welcome to nursing school. All of a sudden, people who were perfectly capable of taking someone's temperature are completely clueless because someone turned that simple procedure into a 20 step process. So now you have a room full of A-type personalities and make them absolutely neurotic with details. (and did I mention we all have at least one degree? which means that we already think we should know how to do everything, lol) I also learned that my med surg (BTW, this is pronounced "med-Surge") teacher writes NCLEX questions. Everyone let out a collective "ohhhh" today because now we understand why her questions are so damn hard.
Added to the list of unbelievables is that I start clinical in less than a week. On a cardiac floor. I pray they don't let me anywhere near a patient.
2 comments:
I remember your pain very well! You will NEVER use hospital corners when you get out. Patients could give a rat's patooty how their bed looks as long as it's clean and they can move their feet. Most people don't like the feeling of being "tied into" the bed by the covers. There will be enough time for that when they are confused, combative and in restraints!
Thanks for the info about the "real world!" A part of me knew we couldn't really be putting this much work into making a bed, I mean really - nurses don't have enough time to be this anal about a bed sheet when there are life and death situations to deal with, right?
Post a Comment