Med Surge 6

-Responsibilities: The RN who i was following was in charge of giving medicines to the patients that their doctors had ordered and put in their chart, then answer any calls from patients rooms.
-New knowledge/skills: I learned that before nurses do any thing, even give patients water, they have to consult the doctor their working with!
-Best thing: The best thing was probably watching the floor meeting, it was interesting to hear all the things that nurses have to put up with!
-Worst thing: I watched as a nurse pulled the longest tube in the world out of a patients nose and not very many things gross me out but that just made me gag a little bit.
-This week was GOOD because I really liked the nurse I was following!

Technology Observed: I asked the nurse i was following what program they use to chart and she said it was called Serna, which i really different from the one i used to use at my chiropractic office. I also witnessed a nasal tube connected to long hose connected to a plastic jar that was put in place to drain stuff from this lady's stomach because she had a bowel obstruction.
Diagnostic Procedures: There was not necessarily a diagnostic procedure because we were on a mostly cardiac recovery floor. But my nurse did stop someone from getting discharged because she noticed the patient had a hard time swallowing and it turns out his food was going into his lungs and not down his esophagus
Therapeutic Procedures: I saw the nurse mix a little vile of something clear into a new IV bag and hang it for the patient because he needed a new antibiotic. I also saw a man with bilateral wound vacs on both his feet because he had a staff infection in his bones.
Diseases/Disorders: I observed a man with a staff infection in both his bones in his legs, I also saw a lady with diabetic ulcers on her legs that she told me were very painful.
Medical Terminology: The nurse called for a "STAT 12 Eval" which is a swallowing evaluation done by a speech therapist to test if someone is swallowing and their food is going into their lungs. STAT means right now!

I. When i first walked in i noticed how extremely quiet the floor was. It was almost eerily quiet because i had to search for a nurse! The nurses were all very friendly and seemed to really like their job. They all talked super quietly and then i noticed the "SHHH" posters which stands for "silent hospitals help healing". They used completely computer based charting with Serna. I also saw these alarm looking boxes that would light up every time a patient pressed the call button from their rooms.

II. The nurses were all very talkative and seemed to be really close. They knew their patients extremely well and talked about them to each other (which might be a HIPPA violation but I'm not sure). They all shared patients so they must work very well together, and they also told me they loved their boss which must be really nice. The safety procedures was they all wore masks and gloves into every room no matter what. I mostly saw the nurse walk around and hang all the 11 o'clock medicines.

III. A new thing I learned about was vancomicin is used to treat gram positive cocci clusters in the bloodstream. I also was told that med surge 6 was a "no pass zone" which means if a light goes off in front of a room you have to stop what you're doing and see what the patients calling for. i also leaned that when people go on maternity leave the hospitals will contract out for people like speech therapists.

IV. Overall i enjoyed med surge 6, although its too quiet a place for me to ever see myself working in. I really enjoyed talking to the nurse i was following because she was very excited to answer all my questions. The patients all really liked her too. I thought med surge was very educational but as a word of advice you need to be ready to ask questions because they don't talk unless talked to first.
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Day Stay

This week i was in day stay and it was pretty cool.The best thing that happened was when i got to see a wound vac!! I got to see the inside of a hollow hole that kind of looked like a bullet wound....The worst thing must of been just sitting around for like 20 mins when waiting for the wound nurse. This week was good.
  Technology that i observed was one of those sympatic temperature that they swipe your forehead with! I've  heard about it but never actually seen one. Another thing was IV pole to get 3 units of blood once a week because he has some sort of cancer.
  I did not see a real diagnostic procedure due to the fact that I was with patients who were jut getting out of surgery.
  The therapeutic procedures I saw was a patient icing his foot after surgery. The next thing I saw was a wound vac. She removed the bandages and cut a new piece of foam to stick into the hole.
  I didn't encounter much medical terminology but i did hear Narco which is a really strong hydrocodone that you can only get a 30 day prescription of. Some doctors are trying to switch to tylenol #3 because it requires less recording but it has been known to cause horrible stomach aches and is not as effective at painkilling.
  The environment was very calming and relaxed which  was really nice and I suppose it would've been really nice for the patients who were recovering. The nurses all seem to be really good friends and they had fun conversations about dates and such! They also had a nick name  for patients who come very often, "frequent fliers", which is really funny. Also, they all seemed really concerned about a patient who they see frequently who didn't come in that day.
  There were lots of different people coming through the nurses station including anesthesia doctors and nurses and surgical techs and surgeons. They had a board for everyone's different jobs and if someone couldn't do something everyone would offer to help! it was great how they all were eager to help each other. Everyone was great at communication except for one nurse who spoke very broken English. All their stuff was very clean and packaged separately.
  The new information was watching the wound vac and seeing how they did it. I also learned about different drugs and procedures.

Grace care 1/8/15

Grace Care was pretty regular this week. I was originally in LTC and per usual we passed out ice, After we went to all the rooms we found Ida the activities lady and she told us to come help the garden bridge residents with a parachute game. I don't really have a good or bad because nothing really happened. But a plus was Ms.Peggy was back! I love her because she always tells me how cute my outfit is and how pretty I am. She's pretty rad.

Stuff Will Appear

This is where clinical rotation and grace care stuff will appear.