Adventures in Mursing School

You Know You're a Guy in Nursing School When...

david — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 21:38:00 GMT

You know you're a guy in nursing school....

10. When a conversation about shaving involves more than one's face.

9. When you find you have something to contribute when discussing mom's menopause.

8. When professors are able to notice your absence from a lecture.

7. When your lunch is twice as big as those who you are eating with.

6. When you have to either go up or down a flight of stairs to use a school bathroom.

5. When you ask your friends about the football game and the answer involves Project Runway.

4. When you're the only one on the unit receiving daily requests from elderly ladies for a sponge bath.

3. When when you see as many men in a day as there are groups in the food pyramid.

2. When you're unable to tell your OB patients "I understand"...cause really, you don't.

1. When breast/testicular exam day is the most awkward experience of your life!

Mile High Catheter Crazies

david — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 22:53:00 GMT

I have a dirty little secret.
Without the rigors of nursing classes to hose off my new car smell…I've gotten soft this summer.
My shoulders aren't tense, I chew my food before swallowing it, and I sleep 7 plus hours a night. I almost feel guilty.
Almost.

And what is it that's been filling my dog days of summer?
Buckets and buckets O goodness.
I'm fortunate to be in a grand place (Denver) doing great work (at University of Colorado Hospital's surgery unit) having good fun (hiking, biking, feeding) with fantastic folks.

My official title at work is referred to as Advanced Care Partner (as opposed to the Primitive Care Partner I suppose?). But make no mistake about it; Custodial Engineer is to janitor as Advanced Care Partner is to nurse intern. Dare I say, a spade is a spade. Apparently the Colorado Board of Nursing thought having the word 'nurse' in the Nurse Intern title was confusing to patients and gave them too much street cred. So walla…they birthed the title of Advanced Care Partner and I've been explaining my role to patients ever since.

Patient: So what is an Advanced Care Partner?
Me: I'm in the middle of nursing school. Basically I'm a nurse intern.
Patient: Oh, then why don't they call you a nurse intern?
Me: Because they thought it would be confusing.

Somewhere in that exchange is a lesson on the beauty of simplicity.

The patient population we see on our floor is quite eclectic ranging from Thyroidectomy’s to Pancreatic Cancer to Cellulites to Kidney Donations to MRSA to VRE to Prostatectomy’s to Pelvic Exonerations to Bowel Obstructions to you name it we get it. Apparently we are the busiest unit in the hospital. The work I do is CNA in role (i.e. taking vitals, giving baths, checking blood glucose levels, cleaning code browns) with a few exceptions. For example we perform phlebotomy, insert IV’s and catheters, and change wound dressings. Stuff you’d like to write home about but can’t cause daddy gets squeamish.

As this has been my first hospital work experience, everything is new and shiny to me. So the other day when a patient pulled his fully inflated Foley catheter out, Murphy’s Law says I’m the one who walks in to find it. Great for no one, bad for all…that’s the lesson learned.

With 2 months completed and 1 month till my Advanced Care Partnership ends, I hope to sponge up as much as I can before headed back to 525 North Wolfe Street!

Team Sport

david — Sun, 18 May 2008 18:25:00 GMT

You know that feeling you get after you've changed into clean underwear, ran a marathon, or been found after 40 days lost at sea? It is the same feeling I now have after completing one year of nursing school...relief.

The main take-away lesson learned from my time thus far has been the following: nursing school is a team sport.

Just as in any program, there are classes you love and digest effortlessly while others are as palatable as a ball of earwax. But as with any adventure or journey in life, it isn't the place that makes the difference; it is indeed the people you share it with. To this I must say that I've been one funky lucky ducky. My schoolmates, whether in either of the Traditional Classes or the Accelerated Class have been an all-in-one gift...a support system, informational resource, study buddies, advisor's, meditation partners, and an overall lifeline. So I tip my hat, raise my glass, wipe my brow, and dance a jig to each person that has made this trek so flavorful.

Now thanks to Hopkins alumni (i.e. see above paragraph) I have landed a summer job in Denver at a Hospital as an intern on a med surg floor doing things that will surely make for good writing fodder. Splitting my time between nursing knowledge and mountain mounting will bring the necessary balance needed to polish off that last year of nursing school. Bottoms up!

Summer Up

david — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 02:45:00 GMT

Remember when you were 10 and mom and dad wouldn't let you open your Christmas gifts until the entire family was up, awake, and showered...oooooh the anticipation!

That’s exactly what I feel like with only 3 more weeks till summer. Note to self if you will be attending nursing school here. The 2nd semester is a much bigger bear than the 1st. And from the second year students I've spoken with, the 3rd and 4th semesters are even bigger yet. It’s cool though. It’s more of a challenge than when I tried to drink a gallon of milk in an hour...and I’m a lactard. Ugh.

So as the summer approaches, my energies are focused on finding hospital work as an intern/extern/CNA/tech in the land of John Elway, Coors Light and mile-highness...Denver. What is the difference between an extern, intern, CNA, and tech? Well, come to find out it depends on the institution you're asking. There isn't a standard definition of skills for what a student does at one hospital verses another. Slightly frustrating, majorly confusing. Phlebotomy, IV's, vitals...you never know what you're going to get.

Now I must take this opportunity to tip my hat and brag about Hopkins Alumni. As I am in hot pursuit of work out in Denver, I'm very aware that it is often not what you know, but who you know that lands you a job in this day and age. So I sent a few emails out to Hopkins Alum in the greater Denver area and they have been amazingly helpful in their responses. Some send advice. Some send contacts. Some even send an invite to stay at their house and offer a ride to and from the airport. It really is a wonderful community to be associated with. Fingers crossed, I will have employment in Denver soon enough!

What Nursing School Does to You

david — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 01:38:00 GMT

Nursing school impels you to do a grab bag of things. Now I haven't quite danced an entire years worth of schooling yet, but from what I've experienced thus far, it drives you to:

1-Combine. You find yourself combining studying while eating, driving, cooking, cycling, walking, showering and/or _________ (fill in the blank with just about anything).
2-Prioritize. Studying over eating. Eating over sleeping. Sleeping over spending time with friends and family. And at the end of two years you may find yourself hungry, tired, and alone, but definitely the most intelligent nurse in the hospital.
3-Change lifestyle patterns. That is unless of course you already spend 25 hours a week studying pharmacology, consider an 8 minute walk a day's workout and find Florence Nightingale making nightly appearances in your dreams. Yikes.
4-Ingest knowledge. While it may be somewhat likened to opening a fire hose in front of your face, the amount of information presented to you and subsequently digested is nothing short of awesome.
5-Love. Love for the job, love for the challenges, and especially love for the people who are sharing in the rollercoaster known as nursing school. Which I suppose makes the take-away message: do what you love and love what you do.

Shifting into 2nd Gear

david — Sat, 19 Jan 2008 18:20:00 GMT

At 8 years old I was rejuvenated by feasting on Twinkies, watching 3 hours of Saturday morning cartoons, and strolling down any isle in Toys R Us. Now, 20 years later, recharging my batteries is accomplished in a slightly different manner.

Over this past holiday break, it consisted of a trip to British Columbia, meters of snow, hot springs, snowshoeing, skiing, and a wee mountain hostel.

Round two of nursing school starts up next week and I'm surprisingly ready for it because of this lengthy holiday break. I found that five weeks is a long time to go without manhandling a catheter, fretting over an IPOC, or neurotically scribbling in scantron bubbles. Pathetically enough, I had withdrawals.

Alas, in 72 hours, I will be sitting in class squirming about in a feeble attempt to stifle my squirrelish ADD while sponging up pathophysiology and pharmacology. Realizing my excitement may be curbed this time next week, I will ride the wave while it's here.

Hopefully, throughout this upcoming, trying semester I will keep in mind that being stressed is a choice...as is happiness. My new years wish for 2008 is that the latter will continue to weigh more than the former for everyone in the program. But most of all, I’m looking forward to seeing the familiar smiling faces scurrying around within the walls of the school of nursing.

10 best ways to avoid studying for finals

david — Sun, 09 Dec 2007 05:37:00 GMT

10. Eat. You gotta do it to survive, so why not feast twice as much as normal to kill all that study time.

9. Clean your room. Since it hasn't seen windex, 409, or pine-sol for the past 3 month, now is an excellent time to start scrubbing.

8. Open a facebook account. And then open 5 more. No time to study when you're trying to make 700 "friends."

7. Volunteer at a soup kitchen. This makes for a great excuse once you've failed that P&A exam and you have to answer your professor's question..."why did you fail?"

6. Alphabetize your CDs. Oh wait. Music is digital now and alphabetizing it only requires pushing a button. Instead organize your t-shirts...by color.

5. Call grandma. As it usually takes her 10 minutes to remember your name anyways, this conversation will easily burn an hour off the clock.

4. Put up holiday decorations. You could spend an entire morning untangling Christmas lights or bandaging the 2nd degree burns you received while lighting the menorah.

3. Take a walk down the wrong street in Baltimore. Not only will you not have to study, you probably won't have to take that exam from your hospital room.

2. Start flossing. You never knew how long it took to floss. And now that it's either that or studying...get those gums a bleedin.

1. Blog!

Hot Dogs For Homeless

david — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 02:32:00 GMT

Ahhh Thanksgiving! A time to give. Give what, you may wonder? A time to give thanks. A time to give love. A time to give hot dogs.

For today, after getting rejected from multiple soup kitchens and homeless shelters, I did the latter. It is wonderful to see these Baltimore non-profit social service organizations saturated with help during the break, but I wondered if there was another niche to fill; and that’s when it hit me. Realizing not all homeless folks are mobile or drift into shelters, I decided to combine two of my loves in life to tackle this hiccup...hot dogs and cycling! So after cooking up a grill full of dogs, wrapping them in aluminum foil armed with condiment packets, packing them into a handlebar bag and backpack, I pedaled into the streets!

And this is how pathetic I am...for the first 20 minutes, I couldn't get one homeless chap to take a hot dog. Not one. Absolutely zero interest. Never mind they were still hot. Never mind they were organic. Never mind that I had become the person begging them to take my food. Then I recognized I was cycling around the heart of the soup kitchen district and everyone had already eaten lunch. Sweet. The problem was in my location. So off I went further west and further north.

Alas, it took no more than 45 minutes to get rid of 30 hot dogs. I chatted with some amazing people who live a lifestyle so foreign to most of us that it is hard to relate. It is in this difficulty relating that detachment from homelessness occurs. Without the ability to see myself in their shoes, I cannot develop empathy. Without empathy, I lack the motivational mechanism to help. Without...well, we can see this spiraling already. Exit soapbox stage left. Oh, and most shocking site of the day award goes to the two homeless individuals playing videogames on their Playstation 2 atop cardboard boxes. Baltimore…what a city. We are all, to some extent, products of our environments and after 3 months I find myself delighted at the caliber of people who contribute to this daily Baltimore/Hopkins circus show!

Now…can I interest anyone in a hot dog?

N.I.T.s

david — Sat, 27 Oct 2007 08:51:00 GMT

There is a name for people like us. I'm not exactly sure what it is, but the best I've come up with thus far are NITs ---Nurses In Training.

While we're only eight weeks deep into nursing school, the program here hasn't wasted time in getting our education and training process underway. The seem long, while most weeks fly by. If it doesn't make sense, it will when you're here. So I came to Hopkins to become a great nurse. That’s it. Simple as that. Take the appropriate classes, get good grades, learn the skills, and point me to a patient.

However since arriving my peripherals have been blown off with all of the various opportunities secondary to our core objective. Center for Global Health...what's that? Student government...sure, sign me up. Intramural sports...lets play. Community Outreach program...okey-dokey. Not to mention just across the street is the School of Public Health which offers keynote big-name speakers and fascinating elective classes. One of the most powerful moments in the program thus far came during a class within the first two weeks. Up on the screen our instructor put a picture of a Johns Hopkins diploma. She then asked "so where is it?" "Where is what?" the class responded." The GPA. Where is the GPA on the diploma?" It was a point well made, as GPA's don't exist on diplomas. I could almost hear a collective sigh of relief leave the lungs from everyone in the room.

The lesson stands though; am I here to get good grades or am I here to get an education? Make no scruples about it, there is a difference between the two and I for one have made my choice. I wish you luck in making yours.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to study before our football game.