Hopkins Summer Experience
Welcome back blogger fans! School is back in session and the semester is well on its way. Before telling you about my current semester, I need to bring you up to speed on how I spent my summer.
I spent three months working in the Weinberg Intensive Care Unit (WICU) at Johns Hopkins. The WICU is a surgical oncology adult intensive care unit where we primarily care for patients that have undergone some type of surgery in an effort to have a cancerous mass removed. You may have heard of the Whipple procedure. If you haven’t, you should look it up at http://pathology.jhu.edu/pancreas/whipplePop.html. I don’t remember a week going by where we did not have a Whipple patient. For all you Whipple fans, I know what you’re thinking. Did you get to see Dr. Cameron? Yes. I saw Dr. Cameron almost every day. He is an early bird. In fact, he is seeing patients before the birds start singing in the morning!
Working this summer gave me the opportunity to put my nursing knowledge (especially pathophysiology and pharmacology) and my nursing skills into action in a carefully guided and safe way. I recommend that future nursing applicants really consider the traditional programs because you will have a summer in between your first and second year to digest what you have learned from the first year and a chance to apply some of your knowledge to the nursing field. You can sit in a class all day and no matter how interesting or great the class and professor are it will not compare to work experience.
My Typical WICU Shift
1. Come 15-30 minutes early to get patient assignments, review patient history and design worksheet in hourly increments. This is most important for time management.
2. Meet with nurse and other people taking care of patient and listen to a report on the patient.
3. Go talk to the patient! Tell them your plan for the day and get to know them! One of my favorite parts of the day.
4. I did my beginning shift tasks and then I went on rounds with the nurse practitioners, doctors, pharmacists and other nurses. This was a time for me to think about the reasons behind the care for our patients. It was a great processing time. Everyone was great to explain things to me and I always got great diagrams, handouts and articles from rounds.
5. Continue with my hourly nursing tasks and read the patient’s chart in between nursing responsibilities.
6. I made an effort to read at least one article per shift pertaining to an ICU issue or procedure. I think it’s important to build your foundational knowledge bank! Nurse educators are great resources and I found that medical students, residents, pharmacists, and attendings were all more than happy to share and explain information to me. That’s the beauty of working at a teaching hospital. People expect questions and are there to teach among many other things.
7. Clean and organize the room. No Clutter and No Germs Allowed near my sweet patients. I love the Caviwipes and hospital heavy duty Clorox wipes! They are our friends.