The Real Deal… Almost

You know what I realized??

I talk a lot about how tired I am, how crazy class and school is, and what I do in my free time…

I don’t spend a lot of time telling you about how Hopkins is actually preparing me to be a kick-butt nurse. So I will tell you … and I promise, they are.

Besides learning the basics- like how to give injections, give meds, reposition patients, take vitals, etc, we learn a lot about exactly what to do for a patient presenting with certain symptoms.  For example: A COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) patient  will have have trouble breathing, and having gunk in their lungs:  we know to try and sit them up, practice pursed lip breathing, do incentive spirometry, help them breathe in a trip-pod position etc.  We can also oxygenate them, but not too much- O2 is a COPD patient’s trigger to breathe (whereas for a person with normal lung function it’s CO2).

What’s really great about this Adult Health clinical thus far is I am starting to feel like a real nurse.  My pathophysiology, pharmacology, and principles/applications classes are all coming together. When I am scheduled to give meds for my patient on this clinical, I am essentially their nurse: I give their meds, perform their treatments, as well as other interventions (breathing, elevating edematous legs, pain assessments, etc).  What’s better is I feel like I am understanding what is going on with my patients.  It feels GREAT and rewarding to know that there is rhyme and reason to all the madness.

Next step, more complicated patients, and more patients at once. But that’s for next semester, so I’m not sweating it now.  What I will sweat about is our big pharmacology test this week, and then it’s a downhill gradient until finals.

Almost halfway done with this program, halfway to being the real deal- I can hardly believe it!

Here is a GREAT photo of my psych clinical group- can’t believe this was only a few weeks ago!