Elective Credits

So on top of regular classes, clinics and jobs in the hospital/community, the School of Nursing and School of Public Health offer a TON of electives.  Well I guess the PUBH classes are for all their students, but we are able to take classes without any additional charge which is AMAZING.  As if life was not busy enough I decided to pick up a class called Health and Homelessness.  The up side to the class is that it meets for two entire Saturdays, two half days and a 12 hour practicum a.k.a. totally doable with an already packed schedule.

Today was class two of four and the speakers spoke on a range of topics which included harm reduction, the housing first model, advocacy, mental health and veterans affairs.  You all know how much I love infographics, and it just so happens that three presenters used the same one in their presentation; it was just that good.

Basically the take away message it is much cheaper for the taxpayer to place people who are homeless in a house than it is to put them in a shelter, jail, etc.  A lot of old school organizations and people in the field have a hard time wrapping their head around the concept of housing first because it says that we should give everyone, including those who have serious drug and alcohol abuse problems, a house and maybe put them into housing before those who can afford to scrape together enough money for substandard housing.  While many see this as not being fair (and really it is not on many levels), it has been shown to save money which can be used by organizations to then help with vouchers, rent payments and security deposits for those who can scrape together some money for housing.  More on housing first in the weeks to come. 

Another thing that stuck with me was the concept of self-sufficiency.  For years and years our field has been telling people who are homeless that they need to be self sufficient before we can give them a house and/or ask for them to be successful.  The guy who came to speak about advocacy started off this topic by saying that he was not completely self-sufficient.  If he was he would have to be able to make his own clothes, grow his own food, etc. which would probably leave him very little if any time for work.  In fact, even the small communities who are isolated in the Appalachian Mountains rely on other community members/the outside world in order to survive.  Instead, it will be important to create a supportive community for an individual so they can get help when they get stuck.  While they will need to do many things for themselves, they should not be completely alone in the process of getting and/or maintaining stable, affordable housing.

Doing Nursng Things (Part Deux)

For our Adult Health I rotation we are in clinic Thursdays and Fridays.  A major part of this  session is not only starting to put theory into practice, but also to practice the skills we learnd in lab on real people (how scary is that).  One of the major jobs of the nurse on a unit is to keep track of orders and medications.  As a result, the students on my floor are responsible for giving medications/running IVs one day a week (there are too many of us to do it both days).

Today was my first day on the floor giving meds which meant last night I needed to research all the drugs my patient was getting: drug class, pharmokenetics, indication, contraindcations, side effects, adverse effects, thinks to keep in mind as a nurse, patient education.  All of this info was then placed on several 4x6 inch index cards which I could use for reference when quizzed by my clinical instructor. 

With my bag of meds (and let me tell you there were quite a few), IV bags and tubing I headed to my patient's room with my clinical instructor gave the PO meds, hung the IV and then GAVE MY FIRST INSULIN SHOT.  Now you might not think this is a big deal, but up until this point all we have "shot up" is a pillow.  Later on this afternoon we headed back with more meds, IV bags and I got to do a LEGIT subcutaneous injection.  Two weeks down 5 to go.

Doing Nursing Things

New students on a med-surge floor have a fairly small scope scope of practice.  Let's be honest you don't really know much and are afraid if you look at your patient wrong they might die on you (that is a bit of an exaggeration, but you get the sentiment. 

As a nursing student, you own a handful of things:

• AM care - bed baths, changing sheets/towels, etc
• I/Os - you track everything that goes and everything that goes out
• Vital signs
• Getting cups of water and ice (I am a rock star here)

Week two on the floor means you start passing meds (that is tomorrow) and doing "nursing things" you have practiced on dummies in SIM.  Today I was paired with a great nurse who give me some tricks of the trade with priming IV tubing, flushing lines and hooking up lines to patients (I got to do all three).

Well Played Mother Nature

For weeks all kinds of spring memes have been popping up in my Google Reader 

a.k.a. where is the spring weather and why is it snowing?!?

This week we are getting our first string of nice days, but it feels more like summer!

Well played Mother Nature, well played.

FREE CONE DAY TOMORROW!!!

Do it for me because the only Ben and Jerry's near me DOES NOT participate in Free Cone Day :(

Meta Picture Monday

A Lovely Day for some LAX

This spring I am volunteering as a first responder with a local girls youth lacrosse team.  Spring has finally sprung here in Baltimore - 70 degrees and sunny!!!