Well, I finally had to leave my patient that I took care of for the last four weeks. Looking back it was a good experience, although it definately had its share of "rough" moments. However, two great things did happen that I want to mention and they actually had very little to do with my job as a nursing student. First I was able to play the piano in the luch room for the residents. Honestly, I was very supprised how many of them actually enjoyed it. In the past, people have listened to me play but they are usually just being polite rather than really enjoying the music. Playing for the residents also helped my get over my nerves of playing infront of people. After all, these were valuable human beings who I should love and I did it by playing as well as I could. Knowing that I shouldn't be nervous about making a mistake because that focus the attention on myself rather on the people listening.
The other instance happened when a very cognitive patient (he is probably more cognitive than I) asked me the question of how I deal with having a patient die. Of course, I told him that I couldn't really say since I have not experienced that, thank goodness. But I went on to talk about my faith and just how that would really be the only thing I could completly depend on if such a situation were to occur. This moment was important to me because it is really the first time I have ever gotten to share what I believe with patients. To often I envision such an experience happening in a very sales-pitchy, shallow kind of way, but this instance looked and sounded sincere. It helped show me one way my faith can realistically and sincerely be applied in nursing.
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Monday, October 12, 2009
The Busy Life of Nursing School
Blog # 5
As the semester progresses and the homework and assignments slowly begin to pile up, I find myself tempted to cut back on all other activities in order to focus on school. While this may seem harmless on the surface, it has some deeper importance. Many things that I know are important slowly get crowed out of my schedule. Spending time with God, reading my Bible, church, hanging out with my best friends are all things I should fit into my schedule regardless. Indeed, it becomes a find balancing act to have a career and a life outside of work. I come from a family where work was highly valued so I need to recognize my own tendinces to overwork myself. After all, how can I be successful at loveing and caring for my patients if I am not first taking care of myself? In essence, I am loveing my patients by taking care of myself and doing them a diservice when I am not.
As the semester progresses and the homework and assignments slowly begin to pile up, I find myself tempted to cut back on all other activities in order to focus on school. While this may seem harmless on the surface, it has some deeper importance. Many things that I know are important slowly get crowed out of my schedule. Spending time with God, reading my Bible, church, hanging out with my best friends are all things I should fit into my schedule regardless. Indeed, it becomes a find balancing act to have a career and a life outside of work. I come from a family where work was highly valued so I need to recognize my own tendinces to overwork myself. After all, how can I be successful at loveing and caring for my patients if I am not first taking care of myself? In essence, I am loveing my patients by taking care of myself and doing them a diservice when I am not.
Sunday, October 11, 2009
Second Week of Clinicals Part 2
Blog #4
Today was so much better in terms of my patient's progression than yesterday. She completed all her exercises and walked for the first time since her fall. It is still depressing to think that she still many never recover, but at least we made headway. And, it seems that there are a few key things which are preventing her from exercising, namely pain and feeling tired. The best part is that a nurses help can change that. This has been such a great lesson for me to really think of things from the patient's perspective. Narrowing in on what my goals for the patient is can mean that I completly miss out on crucial information. I think that the term "holistic care" has been overused to become a very trite expression, but this situation did teach me the value of considering other parts of a patient's health, sometimes from their perspective rather than our own. God made people very complex and it seems that if a nurse honors and remembers that, they can provide care that helps the patient so much more.
Today was so much better in terms of my patient's progression than yesterday. She completed all her exercises and walked for the first time since her fall. It is still depressing to think that she still many never recover, but at least we made headway. And, it seems that there are a few key things which are preventing her from exercising, namely pain and feeling tired. The best part is that a nurses help can change that. This has been such a great lesson for me to really think of things from the patient's perspective. Narrowing in on what my goals for the patient is can mean that I completly miss out on crucial information. I think that the term "holistic care" has been overused to become a very trite expression, but this situation did teach me the value of considering other parts of a patient's health, sometimes from their perspective rather than our own. God made people very complex and it seems that if a nurse honors and remembers that, they can provide care that helps the patient so much more.
Thursday, October 8, 2009
Second Week of Clinicals Part 1
Blog # 3
Today I had a lot of positive things happen, but for this entry I want to focus on something less than ideal. My patient, a wonderful 98 year old lady, has been haveing trouble recovering from several fractures. I know the statistics about how many elderly people actually recover from a hip fracture is not good. Today the therapist informed me that this patient, who was almost completely independent before the fall, is going to be moved to the long term care section. In other words, care will now focus on maintenance not recovery. My inital feeling was that the therapists are just "giving up". They have many other patients who are making better progress in their recovery, so it seems they focus on them. I can't help but think that if someone was right beside this lady, encouraging her to exersice and to constantly remind her that it will help get her home, she could regain all that independence and strength she had before. Instead of that, she is, in a sense, doomed to spend the rest of her life, in a skilled nursing facility. As her care taker, I can still make a difference in her life, however, the potential just shrunk an priceless amount. I will still care for her as best I can, but it becomes so much harder knowing that your patient will never reach the sweet independence of their previous life, nor even their own goals of recovery. God's really going to have to teach me to rely on hime in these difficult situations.
Today I had a lot of positive things happen, but for this entry I want to focus on something less than ideal. My patient, a wonderful 98 year old lady, has been haveing trouble recovering from several fractures. I know the statistics about how many elderly people actually recover from a hip fracture is not good. Today the therapist informed me that this patient, who was almost completely independent before the fall, is going to be moved to the long term care section. In other words, care will now focus on maintenance not recovery. My inital feeling was that the therapists are just "giving up". They have many other patients who are making better progress in their recovery, so it seems they focus on them. I can't help but think that if someone was right beside this lady, encouraging her to exersice and to constantly remind her that it will help get her home, she could regain all that independence and strength she had before. Instead of that, she is, in a sense, doomed to spend the rest of her life, in a skilled nursing facility. As her care taker, I can still make a difference in her life, however, the potential just shrunk an priceless amount. I will still care for her as best I can, but it becomes so much harder knowing that your patient will never reach the sweet independence of their previous life, nor even their own goals of recovery. God's really going to have to teach me to rely on hime in these difficult situations.
Thursday, October 1, 2009
First Day of Clinicals
Today was our first day of clinicals and boy did I enjoy it. It wasn't too stressfula and all of the staff at the nursing home were friendly and oh so helpful. I've worked in a nursing home before as an aid, but this rotation, I think, will really bring on a new challange. The technical parts I can handle and learn, but the new part will be trying to care for the whole person. As an aid, I really didn't have time to try to meet any but the physical needs of the residents. This may eventually be the case again in nursing, but while I only have on patient I have the oppurtunity to meed those other needs. As sorry as this sounds, I had never gotten into the habbit, or even thought of, praying for my patients. I certainly did my best to care for the patients while I worked, but I didn't get involved spiritually. My tendency in clinicals will be to really get going with the physical aspects of care and I forget other parts of care. I'm guessing I'll need to slow myself down and sometimes focus specifically on non-physical needs. For a start, I intend to get in the habit of praying for my patients everyday. We'll see how that goes.
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