what a whirldwind of a life! i have a moment to sit and reflect because i am stuck without my car and i don't want to go out in the wind and i don't have to babysit or teach or do activist things. hurrah!
anyway, now i am just trying to get through nursing school in one piece. yesterday i had a clinical experience at the nursing home from 11-4:30. they don't play. anyway, here's an example of how unprepared to be a nurse i am: the charge nurse asked me and a friend to take vital signs (heart rate, o2 saturation, blood pressure, pain, respirations) on five people. we had about an hour and a half to get this done. simple, right? no! we only got 2 of the five people and we both forgot to check respirs! now, to be fair to myself, it must be understood that there are about a gazillion factors that interfere with getting this work done. i won't go into them because i REALLY don't want to risk any kind of hippa violations but we sucked. i know that right now it's just a matter of getting oriented and understanding the little things that no one mentions in the classroom but it's really hard. however, it's clear though that soon we will be able to do certain procedures with complete confidence and maybe even grace.
for now i will continue to read and practice and get that muscle memory and hopefully a little general orientation put together so i can actually be helpful!
