1. Going back to school as an adult is very different than when I did this as an 18 year old. Probably an obvious statement... But what surprises me the most is that I get all hot under the collar when the faculty starts in on being prepared for class and doing the reading, etc, implying that we are all slackers. When I was 18 I would have probably agreed that without some serious shaming I wasn't going to do my work. As I was venting about this to hubby he said, "Now, when people talk to you like that you send them to their rooms!" Very true very true. I'm totally not used to having an adult talk to me like I'm an idiot.2. Computers have changed things. Again an obvious statement! My organizational method for school prior to this was a spiral notebook for notes for each class preferably with built in pockets for the syllabus and any handouts. Now, we have a virtual classroom on the computer where announcements, the syllabus and all the notes or powerpoint slides are posted. We are supposed to print out the syllabus before the first class and each set of powerpoint slides that go with each lecture. Using the school's computer lab that isn't too difficult, they have high speed printers and unlimited paper! The downside is that I think having the instant download option makes the faculty less organized and less forgiving. So if an instructor doesn't post powerpoints until Sunday for a 9 a.m. Monday lecture, Oh Well, you still need to have it printed. Whine whine whine....
3. I had my first run in with a doctor this week. I was waiting for the elevator to go up to my car in the parking garage and didn't realize it had come and the doors were open (there are two elevators and it doesn't make any noise when it comes). There was a guy in scrub waiting as well right in front of the opening elevator. He SNAPPED at me, as in with two fingers snapped, and then said, "GO!" He SNAPPED at me! I almost sent him to his room. In the elevator I saw his name badge said he was a resident at Methodist. We'll assume he was coming off of a 36 hour shift or something but really, SNAPPING at a person? I MIGHT let Dr. House snap at me, MIGHT!4. I learned to give a bedbath and to make a bed this week. Must remember to thank my mom for insisting on hospital corners when we made our beds as kids. Making a hospital bed is a snap! Only trick is that you can't flap the linens to get them straight. Too much dust and linen lint gets popped into the air. We gave a bed bath to a manniquin. We'll see how that goes with a real person. Our lab time was delayed by four hours because of Hurricane Humberto (we didn't get even a drop of rain because it veered off at the last minute). And we got chastized by one of the instructors for not watching the videos ahead of time. We were supposed to watch the videos during lab but they skipped it because of the delay. Somehow we were supposed to intuit that it would be a good idea to search around the vitual classroom, find bedbath and bedmaking videos, guess that they were associated with the lab class (because there are at least two different videos on each of those topics) and watch them, because we would just KNOW instintively that they would want to skip that part after the delay. See point number 1 to see how I feel about this.
5. Met my clinical instructor. Her name is Flo. She's probably early 50s, from the East Coast so she has a New Yorkish accent. Really really like her! Very nice.
6. I have my first round of tests this coming week. Dosage calculations which is a math test and pass/fail. You get 100, you pass, you get anything else, you fail. No pressure....And I have a pharmacology test. Learned some cool stuff about pain and pain meds last week. When increased slowly and over time, Morphine has no ceiling, which means that you can give someone huge doses of Morphine without causing liver or kidney toxicity, as long as their dose was increased slowly as their tolerance to the drug increased. And I learned that in an emergency you don't need a doctor's order to use Narcan (the antidote to narcotics).
7. Learned to take a blood pressure. No not using the automatic machine! Using a cuff and a stethescope.
So that's the week in review. Any one need their blood pressure checked? I'm your girl!
1 comment:
Wow! Most everything sounds fun except dealing with snapping doctors and patronizing professors. LOVE the photos you included, 'specially Flo. Gotta love a woman named Flo!
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