Late Entry#1- Friday the 17th

Oops, busy busy busy.

Ordinarily I would let a few days slide, just because maybe enough cool stuff didn't happen. However, this was not the case. Friday was a cool day.
In my externship, I've primarily been working on the trauma side of the ER. Today (er, Friday) I got my first taste of the ED.
Compared to my old floor (med-surg) you move patients a lot faster in trauma, compared to the ED you get them going fast! They are in and out within hours, if all is going well. I really liked it. This is a good thing. I was enjoying trauma so much I was scared that if I ever had to work ED all my love for this department would fail. Just because it was different. However, not the case. It was yet again great. Even as I sat there doing the umptenth pelvic exam, holding a cup to catch baseball sized clots as they fell out of this woman, I knew I was where I wanted to be doing what I loved to do.

Let me illuminate a few more of the nurses I'm working with. (They're all fantastic!)
My preceptor for Friday (and a few days prior) was (fake name alert) Jacob. There are too many examples of how great a teacher and a preceptor she is. I was gaining a lot of confidence and took a few things on my own. She hadn't worked with me in a while but after she saw me in action she let me go. It was great. Very nice not to have someone breathing down my neck for once, (not that she ever did, see previous post.)

Anyway, one funny story that relaxed me about nursing.
One of our patients had a bad IV so we needed to place a new one and give her some meds through it. As an extern I can't pass meds. So I went to discharge someone else. Jacob comes out later redder than a tomato and relays this story.
I was just in there doing my thing, talking away like I normally do. Put the second IV in, pushed the med and took the IV out. Not even realizing I took the good one out and left the bad one. The husband looked at me and with a laugh asked. "Is that what you call an IV?" I was so embarrised.
Ah well, at least the baby nurse (me) knows that mistakes happen, even to the best of nurses.

I'd like to tell you about how awesome our Patient Care Manager is but I don't think there's time before I bored you all to death, however, know it's coming. I'll call her Zepham and she is simply amazing. She's not one of those, "keeps my schedule the way I like it" amazing. Even though she does that. She's amazing in her attitude, her spirit, how funny she is, and her bluntness. She's a great role model to have, and I've added her to my list.

And in other news.
I finally went out and had some drinks with my nursing friends. These students are great and I will only miss them if I lose contact with them, something I'm hoping not to do. I was driving home and recieved a phone call asking me if I wanted to go out with them. So I did.
We had a blast. The only bad part was I had just gotten off 12 hours so I was getting really tired by 10pm. By 11:30 I was beat tired, slightly glazed over and not doing much. Whatever they thought I was thinking, I was not bored but having one of the times of my life.

What is really funny is, as we were sitting there, enjoying the music and each other we saw a group of the class below us (juniors) come in. Most dressed high heels, short (very short) skirts, and probably already a little intoxicated. Our jaws dropped. Things must be a heck of a lot easier for them, because this was one of the first times we ever got to go out and we graduate in 3 weeks. I'm so glad I was on the committee that made their life easier. (I'm just a little bitter, they have no idea what we went through to get things managable for them. Sometimes a few of them can be jerks about it.)

Ah well, que sera, sera. Not much you can do about it.