Today, as a friend and I stood on the sidewalk across from the grocery store, I exclaimed, “Wow! Do you see what I see?!”
“A Christmas Tree!”
Okay Whole Foods, a little premature, but we don’t mind! Hello Christmas!!
And with that said, we, the Accelerated class of 2010, are one holiday closer to becoming RNs! Soon it will be hearts plastered over the windows, Shamrocks, Easter bunnies, and then, can you believe it? Graduation will be here. Sometimes it feels like the year is dragging on- Patient Care plan, after Patient Care plan, but then you are amazed that you can even write a Patient care plan, as you look down at your feet and see boots, remembering that when you first arrived you were wearing flip flops and attending class everyday pretty much covered in sweat on account of the East coast humidity.
How the time flies…
Being a one half nurse is a great feeling- for all of our not-knowing, we have so much more knowing that we could have ever possibly imagined. I mean, I can tell you about cancer, how and why and even what drugs to take! This is insanity. This is coming from a person who had an undergrad in Arts and Social Sciences and Elementary Ed., who was terrified of Biology and preferred reading and writing poetry to wondering about cells and how the body worked.
Now I wonder about cells. I am absolutely fascinated.
Our second semester is coming to a close, we have learned ¾ of our drugs, and on Wednesday, 3/4 of our diseases. We’ve watched babies be caught, and we’ve practiced, practiced, and then practiced therapeutic communication some more with our mental health patients. OB was great- babies are wonderful, but then so are patients with dementia. This is my unit. Other students are on units with patients who have major depressive disorders, eating disorders, schizophrenia, Bipolar disorder, chronic pain, substance abuse issues, and obsessive compulsive disorders. Incredibly fascinating and incredibly devastating….but we have learned and seen that there is hope for many of these patients.
We are all learning to talk and to be the intervention to the patient. A lot of the time it’s listening, some of the time it’s redirecting someone and calming them down, other times it ‘s coloring pictures, and sometimes it’s sitting with the patient to just be there. It’s weird to think about your very presence being therapeutic- no talking, no teaching, no BP cuff, no listening to lung sounds, but just being. It’s a shift in thinking, we often feel like saying, but I should do this, or this! But I think we have all learned a lot about how to talk and how to be patient, and how to be non-judgmental, and how to just be.
~Enjoy your Thanksgiving! I’m off to model the grocery store and prematurely bask in the Christmas season with music while I study Patho!
Rachel