Mursing Blog

I think I figured out why this blog is pretty boring, it’s reflecting my life.

I mean, I go to TAFE, study, sleep, eat. That’s about it. I have one day a week of placement, which is pretty boring in itself, most of my day is spent doing tasks which are really in an AIN’s scope, with one or two “oh neat” opportunities if I’m lucky.

Frankly, this stinks, but there really isn’t anything I can do about it; I find the med/surg ward to be incredibly, incredibly boring. I don’t seem to be learning anything, I’ve done more bed-changes than my first placement at a freakin aged care facility. Last placement was OK because my facilitator made it good, but I’m still trying to figure out our new one. He’s good, but very different.

I think the main problem is just there’s no real acuity to the patients. They’re all stable, just pottering around waiting for discharge.

That’s boring.

I’m boring.

This is boring.

I want more.

I will have more.

The following is an excerpt from my placement diary, on my first day of placement at an aged care facility, on the 20th of November, 2006.

I was taken aback by the disregard for gloves and other basic personal protective equipment shown by the staff, they regularly dealt with all sorts of nasty stuff and refused to use gloves, and then did not wash their hands. It makes me very self conscious to be pulling gloves out of my pocket while my partner for the day launches into stuff with an odd look on her face. Why is this?

Now, even back then I knew using gloves was going to be somewhat of an odd issue, in that the place that I did placement at used vinyl gloves, rather than latex/nitrile due to budgeting issues, but when I walked up to the glove dispenser, stuffed my pockets full and kept whipping them out for stuff that the other staff didn’t use them for (such as showering people, perineal care, wiping asses and the like) it certainly made me feel uncomfortable. Now, these were AIN’s (Assistants in Nursing, I think the US equivilent is CNA’s) that I was working with, but the AIN’s I was learning with at TAFE showed a much higher affinity for gloves than these people.

Even reflecting back on myself today, not even a year later, I’m reminded of how much I’ve grown. Nowadays, gloving up is a normal thing for me, and for the people who I do placement with. Gloves are ubiquitous, and my lack of confidience in myself to wear gloves while other people aren’t is gone. It seems like such a basic thing, but to me, it was a large issue, mainly of confidence. I wore them, but I was very uncomfortable with it, mainly due to the staffs seemingly blasé attitude to it.

Gloves are good, you hear!

I’d also be a much strong patient advocate regarding the situations I saw on that placement, with a lack of hand washing (the most important and easiest method of preventing cross infections) the main concern I saw. To me, a little EEN student on his first placement, who was I to question these AIN’s who had worked here for 20 years? The question now, is who are they, endangering patients through sheer laziness.

On my final day, I asked one of the AIN’s why she didn’t use gloves, and her reply was simple.

Gloves? Hah!

Well, yes, I have. I can’t really say it’s because I’ve been too busy, it’s primarily because of a lack of motivation.

Which is somewhat of a kicker, because one of the reasons for starting this was to keep me motivated about my education. Live and learn, eh?

Hopefully over the next day or so I’ll write up what was in my reflective journal (which was itself sanitized) on here, might be interesting.

So far I’ve had my aged care placement, which was 80 hours, my first acute care placement (which was in a private ward at the local hospital) at 120 hours and I’m doing a further 120 hours this semester. Just a little update for you all.

It’s 2041, and I’m freaking buzzing, I can’t wait for tommorow!

So far the plan is get up at 0430, shower, shave, all that good stuff, should be done by 0445, eat breakfast (I hope I don’t wake anyone up), and then I’ll probably pack some lunch and sit down here waiting to go!

I have to be there at 0545, but to be safe I think I’ll get there at 0530, because, come on, who wants to be late for the first day of placement, really.

So far my bag is pretty empty, I’m not sure what else I’ll need, I have.

3x Pens.

1x Little Notepad.

2x Types of Mints.

Nursing dictionary and drug book.

My clinical assessment book, which I need to get filled out, and my placement agreement, in case I need it, and I think that’s about it.

Oh, and my stethoscope, name badge, phone and wallet.

I’m going to feel so naked tomorrow, I don’t know what else to take!

I should be going to sleep now, see you all later