I have spent the majority of my 7 months (roughly 600+ hours) of nursing school in one clinical setting. I have begun to grasp the ins and outs of the unit where I will hopefully have a job once I graduate and pass the boards. I enjoy the hard work and crazies co-workers that I seem to spend most of the time with on the unit. Have I mentioned that I am completing my clinicals in a teaching hospital? We get all walks of students coming through the unit at various stages in their education, RT, PT, OT, surgery techs, radiology etc. We have other nursing schools in town that also show up since it is a highly specialized unit. Yes, I am blessed (read lucky) to be a part of the unit where I am completing my clinicals. My coach recently told me that I was an exception but not exceptional so as to not let anything go to my pipsqueak head. The point I am trying to make is that recently a couple of nursing students from another school decided to pass a complaint to their director about our unit. You have the where-with-all to complain about whether we are conducting ourselves professionally on our unit?! You spend your measly 4 to 6 hour rotation on our unit looking like a deer caught in headlights, twiddling your thumbs which I find very disturbing considering most of the nursing students that come through our unit are in their last rotations prior to graduation. First and foremost – SHUT YOUR FREAKIN’ PIE HOLE, MORONS!! You would think that they might be a bit more assertive in their want to assist in care. You would think that they might have learned through nursing school that experience outweighs observation. I know our unit can be somewhat intimidating due to the illness, disease and injuries we care for and I understand that first impressions are paramount but you absolutely cannot base your observations of a unit in that amount of time. I have yet to meet any nurse on the unit not willing to teach a student if the show a smidgen of interest. To survive on our unit, or any unit for that matter, you have to have a sense of humor or you might as well place us all in the padded cells with some of our patients. If humor is unprofessional, then I am unfit to be a nurse.

Tags: nursing school, rants by qec
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1: firm adherence to a code of especially moral or artistic values : incorruptibility

2: an unimpaired condition : soundness

3: the quality or state of being complete or undivided : completeness

Integrity implies trustworthiness and incorruptibility to a degree that one is incapable of being false to a trust, responsibility, or pledge.

So when a professor continually says one thing and does another, we lose faith in that professor. We could even say we lose faith in the program within which, that professor is instructing?

We have it crammed down our throats in school but when we see the professors portraying a said lack of, the value of the lesson loses the impact needed to convey the importance to be passed to the student.

Tags: rants by qec
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Three glorious days away from it all! I am still a college student at heart considering I have at least 15 years on most of my classmates. Yes, nursing school is the beginning of my second career, but I am amazed at the joy of having Spring Break. I had 3 days in the mountains (no where near enough) but it was nice to get away from a watch, the hospital, the computer, the phone and some unnamed professors.

Tags: nursing school by qec
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Just when you think society has gone to the piss-pot, it’s heartening to know that there are just some plain common decent folk out there. It’s a minor thing. It’s not really a big thing at all. The principle behind it is. I recently took my truck to the shop and when I left, never realized that my insurance card had been AWOL. Lo and behold, when I arrived at home and checked the mail a couple of days later, there was a envelope with our insurance card and a kind note included from a stranger indicating it had been left in their vehicle instead of mine.

THE DEFINITION OF A GENTLEMAN

The forbearing use of power does not only form a touchstone, but the manner in which an individual enjoys certain advantages over others is a test of a true gentleman.

The power which the strong have over the weak, the employer over the employed, the educated over the unlettered, the experienced over the confiding, even the clever over the silly–the forbearing or inoffensive use of all this power or authority, or a total abstinence from it when the case admits it, will show the gentleman in a plain light

The gentleman does not needlessly and unnecessarily remind an offender of a wrong he may have committed against him. He cannot only forgive, he can forget; and he strives for that nobleness of self and mildness of character which impart sufficient strength to let the past be but the past. A true man of honor feels humbled himself when he cannot help humbling others.

-Robert Edward Lee

Having come across this on the eve of the conclusion to our mental health rotations, which included serving in soup line, navigating the city streets via public transportation and feeding those afflicted with Alzheimer’s, I can only hope to incorporate that motto in my practice. We who have opted for these difficult paths would not have chosen them if we didn’t live this in our daily lives. I understand the difficulties we face in the medical field and I do not have all the answers, but the one thing I do have control over is my attitude and how I respond to people and situations.

Tags: nursing school, ramblings, random thoughts by qec
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I had considered filling my blog entirely of nursing stories from the viewpoint of a student who has spent a majority of his clinical hours in a very intense ICU. I am not saying any one ICU is better than another, I am just saying that from my current viewpoint considering the length of stay of a majority of our patients and the absolute physical labor required to work with them. Now life is too interesting just to post solely about nursing. Those of us who have spent any amount of time working in an E.R. are well aware of the surprises… yeah… surprises, life can throw at you. Since I am on psych rotations this week, and I am a football fan, I came across an article describing how The Dallas Cowboys take care of their own?! With some of the shenanigans we see in any of the professional sports, why am I surprised to see that Jerry Jones thinks he can run his own rehab unit?! Why the attraction to the wayward children in the NFL? The acquisition of Terrel Owens, then troubled Tank Johnson from Chicago, then the gerontological acquisition of Zach Thomas. And now rumors of picking up Adam “Pacman” Jones from Tennessee?! I guess I should be very well aware that all entertainers, Jerry Jones included, live by the adage that any press that will bring them attention is well worth the effort. Now what’s that disease called? Narcissistic Personality Disorder?

Tags: ramblings, random thoughts, sports by qec
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The rambling thoughts of a student sitting through a psychiatric staff meeting.

Why psychiatric nursing? Why psychiatric anything? Why would anyone subject themselves to the constant lunacy? I know the reasons most of us get into healthcare so we can ‘fix’ something broken. What gets you out of bed in the morning when you have slid from optimism to pessimism? When psychiatrists poo-poo the repetitious behavior of their own patients, how do they stay motivated? What is their reasoning for continuing to treat those not wanting to be treated, yet those same patients go through the motions to try and prove to society they are trying to heal themselves? Do we do so out of self-preservation? Do we do so because we want them to fit the mold that society deems as normal? (Heaven forbid!) Out of selfish pride are we thinking that we do not want to run into them on the street? Why the risk investing in their care if we saw them publicly knowing we would turn the other way? I sit here pondering, knowing that us “healthy people” are one step away from any of the myriad of conditions that we readily treat. We have our own dysfunctions, addictions and behaviors that could just as easily push us over the edge. I know one thing for certain. We are not promised tomorrow.

Tags: ramblings, random thoughts by qec
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Maybe that’s why I fit in so well. Some of the folks I work with would love to be the one doing the squeezing in this video. If you have a weak stomach you’re probably not a RN and I would suggest NOT watching. Thanks to Dissappearing John for posting the following:

Tags: strange, video by qec
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• feeling like one is going to die or has sense of impending doom
• having narrowed perceptions
• difficulty concentrating or problem-solving
• increased vital signs
• muscle tension
• dilated pupils
• complaints of palpitations
• urinary frequency or urgency
• nausea
• tight throat
• complaints of fatigue & insomnia
• irritability
• disorganization

Tags: humor, nursing school by qec
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So this is my first post. I made a promise to the Mrs. that she would not show up here anywhere, at least in picture format. I think we are both paranoid in that sense. Considering I am taking 24 hours while I am currently in school, I think my posts will be somewhat sporadic until I really have the time to say something. Isn’t that why we all start a blog…to get things off our chests?

Tags: hello, uncategorized by qec
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