This semester, I’m in the ER for my clinical rotations. Right now, I’m about halfway through my clinical hours, and I’ve seen a ton of stuff!
- One patient had a GI bleed, and I was able to insert a nasogastric tube and do lavage. He lost so much blood that he needed blood transfusions, so I was able to monitor blood products, too.
- I’ve been involved in 3 patient codes and did chest compressions. One of them was an infant. Nursing school did not prepare me for dealing with patients dying.
- I got to set up continuous bladder irrigation and care for a tracheostomy.
- I watched a doctor intubate a patient. Another patient had a spontaneous pneumothorax, and I got to watch the doctor insert a chest tube.
- Not to mention the broken arms, motorcycle accident, broken legs, mangled fingers, chest pains, threatened abortions and various other things.
Every shift, I get to practice a ton of skills. If I only get the opportunity to start 5 IVs, it’s a slow night. Toss in a few tetanus and rocephin shots, IV piggybacks, and foley catheters and I’m a happy student nurse!
If you have the opportunity to spend some time in the ER during your clinical shifts, I highly recommend it.
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It sounds to me like somebody likes Trauma.. and may enjoy the ED or the ICU? Hmm
Comment by Strong One — October 31, 2008 @ 8:41 pm
hi there, I am Kira a nurse from Philippines. This blog is very interesting
Comment by Kira — November 9, 2008 @ 4:07 am
Thanks for sharing your nursing school experience. I am in my first semester of nursing school and love it. I’ll be really happy to make it through fundamentals!
Dawn
Comment by Dawn — November 10, 2008 @ 3:47 pm
Cool blog and information. Interesting to follow your progress. Keep up the good work!
Comment by Corey Bachmeier — November 13, 2008 @ 3:58 pm
Love the blog. Nursing blogs in the UK are still a bit behind you Americans, and tend to be a bit more straight laced and dull! I’ve just started one for the team at Nursing Times, the UK’s leading nursing magazine? We link to you, can you link to us back? All the best, Gabriel, online editor, http://nursesuniverse.blogspot.com/
Comment by Gabriel Fleming — November 17, 2008 @ 1:11 pm
Hey - nice blog. I wanted to see if I could get some opinions from REAL nurses on a couple of sites I put together (since I’m not a nurse myself) - directories of RN to BSN and RN to MSN programs. They’re at http://www.rntobsndegree.com and http://www.rntomsn.com. Just trying to spread the word to figure out if there are things I can change and/or add to them that would be useful. Sorry if this seems spammy, that’s not the intention. Thanks!
Comment by joebnd — November 17, 2008 @ 3:44 pm
You sure are gaining valuable experience. A friend of mine, who is a nurse, didn’t enough hands on experience during her clinical. After she graduated, she had to learn pretty quickly how to handle a busy hospital.
Comment by Vicki from Advance Healthcare Shop — November 18, 2008 @ 1:53 pm
For our nursing program we don’t do clinical rotations in the Emergency room, which I wish we did. However, they let us work as student nurse assistants. They allow us to float floor to floor to gain experience. I have gone to the ER a few times but haven’t done things like you have done! I have observed them doing chest compressions and patients coming in with heart attacks though. Nice blog!
Comment by Jenleigh826 — December 1, 2008 @ 1:02 pm
My husband is graduating next week with his BSN…and he has taken a position at our local ED. He’s really looking forward to working there…I hope he gets a lot of experience like you have gotten! I will start working on my BSN this coming summer.
I’ve not seen much trauma, but I have seen a GI bleed…completely awful!
Comment by Jenny-up the hill — December 6, 2008 @ 9:10 pm
Sounds like you are getting some awesome experience on clinical in the Emergency Department. I always enjoy floating to the ED to work as a student because of the excitement and fast pace associated with emergency care. My most memorable experience in the ED was helping to transport a patient to the Cath Lab during an AMI. I got the opportunity to watch as the doctor resolved the blocked artery, saving this patient’s life, and allowing his pain to quickly subside.
Comment by Geoff — December 8, 2008 @ 10:41 am