HALLELUJAH!! It is the end of first semester!! After many 18 hour days, hundreds of cups of joe, and countless patients asking if I am qualified to take their vitals, I am FINALLY done! The best news is I still have a pulse, normal respirations and an unusually low blood pressure, considering all the caffeine. Thank you Lord, for carrying me though my hardest semester to date!! I can't wait to see what you will teach me in my coming semesters. This is my semester reflection. Here's what I have learned and how far I've come.
Learning Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) on our first patient in our school lab.
My first TB skin test (sorry Monique). Thankfully, I got her first poke!
This year I learned something in each of my classes: In my fundamentals class, at the beginning of the semester, I relearned the ABC's according to the nursing world, which sets the priority for nursing care. A stands for airway, B stands for Breathing, C stand for Circulation.This mnemonic helped me many times this year in deciding the order of care for test questions. I learned how to critically think in a while new way in fundamentals. This class went hand in hand with my physical assessment class which tested normal versus abnormal findings and how to test and the names of the tests. In my informatics class, I learned about the amazing technologies that make nursing possible everyday. My favorite was the Electronic Healthcare Record (EHR). I thought this technology was amazing because it kept track of all the patient data, such as past history, medications, surgeries, medical diagnoses, and last medication administration. I was so excited to practice using it with my nursing in the hospital because I had read about all the medical errors that occurred using paper records. My last class, was theory which was about the theory behind nursing. For me, the class was reminiscent of piano theory because it was very similar in structure. I loved the idea of true presence which is sitting with the patient and honestly being with them, talking about whatever they want to discuss and truly being with them. The class was truly about being Christ to your patients and it was exciting for me to put into practice in the hospital. My most exciting experience this semester was being able to pray with one of my patients this semester. I was praying for God to present me with this opportunity all semester and one of my last clinical days God revealed Himself in the room. I was so happy to have my clinical instructor there to pray with me! This is my clinical group, that helped me survive this semester, on our last clinical day. Man, I am going to miss you guys this summer!! |