From Sangre to Sangria

Just as I thought, this clinical rotation is great. No, it's awesome!!

I have gotten to do more hands on stuff in just today than I have in ALL my clinicals combined! And maybe it's because this is the first clinical that I've actually been precepted by a nurse practitioner rather than a resident or attending....go figure!!

Now that's a concept for all grad nursing schools to grasp: masters nursing students should be taught by masters prepared nurse practitioners! My past preceptors have been great, but if you're a nurse, you just don't do things the same way. You don't understand the role. You can't teach me HOW to be a nurse practitioner b/c you aren't one yourself!!

So back to current clinicals!! Like I said before, I am with the heart surgery team and it's great.

Today I got to pull my first (and second, and third!) chest tube ever!! It's definitely one of those things that I've seen done a billion times in the PICU, but until you're on the "pulling" end, you have no idea!!

The things are the size of garden hoses, coming out of little babies the size of my head!

And just to put it into perspective, my preceptor told me if I don't pull it "as fast and as hard as you are starting a lawnmotor" I wasn't doing it right!!

Now that you're all imitating pulling the lawn mower to start it up, you can see what force that takes!!

But it was fun...and I didn't give anyone a pneumo (which is the thing you most worry about!)

In the process, I definitely got blood splattered all over my (white!) lab coat. And even better, on my preceptors lab coat!!

*This picture doesn't do the blood justice...I realized after I had taken it off and scrubbed it with hydrogen peroxide (which by the way is AMAZING at taking out blood stains!!!) I should take a pic!

But she didn't care...she said it wasn't a good pull unless blood was splattered across the room : ) *She was just kidding!

So I went home from a great day at clinicals (splattered with "SANGRE") and got to enjoy some delicious, cold, sangria with my man! Now that's a great day!!

From sangre to sangria...something I'm sure only a nurse would love and appreciate! And boy do I!!!

The beginning of the end!!

The end is in sight!!!

I think that's why I've been completely M.I.A from the blog world for the past month...I'm SPRINTING to that finish line as fast as I can leaving behind most everything else!

I have just 4 weeks of clinicals and 6 weeks of class left...seriously, SO close!

My time with Pediatric Surgery came and went faster than I thought. The past 2 weeks were a bit crazy- between work, clinicals, an orientation day at the new hospital, and a 4 hour exam, I had 10 days in a row of non-stop craziness.

So now that those are over, I can breath again. And Jon is SO glad that they're over too!! I've never heard him say "I'm so glad your done with school soon!" so many times...and I can't blame him!

I wish I had some interesting or funny stories from Peds Surg, but really, I've got nothing. Just a bunch of kids having their appendix out, lots of Hirschsprungs disease, and more rectal irrigations than I even want to remember.

Yes, rectal irrigations are as bad as they seem!

All I can say, is after only 1 day with the CV Surgery (heart) team at a completely new hospital, I love it already. Instead of 12 hour shifts, it's 10....instead of starting at 5 am, it's 7 am (talk about sleeping in!)....instead of driving 2 hours home, it's only 1!! Oh yeah, there's so many great things about this rotation.

So I'm glad that the light at the end of the tunnel is visible...that the finish line is OH so close! And where this entire grad school journey will ultimately take me, I have no idea (yet)!!

I look forward to finishing...and I look forward to the new beginnings that it will bring. But for right now, I'm just excited that I'm at the beginning of the end!