Week 2 as an APN

Holy Moly!  This week FLEW by faster than I can believe!

My second week as an official APN is over, and I feel like it just started.  I learned so much this week.  I got to "do" stuff this week.  And of course, I realized how far I have to go before I will even remotely feel comfortable on my own.  But that's what my orientation is for.

Here is a breakdown of what my week looked like:

Monday- boring EPIC computer training for 3 hours that literally taught me nothing useful : ( i learned a whole bunch of stuff I already knew how to do.
-the remainder of the day flew by, and I can't even really remember exactly why.  I did write my first progress note on a patient.  It took me about 25 min.  Can't wait to see how long a full patient load will take me!  I'll be sleeping at the hospital to get stuff done at this rate.

Tuesday: My first time presenting a patient in rounds...hello nervousness!  Looking back, being so nervous was just SILLY.  I have worked with everyone I was presenting to for the last 7 years.  I have natural, non-nervous conversations with them daily.  And yet, there I was super nervous, trying not to show my paper shaking or quivering voice.  And words just don't seem to come natural in this state.  Except for the word "subsequent" which I said about 14,000 times.  Lovely.  I also felt like my face was on fire, but a few people told me it wasn't even red.  Thank goodness!  At least I had one thing going for me.

Wednesday: Second day of presenting in rounds went SO much better.  Oh, and I presented on 2 patients today instead of one.  Yeah my preceptor is moving me right along!  The other newbie said "Way to be a show-off...I'm only presenting one still!"  This was about 2 minutes after my preceptor told the two of us that we shouldn't compare ourselves to each other throughout this process.  Lesson not learned apparently. 

Thursday:  This was a whole day of firsts:  I got my first pager...x4220 (oh the excitement!), I broke my first pager (yeah that didn't take long!)*, I did my first extubation**, got my first awesome "job well done" comment from the attending on service,*** took out a central line and rapid infuser line by myself (teaching the resident how to do so),**** and for the first time this week, did not come home with a bad attitude because of my 2 hour slow commute home!***** Score one for the team!  

*Apparently I'm not a fan of pagers.  That bad boy was thrown to the ground about 5 times yesterday...to his death.  Tragic story really.  May you RIP pager x4220.  Not sure if they will trust me with another one next week.

**While I have been at the bedside for at least 100 extubations, this was the first one I was in charge of.  So much more stress on this side of it knowing that if the patient doesn't do well, I am the one (eventually) responsible for putting the tube back in!  Oh boy!

***Comment from the attending went something like this: "You have done a great job this week.  When I was told that Tuesday was your first time presenting in rounds, I never would have guessed.  You presented the information so thoroughly and effectively.  Great job." Yeah!!

****Taking out the central line and rapid infuser was no big deal...I've done it a billion times as a bedside nurse.  Apparently the nurse taking care of the patient didn't feel comfortable doing it because she never had, so I got to.  And the resident asked if I could show him how because he hadn't done it before either.  I love teaching so this was fun!  And especially in the face of feeling like I am the newbie and don't know anything this was particularly rewarding.  

*****I need to work on my attitude.  Thursday was a huge success in this area!  There is something about being stuck inside a barely moving car for 2 hours that just gets to me.  The husband said Wednesday "We need to figure something else out because this will not work long term."  Point taken!

Whew- so what a week right!?  I can't believe that 2 weeks have already gone by.  But I am very excited to see what week 3 brings!