A gosh darn really good day!

Wow, I am just floating on air right now. I just got back from my clinical at the hospital and I just had such a fantastic day! I swear part of it was due to my determination to have a great day- even my cranky patient this morning wasn't going to ruin it (I killed her with kindness- don't worry she's still alive!).

So my morning started out well because i was so well prepared and organized. I found this "jot sheet" that another student (from the year ahead of us) had given me this summer- and it is perfect! It has spaces for everything you need to write down throughout morning report as well as keeping track of things to do throughout your shift. At the bottom it even has spaces for each hour we're on the floor so we can keep track of med times and other activities like linen change and hygiene. It's funny because I was so excited about it and then our meds assistant was like- hey my friend made that (she's finishing her masters this semester). I think she was proud to see it handed down- I'm just bummed i forgot about it until this late in the semester!

The other critical aspect of my perfect day was being paired with one of the best nurses on the unit. I had never worked with her before, but i had only heard great things. (she has this awesome fanny-pack thing that has nearly every little piece of equipment from scissors and gauze to luhr lock needless IV connectors!) Anyways, early in the morning i told her i was an eager beaver, so if any of her other patients needed something that i could learn from- i was all for it! She was so awesome, and it was a huge change from the last few nurses I've worked with who may be competent, but they certainly aren't helpful or friendly. I did my first real venipuncture today (and on a dark skinned gentleman that was hard to see the veins!) and drew blood for labs, and then my nurse let me give a couple IV push meds- it was just great! I was busy all morning, but in such a good way- not ever overwhelmed but also never standing around with nothing to do- the perfect combination!

When i was giving my end of shift report to my nurse, she complimented me on how organized and adept i was- which after last week's crappy day was really nice to hear. I joked about how she should casually drop that in conversation with my instructor, and she smiled and said, actually i already did! What a fantastic way to leave for thanksgiving vacation! We only have one clinical day left, and our instructor already said we would be leaving early to go out to lunch! Okay, enough with the excessive explanation points- sorry, I'm just in the best mood I've had for awhile. It feels great! (sorry i had to get one more in there)