Sometimes I feel like a nurse...

One of my classmates was having trouble doing an assessment on an older gentleman because he was irate, and his respiratory crackles were so loud she claimed to not be able to auscultate an apical pulse.

I went in and he was complaining about not having a pen for his crosswords. I instantly whipped out a blue pen and said that if he took it off me he would be doing me a favor since my instructor has been so angry at me for using blue ink (which is true, unfortunately). He seemed amused at the idea they didn't want us to use blue ink. I slipped in and listened to his breath sounds on his back, then I slipped around to the front and found his apical pulse on the first try. I could see where she was having trouble, because his heart rate was so irregular that at first I wasn't sure I had it either, so I had to keep listening. But I had it!

There was a man who kept asking where the phone was, and it was right in front of him. I saw in the corner he had a glasses case, and I asked him if he wanted his glasses. He seemed so much more calm and able to answer questions when he had his glasses on.

I am just really happy with how this clinical is going so far. I'm nervous about getting 3 patients for the first time next week, but I was also really nervous with 2 patients and I have done fine with that, so I suspect I'll be all right.

I have no previous medical experience so being able to help someone find something like the apical pulse was really a first for me. This week was perhaps the first time I have ever felt like a nurse.

I had a patient who had oxygen via a nasal cannula, and she would take it off to eat dinner (we have evening shift). The first night I got a pulse-ox on her after she ate, and it was 92. 92 is not necessarily bad because you want it to be in the 90s on room air (without receiving oxygen). Anyway, the second day this week I had this patient again and she did the same thing. Her pulse-ox was 95 on room air the second day! She was really starting to improve, and that was the first time I have really ever seen/felt that as a nursing student. I really like that I chose a clinical that meets 2 days a week, because I suspect I will see a lot more of this this semester.