11 hours!

Sorry I am a day late with everything, but life is busy here at the Ashburton House.

I worked my first (almost) full shift yesterday/Monday. It was 11 hours, and surprisingly wasn't too bad. There were a few dead hours where I was walking around looking for something to do, but other than that I enjoyed it. The regular nurse aide's sat down and chatted while we had free time, which I think is acceptable, but I felt uncomfortable doing that on the clock. Maybe my views will change over time, but right now I prefer to be busy. The first patient I had was paralyzed from the chest down. He was an old insurance salesman, was divorced, negative, and depressed. I tried to hang out and talk with him as much as I could, but he was draining. Speaking of draining, at one point when I was talking to him he started to self-catheterize himself to use the restroom. He told me I could leave if I was embarrassed, but that he was used to everyone seeing everything. I don't feel uncomfortable with human anatomy or urine, but I do find it inappropriate that he didn't excuse himself from the conversation or notify me until after he had already started. Later, the same patient asked me if was mormon because I had mentioned I went to China for the summer. He said mormons often go to China when they are my age because they think the Chinese "need our help", he rolled his eyes as he said this and told me that we need China's help. I disagree.

Some other experiences I had were removing a Naso-gastric tube from a woman's nose, discontinuing an IV catheter, as well as taking vital signs and emptying urine bags. I had another patient who was an elderly man who started crying while I was in his room with another nurse. He had gotten his foot amputated on Thursday due to diabetes complications and said that it had all "just hit him." I wasn't sure how to be very therapeutic, so I stood next to the patient while the other nurse sat on his bed and rubbed his arm. The patient was from New York, and was a clean-cut man. His foot problems started out as an ingrown toenail that a pediatrist cut out, but then the foot continued to exhibit circulation problems and eventually turned black. This all happened within 6 months. I always assumed that only uncompliant diabetic patients were the ones that needed amputations. I see now that that is not true.

I had another male patient who was probably around 60. He was really sweet and was on the floor because he had been having gastric pain and was being held for further testing. The poor guy was not allowed to have any food by mouth, so every time I asked him if I could get him anything, he said he wanted a "big ole' cheeseburger." Haha. I ended up having a nice conversation with him about my career goals, and how ultimately I want to travel and perhaps even do missions overseas. When his friend and wife came to visit him later, he told them all about me and they all talked about how some folks from their Church just came back from a mission trip to Honduras. Before my shift ended, I said goodbye to them, and he winked at me saying: "Sarah, go do missions." As I closed the door he told his wife, "she is such a sweet girl..." It was really encouraging to hear that.

Speaking of mission work, a doctor at this hospital is going over to Uganda to set up an OR and teach the doctors how to perform surgeries. How cool is that? I also talked to one of the the traveling nurses again and she told me to work night shifts because the camaraderie is better. From what I have seen of this floor so far, I think the day-time camaraderie is fine to me! I do NOT want to work nights. No, no, no.

When I came home, my roommates were cooking dinner again for a host of guests. I went for a quick run to de-flate my mind, and then joined the group to dine. They had made hamburger pie, salad, and banana pudding with marmalade. I was weary of the hamburger pie, but I tried it and it wasn't bad. They all went out for "pint night" down town, but I decided to stay in and catch up with Sarah and another friend, and go to sleep. Working 12 hours is mentally tiring. My body can handle it, but my mind is ready to sleep.

Today I have the whole day off. YESS!! That is definitely a benefit of working 12 hour shifts is that you get 4 days off. I have all kinds of errands to run and tasks to take care of, but I have a feeling it will be a great day :)

Yesterday...

I feel like I have so much to say today...

First of all, let me tell you about my day yesterday. I went to a Church called Vintage 21 yesterday morning with my roommate and her family. Kayla's two little sisters and "Maw Maw" (grandma) were visiting because it was her sister's birthday and they went to see Beauty and the Beast the night before. It was nice to go to Church, but it wasn't the same as home. The Pastor reminded me of Rob Bell and seemed to preach a philosophy or living sacrifically which I enjoyed. I will probably go back, except I found out today that the nurse I am following works most Sundays and I have to work the same hours as her. BOO! After Church I had some lunch at home, and then went out to Umstead Park with a new friend for some hiking and slack-lining. For those of you who do not know, slack-lining is basically tight rope walking on rock climbing rope in between trees, barefoot. I had a lot of fun trying it out, but was very unsuccessful. I had to hold onto my friend the entire time while being mindful not to bite off my tongue. The heavens opened up while we were out there and we got drenched. A day later, my car seat is STILL wet. I drove home, took a quick shower, and then went out for dinner with my roommate Kayla and another new friend. I was pretty proud of myself for having planned the dinner. Looks like I am already building a small social circle for myself! That didn't take too long either!

Open Blog

Hey friends!

I have decided to go ahead and open up my blog to the world wide web (at least temporarily), so that I can apply for a scholarship. I found a random one for nursing students and the only requirement is that I have to post a blog about laser tattoo removal at some point. Weird, I know. So if you could help me out and share my blog with some friends, that would be great!

Thanks so much! Have a wonderful Sunday :)
Sarah

Rain or Shine

This morning I ran the Susan G. Komen competitive 5k as a part of Duke Hospital's team (they signed me up for free!). The race began at Meredith College and we were supposed to park all the way at the RBC center and take a shuttle to the starting line. I only live 2+ miles from Meredith, so I contemplated walking, but my roommate Sarah insisted on driving me because of the required 6:30 am arrival time. The race was fun, and I finished 4th in my age group. Not bad! Afterward I walked around and collected a ton of freebees such as a lunch box, water bottles, pens, bananas, vitamin water, power bars, slap-bracelet reflectors, and go-green grocery bags. After I stocked up on goodies, I went to the Duke Hospital tent to help out. While I was there we took a team photo, and then I headed home. The jog back was extremely tricky due to my heavy bags. People must have thought I was crazy the way I had strapped them across my chest and tried to hurry home-it was hot!

I laid out in the sun with my other roommate Caitlin for a little while, and then headed off to a World Cup party. We didn't stay very long because Caitlin had plans with her sister, Kayla (my other roommate), and Kayla's sister, to go see Beauty and the Beast. I was given the option to tag along, but I really just wanted to chill out. After going to the grocery store, I cooked up dinner and enjoyed a quiet meal on the porch while it drizzled. I will probably go to bed extremely early tonight... I still don't feel like I have caught up from the week. While I am loving living with the girls, it is definitely nice to have a quiet evening every now and then :)

Home is where the cobbler is.

Today I had orientation in the hospital where I will actually be working, the 5th floor, a general surgical unit. I met my nurse manager, and then was partnered up with a regular nurse aide to learn what a typical day would look like. She was a sweet girl from NY, who had a daughter and a pit bull. She showed me around a little, but there wasn't much to the work so I wandered off on my own. In between exploring, I went to the break room to eat a little snack. Of course as soon as I did that, my nurse manager walked in. I was so embarrassed! She did not seem to mind though, and we talked for a while about my job and how neither one of us knew exactly what I would be doing. I made a mental note to only pack snacks that could be carried in my pocket from now on, finished eating, and went back to see if there was anything I could do. While asking the nurses if I could help them, one british nurse took me up on my offer and had me change all of the full "sharps" boxes in the patients rooms. (Sharps boxes are where we put small, hazardous material such as needles.) I was glad to have something to help pass the time. One nurse said to me "honey, count your blessings," implying that I should be glad they were not busy. Before my orientation ended, I went back to my nurse manager's office to go over my future schedule. She told me more about my job and how she can tell I am eager to learn. She also told me that the british nurse had come up to her and mentioned me saying, "I don't know who that girl is, but you did a good job hiring her." It made me happy to hear that I made a good impression, but I don't want to get caught up in that.

After my day, I came home and was welcomed by the smell of peach cobbler. YUMMM. I feel like we have had some type of cobbler every night this past week. Maybe because of how close we are to the farmers market and the fact that cobbler is stinkin easy to make? It's like I am at one of those camps from tv. Actually, I have been pleasantly surprised by the joy coming home to a house full of girls brings. Whether we talk or not, knowing that someone is there is comforting. It feels like a family. A few of the girls ended up cooking indonesian stir-fry for all of us for dinner. I did dishes and some laundry in exchange. I felt like I was someone's husband, coming home from 8 hour work day to a sweet aroma of homemade goodness. Luckily there were no children to tend to... I don't think I would have minded snuggling and reading a bedtime story though. Oh wait, my roommates do that with me too!

I am soooo tired. Working a full time job is a lot harder than I thought. Maybe growing up isn't all it is cracked up to be.

Welcome to Ashburton!

Orientation Day 3

Hello, hello! I am actually in orientation right now... Bad, right? We are having a little break because some of our speakers decided not to show up, thus giving us an opportunity to check email, etc.

I am really excited about working here! I love that the hospital is so small and that it is not typically a teaching hospital. In Charlotte, while the hospitals are huge and great, nursing students are almost an inconvenience because there are so many of them. Here, there are only 4 "Professional Nursing Assistant" students so we get a lot more individual attention. The nurse recruiter talked to us today about different programs the Hospital offers that will pay for nurses to get a Masters Degree at Duke University. How awesome would that be?! Then I talked to one of the traveling nurses about travel and the great opportunities that come with that. She said it is a lot more fun to travel with a partner though. Any takers? Ahhh there are so many opportunities, it is hard not to get too excited. Honestly though, I really just want to graduate, get trained, and then go to a foreign country and do surgeries and mission work. Whatever that means, or however that looks.

Enough dreaming and scheming for now... our next speaker is here to talk insurance.