A Day in the Life Of...
4:30 am Panic wakes me up—did I miss my alarm? Dammit, my alarm isn't supposed to go off for another half-hour.
5:00 am That was a half an hour?
5:08 am David reminds me that my alarm is going off again. I roll out of bed and into the shower. My eyelids are swollen, and my eyes are dry and red from not enough sleep. Glasses today.
6:12 am I am dressed, fed and kissing David good-bye. I head to the Metro in the stillness of the dawn. The sky is grey with the first hints of sunlight and birds are singing. Spring is here.
6:43 am I hop off the crowded Georgetown shuttle from Dupont Circle and head to St. Mary’s Hall, the Nursing School building, with 2 fellow classmates. Our bright white pants, shoes and jackets seem obscenely bright in the minutes before the sunrise.
6:56 am After stuffing or locker full of our backpacks and extra clothes, we make our way downstairs to the lab where my clinical group is meeting before we head to Georgetown Hospital for our first day of clinicals. I hear my lab instructor telling the students already in the lab that our assigned unit in the hospital has patients that are quite sick: HIV/AIDS, drug addicts, dementia, etc. Adrenaline is high in our group.
7:15 am This is it—we walk in the front doors of Georgetown Hospital. We are officially student nurses. As our lab instructor takes us on the tour, I can’t help think that we look like eight ducklings dressed in white following mom dressed in navy blue.
7:33 am We tour the PICU (Pediatric Intensive Care Unit). These kids are really sick. There are alarms going off in the rooms, and at the central nurses station, and it generally feels a little chaotic, although the PICU nurses and doctors don’t seem to have such a visceral reaction to all the alarms. The temperature must be 85 degrees (two of my classmates almost faint in the heat).
8:02 am We tour the regular pediatric unit. It is much quieter here, and we are able to practice turning on the suction on the wall, and plugging the oxygen flow meter.
9:01 am A tour of the Medical ICU. These patients are really, really, really sick. Some are in total isolation—as visitors we are not allowed to enter their rooms for fear of bringing in a potential infection. We see IVs and feeding tubes in use and discuss the many alarms in the ICU. Throughout these tours we see groups of medical students and interns doing rounds.
9:45 am We find our way to the basement where the Physical Therapy facility is for another tour (lots to digest). We get a demonstration of some equipment that we didn’t have in our lab back at St. Mary’s.
10:15 am Our last hospital tour—this time of the Emergency Room. This is the first time this morning that we are not allowed to observe any patients. This tour concludes with a view of the HazMat (hazardous material) room and equipment—standard since Sept. 11th.
10:25 am A break until 11 am. Caffeinated beverages are bought and consumed. We all feel a little overwhelmed.
11:01 am We meet and head up to the unit where we will be spending the next six weeks. We take an in-depth tour of the unit and peek into some patient rooms. We are assigned some patient charts to read, and some of us take vital signs (temperature, blood pressure, pulse, respiratory rate, oxygen saturation, pain). The patient's chart that I am assigned (with two other classmates) is complicated and long. Our patient is quite sick.
1:10 pm We end the morning with a debriefing in the visitors' lounge. Our lab instructor has been nothing but reassuring, kind and empathetic to us. A very good start to my first clinical rotation.
5:00 am That was a half an hour?
5:08 am David reminds me that my alarm is going off again. I roll out of bed and into the shower. My eyelids are swollen, and my eyes are dry and red from not enough sleep. Glasses today.
6:12 am I am dressed, fed and kissing David good-bye. I head to the Metro in the stillness of the dawn. The sky is grey with the first hints of sunlight and birds are singing. Spring is here.
6:43 am I hop off the crowded Georgetown shuttle from Dupont Circle and head to St. Mary’s Hall, the Nursing School building, with 2 fellow classmates. Our bright white pants, shoes and jackets seem obscenely bright in the minutes before the sunrise.
6:56 am After stuffing or locker full of our backpacks and extra clothes, we make our way downstairs to the lab where my clinical group is meeting before we head to Georgetown Hospital for our first day of clinicals. I hear my lab instructor telling the students already in the lab that our assigned unit in the hospital has patients that are quite sick: HIV/AIDS, drug addicts, dementia, etc. Adrenaline is high in our group.
7:15 am This is it—we walk in the front doors of Georgetown Hospital. We are officially student nurses. As our lab instructor takes us on the tour, I can’t help think that we look like eight ducklings dressed in white following mom dressed in navy blue.
7:33 am We tour the PICU (Pediatric Intensive Care Unit). These kids are really sick. There are alarms going off in the rooms, and at the central nurses station, and it generally feels a little chaotic, although the PICU nurses and doctors don’t seem to have such a visceral reaction to all the alarms. The temperature must be 85 degrees (two of my classmates almost faint in the heat).
8:02 am We tour the regular pediatric unit. It is much quieter here, and we are able to practice turning on the suction on the wall, and plugging the oxygen flow meter.
9:01 am A tour of the Medical ICU. These patients are really, really, really sick. Some are in total isolation—as visitors we are not allowed to enter their rooms for fear of bringing in a potential infection. We see IVs and feeding tubes in use and discuss the many alarms in the ICU. Throughout these tours we see groups of medical students and interns doing rounds.
9:45 am We find our way to the basement where the Physical Therapy facility is for another tour (lots to digest). We get a demonstration of some equipment that we didn’t have in our lab back at St. Mary’s.
10:15 am Our last hospital tour—this time of the Emergency Room. This is the first time this morning that we are not allowed to observe any patients. This tour concludes with a view of the HazMat (hazardous material) room and equipment—standard since Sept. 11th.
10:25 am A break until 11 am. Caffeinated beverages are bought and consumed. We all feel a little overwhelmed.
11:01 am We meet and head up to the unit where we will be spending the next six weeks. We take an in-depth tour of the unit and peek into some patient rooms. We are assigned some patient charts to read, and some of us take vital signs (temperature, blood pressure, pulse, respiratory rate, oxygen saturation, pain). The patient's chart that I am assigned (with two other classmates) is complicated and long. Our patient is quite sick.
1:10 pm We end the morning with a debriefing in the visitors' lounge. Our lab instructor has been nothing but reassuring, kind and empathetic to us. A very good start to my first clinical rotation.
Comments
Love, Mom