Med Error

I admit it, I'm not proud of it, I knew it would come some day but I just hoped it would not be so early in my career.  I made a medication error.  I gave my patient Lactobacillus in the wrong form.  Lucky for the patient and me this was a VERY small and insignificant medication error.  I was supposed to give him another form of this probiotic but failed to read closely enough and administered the wrong med.  I immediately told my nurse and teacher who were supportive and cautioned me to read more carefully and pay better attention in the future. I felt pretty lousy, although it wasn't really a big deal, what if it had been. I have learned my lesson!

Respiratory Nursing

Clinicals this weekend in many ways restored my desire to be a nurse.  I think it had a lot to do with my clinical instructor.  She was mean, nice, helpfull . . . you get the picture.  She drilled us about our patients, their conditions, and the meds they were on, but at the same time she treated us like adults and allowed us to see many procedures and found opportunities to see procedures, practice skills etc.  Sadly, clinical instructors as good as her are hard to come by but on the up note this was the first time in nearly two months that I was excited to be in nursing school.

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Cardiac Cycle Animation

Learning the cardiac cycle is essential to preforming well in nursing school and in working as a professional nurse.  Below are a few links to help learn the cardiac cycle.  There are some animations on the cardiac cycle.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yGlFBzaTuoI&feature=related                           

Below is a link to the best series of videos that I have found.  It is by a professor named Dr. Najeeb and he uses them in his USMLE prep course.  Search through his youtube page to find many other helpful videos.  This series of 8 videos on the cardiac cycle should leave you with a very complete understanding.  He provides his own animations of the cardiac cycle.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XbivIaFPoQI

Grade Inflation

Nursing School Grade Inflation

I have had grade inflation on my mind a lot lately for a couple reasons.  I fear the MCON is the king of grade inflation in some ways, and it concerns me that students are not fully prepared to practice in the role of RN.  Despite being able to memorize basic information I am not confident in some students abilities to act as competent members of health care teams.  Is it the students fault?  I am not entirely sure, if we are not challenged to learn concepts and only required to memorize a few simple facts to pass a test basic human nature will take over and students will become lazy and only memorize those simple facts.  I have been fighting to continue to dive into material truly learn concepts despite being spoon fed answers from instructors.

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Psychotropic Drugs

Here is a simple list of the major psychotropic drug classifications, their method of action, and major side effcts.  This is not complete, of course, but it gives a basic idea for study purposes.

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Stressed Nursing Student

Okay, I was a bit upset last night.

Time to move on.  We have our first mental health exam tomorrow.  I have really enjoyed the mental health rotation at the hospital.  In this rotation we really just talk with the patients, but you meet some of the most fascinating individuals and have a chance to learn much more in depth about various mental disorders.  I do not think that I will ever work in a mental health capacity, but I am sure that the experiences gained working with these individuals will create life long memories.  How many people do you know have been locked in a room with 30 bipolar and schizophrenic patients?  It really has helped me to see the thin line that separates sane from insane or mental health from mental disorder.  I will always be grateful for the appropriate balance of chemicals in my brain.

DON"T GO TO MCON

Granted I currently hold a 4.0 GPA at MCON, but I will tell you. . . go anywhere else!