random! random! random!

Today we’re taking another tour through the randomness that’s occupying my brain right now.

I’ve been slowly cleaning up my house, room by room.

It’s gonna be tidy up in here by the time second semester starts in late January. 😉

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Sometimes I forget that this house isn’t mine. Like, not forever-mine.

But then I think…almost every house is temporary in a way.

I mean, I lived in my last house for 17 years, which is a long time, but 17 years still is not forever.

And most of us will not take our last breath in our “forever” homes.

So, maybe it’s better to realize that homes are just varying degrees of temporary. And if that’s the case, then it’s good to embrace the moment in whatever home I’m in.

This is my house. For now. For the rest of the time I’m in school, at least.

And even though I don’t own it, I know I’m gonna be sad to say goodbye to it when the time comes.

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I was telling a friend yesterday that my internet search history is probably a DISASTER after this past semester.

I googled so many random body-related questions because lots of what we learned in school sparked other questions for me.

For instance, I was learning about precautions you have to take while caring for a patient on chemo because some of the person’s bodily productions are toxic from the chemo.

Then I wondered, hmm, if your spouse/boyfriend/girlfriend is on chemo, can you still kiss them?

(The answer is yes, according to my Google research!)

And at one point during lab, I searched to see whether GoodRX has opioid pain meds and what the prices are (because we were having a lab question about how to help a patient who is having trouble affording meds).

(The answer: GoodRX does indeed have affordable prices on a lot of opioids. There, now you don’t have to google it.)

My internet search history does not reflect my quiet, unremarkable life in a fairly health body. 😉

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I only have a little bit of clinical experience under my belt, but I think one of the best things I gained from it is that I’m now less afraid to get up close and personal with patients.

My first day, I almost felt a little bit disrespectful; it felt odd at first to give a perfect stranger a head-to-toe bed bath and diaper change!

But by the time I got to the end of clinicals, I was way, way more comfortable with that.

Also: being with real people versus manikins* makes you THINK about what you’re doing.

*That IS what they’re called. I’m not misspelling the word!

When we do our head-to-toe assessment practice on manikins, it’s more of going through the motions, but with a real person you are actually listening for breath sounds and heart sounds.

With the manikins, we just say, “I’m inspecting the skin for wounds, incisions, rashes, redness, and color.” but with real people, you do actually see skin breakdown.

And this is why good nursing programs do lots of clinical hours vs. lots of lab hours. There’s nothing like practicing on real, live people.

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I think I am really good at talking with patients; that part of clinicals was very easy for me. I like people, and I can be friendly with pretty much anyone.

And I think this even though one patient, when offered a day with a student nurse (me) said, “Haven’t I suffered enough already??” Ha.

I feel good about my soft skills; I just am less confident when it comes to my medical skills; that’s gonna take some time and practice.

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I’m on break from school, but…we do have a pile of reading and some assignments to do before we start back at school.

And we have an exam, a med-math test, and competency testing almost as soon as the semester starts. So, my brain is still a bit occupied with school because I have work to do over the break.

But as long as I start promptly and spread the work out, it shouldn’t be too bad.

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Alrighty, I think that’s the end of my randomness for today!

Join me and share some random thoughts in the comments. 🙂