scara update

Hi Hi Hi and Yo Yo Yo,
I feel like making an update on myself, seeing as I haven't seen most of yall in a bit...well, that and I'm putting off starting on the final draft on my last care plan.

----------
So, that being said.

I'm just about halfway through this semester. That really only means two things:

#1 - I'm that much closer to graduation (may '09).
--The ramifications are pretty obvious I suppose, but in any case it means I'm that much closer to my BSN RN.

#2 - Its about to be the mid clinical switch.
--Basically, this first half I have been getting my clinical on for my Adult Health II course (also known as Med-Surge). What it involves is me working with a preceptor on an ICU or IMC floor (ICU = Intensive Care Unit, IMC = Intensive Medical Care (I may be mistaken on IMC?)). I get to do/see all sorts of neat nursing things.
--Clinical in the second half of the semester is for my Family Health course (maternity, pediatrics, neonatal and likewise). My clinical hours will be spent in L&D, Nursery, Postpartum, and Neonatal units. So I will get to see that side of nursing, but as a male, sometimes our clinical experience is limited in what we get to do.

----------
Moving on.

Up until this past Saturday, I worked PRN as a Nurse Extern on a Telemetry/IMC unit (Extern is like a CNA, but we have the opportunity to do nursing skills). Saturday, though, I started working as an Extern in the MICU (Medical Intensive Care Unit).

So what does this mean?
--I have been doing my AH clinicals in the MICU, and after the 1st day, hehe, let alone 1st hour, I knew I wanted to work in the ICU when I graduate. The catch to working in the ICU fresh out of school is that you need to have the nursing skills/aptitude and prior ICU experience. One way to get that experience/familiarization is to Extern in the ICU.

Just some FYI to cover the bases.
--Patients in the ICU, are the very sick individuals who require more involved nursing care. On a Telemetry/IMC unit, the nurse my have 4 patients (in some cases, depending on patient load and unit, >6 patients isn't unheard of). In the ICU, the nurse could have anywhere from 1-3 patients (ex. 1 very sick patient, or 2-3 moderate patients).

----------
So the long and short of it.
I'm about to go from Adult Health II clinical to Family Health clinical, and I have started working in the MICU.

----------
Anyway, I guess that's all for now. We had 2 power surges that played Hell with my router on top of the random shut downs, while I was typing this. Luckily, I ritually copy/paste to a blank text document whenever I plan on typing a big post or do any type of heavy formatting with BBCode.

----------
Post Update 11-09-08
----------
It has been teh super busy for me since the last post, I am going into the home stretch of this semester.

I have seen and done all sorts of exciting maternity/newborn things. Vaginal and C-section births, circumscions, fed babies, changed diapers, assisted with preterm neonates to name a few. Ive been nose deep in textbooks for a majority of my free time as well.

I've been falling asleep at like 9-10pm, well mainly its because I have to get up at 0430-0500am to be at the hospital for these clinicals. The time change doesn't help either, its dark when I go in and dark when I get out.

On a side note, my hardrive that contained my "My Documents" folder melted. So I am super psyched at loosing almost 10 years of collected pictures, tax files, school work, fafsa info, student loan info, bank info, and the like.

----------
Anyway, that's it for now, Its been 7-8 days since i played a game so I'm going to try and get a lil Fallout 3 in before I jump balls deep back into my chapters

----------
Post Update 12-17-08
----------
It is done. Scara earned enough experience to level up, pass go, and collect $200. Fear not readers, the adventure isn't over. There still remains one final chapter.

Awesome update sir (you always do the best run downs)!

My question to you though is, what does a nurse do in the IMC unit?

Also, kudos on good computer skills with your copypasta. Not everyone is that smart.

Also, kudos on good computer skills with your copypasta. Not everyone is that smart.

I'm not that smart, but I am that OCD. And grats on your life scara!

Typically, in my mind the difference in care required by the ICU vs. the IMC patient is something like this.
--With the ICU, one of the 1st things I think of are multiple IV drips with many requiring titrated dosing. For instance: sedation, paralytics, anti-dysrhytmics, anti-hypertensives/hypotensives, insulin, TPN, and opiods. There are many other factors as well.
--With the IMC or the like, patients are typically not on multiple IV drips if any. They will have IV fluids going, but typically none that require regular titration.

----------
Here is another example.
--In a sense, the ICU'g goal is to stabilize the patient for downgrade to the IMC; where as, the IMC's goal is to stabilize the patient for discharge home.

----------
Its kinda hard for me to put it all into words for me as I'd like too. Just like everything else, the real world doesn't always follow the textbook.

I totally understand that dude!

If servers worked like the books said so I wouldn't have a job lol

I think I get the idea of what you're getting at though.

First update post updated with update. Hooray!

Ouch dude, sorry to hear that your hard drive melted >.<

When it rains it pours.

When it rains shit....it tends to pour shit.

......and no Hungry Bitches references.

well i could just post the whole video

----------
Post Update 12-17-08
----------
It is done. Scara earned enough experience to level up, pass go, and collect $200. Fear not readers, the adventure isn't over. There still remains one final chapter.