My Nursing Education

Today my friend passed away.  Do you recall the WWII Vet with the left below the knee amputee.  Well he was transferred to Hospice care, and died about a week later.   It was said that his wife asked him for a kiss, and he said NO, I’ll give you two, and then he passed away.  May God rest his soul.  You know he stated to me that he never had any pain associated with his lung cancer, and even drove himself to Veterans hospital a couple of weeks prior.  He will be missed.

No one will ask your GPA when you are saving someones life

Not everyone is an all A student.   Accept yourself for the effort that you put forth, knowing it is your best.  Do not look to those on the right or the left, just continue on your path and before you realize it, you will be a graduating nurse.

Daily Diary of a Nurse

Today’s Entry, September 29th 2008;

Sorry that it has been a few days since I last made an entry.  Truth is I have been busy with teaching.  I love teaching.  My patient load has gone down some.  I really don’t know how home care nurses can see forty patients weekly.  I am not that organized.  Let’s see, well there was a patient that I saw who was a right sided CVA.  He admitted to drinking.  All he wanted was a power chair.  He stated that he couldn’t get out of his apartment and felt very isolated.  I knew that the social worker could help him.  His blood pressure was 160/90.  When I called the Dr. and asked him if he wanted him to have another BP pill or half of one he stated that there was no need.  You know, I couldn’t draw his blood.  I tried twice, and after that I told him I would send in the expert.  Gee, I feel bad having to stick people and not get blood.  I saw the vein, and yet I couldn’t get the flash.  He told me that his wife, who doesn’t live with him, came over and drank an entire bottle of Tequila.  I can see why he still drinks.  What a nice man.  He called me a vampire.  Yeah, some vampire, I can’t even get any blood.  On another note, I have to tell you this for my patient who is a Vietnam Veteran.  He actually asked me to write about him.  He wanted me to tell the world that he enlisted at 17 to go to Vietnam.  That he did a 18 month tour in the airborne.  He told me that none of the men knew about the riots and protests going on in the states.  He mentioned that his best friend was a white boy from Alaska.  My patient has much to tell me about his tour.  I noticed that he gets very emotional when he talks about Nam.  But, he stated that he is going to tell me everything as long as I write about what he says.  So I am keeping my promise, and will keep you posted.  I need to make out a math quiz for my student’s for tomorrow, so I will bid you all adiu, guten nicht, and good night.

Nancy Nurse

September 22th , 2008  0900 Welcome all student nurses!

New Entry;

Well everyone, I’m back.  Rembember the patient that went to the hospital for a respiratory problem.  She is the one on whom adult protective services were called.  I have to go back tomorrow to do a resumption of care or ROC.  The sad news is that while she was in the hospital, she developed leg ulcers.  I can’t imagine how bad they are.  She had scars on her bilateral lower extremities from previous diabetic ulcers.  I know that her sugar fluctuated, but you would think that the hospital would keep her under tight glycemic control.  I feel so bad for her. Here she is with a comprimised respiratory system and the windows are left open all night.  Now she has diabetic ulcers.  I feel so helpless sometime.  I realize that the disease process takes its toll, but no reason for others to rush it along.  I guess all I can to is to continue to do my best.  Did I tell you, that I have cut back on my patient load so that I could teach engineering and math?  Well, yes I did.  Why? Because I love to teach.  Oh, yes, and my patient who is the WWII veteran had dropped our services to go with Hospice.  I am so glad, I had the hardest time trying to get the home care physician to order Megace for appetite enhancement.  So, tomorrow begins another day of just seeing patients.  I will tell you about the patient’s cases that I opened recently, tomorrow hopefully.  Have a good night.

Kindest Regards,

Nancy Nurse

I believe that the worst thing that can happen to a home care nurse is when you have a paient die before seeing them that week.  That is exactly what happened to me.  I had opened a case of a man who had medical problems such as heart and hypertension in August.  Then, I walk into work and find out that his sister had just called to inform the home care agency that he died.  I was frozen in my tracks.  All I could think of was could I have saved him.  Every possible scenario was going through my head about how I might have done things differently.  What if I had seen him a day before, maybe I could have caught something or assessed something different about him that might have saved his life.  Honestly, I haven’t got over it.  I tell you what one of my nursing instructors told me during an evaluation.  She said my problem was that I care too much.  Do you believe that?  Persoonally speaking, in this field I don’t think that anyone can care too much.  I think there are not enough people who care.  Well, thanks for listening.

Still Shaken,

Nancy Nurse

Nancy Nurse