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Monday, February 1, 2010

Day 158: February 1, 2010

Quote of the Day: "Not to understand a treasure's worth till time has stole away the slighted good, is cause of half the poverty we feel, and makes the world the wilderness it is." ~William Cowper

Clinicals went very, very well today. I'm still sick, and have a really sore throat, but I didn't really notice it too much while I was there. It was just so much to go over, and do! And the patients that we interacted with made it a very interesting day. You would not know that some of these patients were criminally ill just from speaking with them. A lot of them appear to be very rational and sane, and only after an amount of time do the discrepancies make themselves known.  I talked to one patient for a good long while, and then when I went to read the chart I found out some really disturbing things he had done and was shocked. It wasn't that it wasn't believable, but it was that he came off as being mostly normal.  We did nearly have an incident today, though, because one of the patients took a serious dislike to one of the girls in my group and became highly agitated. But we left that area and things went back to normal. Incidentally, that same patient told me that I am the "compassionate" one. Whatever that is worth! HaHaHa!!! 

I wish that I could tell you more about the things I saw and did out there, but due to patient confidentiality I have to keep it to myself. But I can say that the facility was great. They have a section where the patients can go make T-shirts and other things, a part where they can deal with plants, and all sorts of other things. And they have this merit system where they earn points for doing certain things like brushing their teeth, showering, and making their beds that they can use to buy things such as snacks, hats and gloves, movie tickets to the on-site theater, and things like that. It seems to work really well, and the patients all really enjoy it.  Heck, I would too! LOL  The place really is like a self-contained unit.  Actually, come to think of it.... it does kind of remind me of a "compound" like on my favorite show..... LOL

I'm really looking forward to the next clinical day out there, and it's really sad that we had to wait til the last semester for this rotation, and I'll only have 5 clinical days at the State Hospital, because I really do enjoy it. I think that maybe, from first impression, I would really enjoy being a Psych nurse. It sure would have its moments! The thing is, though, it's a 45 minute drive one-way, and even if I was working 8 hour shifts, that would mean that I'd be gone from home ten hours a day, five days a week.  Not too bad if I get the 7-11 shift, but that's still a really long time. There is a hospital down in Wichita Falls as well, but I'm not sure if they would be hiring or even if it would be the same there. I can always research it, I guess. It would only be an additional ten-minute drive past the local hospital for me. I can't say whether it would be a good idea or not, though, because we still have the Mother/Baby portion of clinicals to go to. I may decide that I like that better. Or who knows, maybe I'll just end up wherever the first job offer comes from. Actually, that's a lot more likely, isn't it? 

On Thursday I'll go to my first Labor & Delivery clinical, where I will get to see the miracle of life from the OTHER side. You know, the one where it isn't ME lying in the bed screaming, crying, and  wanting to kill the person who "did this to me". THAT should be interesting. And I think I'll be giving the K shots to the newborns too. So I have already memorized it.... you need a 25 guage 1/2 inch needle to give innoculations to a newborn. Or, there's a better way to figure it out to exact, but I won't go into THAT much detail on here. I really do enjoy people actually READING my blog, after all.

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