Year 2 Med/Surg

19/5/14

Day One of my first placement in second year nursing! What excitement to start my first ever med-surg experience!
I am to be working on a surgical unit which specialises in female post-op patients with gender related surgeries, eg. hysterectomy, mastectomy, or abdominal surgery.
The first shift passed without a hitch. I found the ward after a brief but worried jog through the endless identical hospital corridors and still arrived on time. The nurses on were lovely, all very kind and funny, and one I had met on my previous placement in first year. She remembered me too so I must have made some sort of impression, good or bad. It was only a short time before I had my bearings, the ward being a quarter of the size off my last placement. I got the official tour and felt relaxed,comfortable in the familiar setting. My nursing preceptor, a lovely no-nonsense woman with a wicked sense of humour, showed me round the medication room. I am now allowed to touch drugs! No, don't report me, I won't go crazy. But after placement last year where we were told we would be pulled from the course if we handled or gave out medications, to suddenly being given the responsibility of measuring up and administering charted meds is a big step and a big deal. But I am cool calm and collected on the outside *deep breaths*. Thankfully I didn't have to do much at all today, just followed the RN around and tried to get back into the swing of things in the ward setting. Performed the obs and other necessaries which I thought would be a bit rusty but came back to me like riding a bicycle. Because the ward is smallish I had time to stop and chat with the patients which was really nice. In class we talk a lot about communication and building therapeutic relationships with patients to aid in their recovery, which is all a load of crud really when you have to write essays on it, but is completely relevant in this setting. Although I'm not sure if its something you can really teach from a book, or in fact at all. I was anxious at first to see how it would be relating to patients of different ages. Last year in elderhealth placement the older patients were lovely and very easy to get along with. All was well however and I was happy to feel (and get feedback) that I was developing good rapport with patients and families of all ages and backgrounds. One patient that did come as a bit of a wakeup call, a woman the same age as me who had just had a double mastectomy and whose recovery prospects were not bright. She was very funny and nice, and the injustice was difficult to swallow. I appeased myself with trying to make her time on the ward as pleasant as possible. Another stand out patient for rather different reasons) was a woman who was sabotaging her own recovery in order to stay in the hospital. As a healthcare worker you can imagine how frustrating it is to not be able to give a bed to someone who needs it because another patient who is medically sound wants a longer break from work and responsibilities.
Tomorrow is the beginning of my real involvement in the ward, and I am very excited. Happily I already feel comfortable and relaxed so I am ready for the challenge. Lots to learn.