Nursing Ups and Downs

I had my second clinical in the hospital yesterday. And, let me tell you, this week's clinical was much much more challenging than last week's.

My patient was a 64-year-old woman with encephalopathy (general brain dysfunction), aphasia (impairment of ability to communicate), schizophrenia and a number of other medical problems (obesity, hypertension, use of feeding tube). She's lived in an extended care facility for several years. The reason she was admitted to the hospital, however, was for a dislodged nephrostomy tube (which are tubes going into her kidneys to relieve her hydronephrosis and urosepsis). Somehow her left nephrostomy tube was dislodged the night before so it needed to be replaced.

Our responsibility was to change her bed linens and to give a full bed bath. The tube in her back, in addition to the pressure ulcers on her coccyx, caused her a lot of pain whenever we turned her. So she would moan, scream and mumble incomprehensibly whenever moved. It was extremely difficult to turn her due to her weight, as well. We managed to get everything done successfully but I couldn't help feeling sympathy for this woman's condition. It was a very depressing case but still one that I needed to witness and experience.

Today was way better. I went to an informational meeting for the Project Lazarus New Orleans trip I'm going on in December. I got to meet the five other participants (the sixth is one of my sorority sisters), our two group leaders and our advisor. All of them seem so enthusiastic and easy to get along with. A member of the Columbus AIDS Task Force came to speak to us since we will be working with HIV/AIDS patients at the hospice. He was extremely blunt about HIV/AIDS and we had open discussions about the difference between HIV and AIDS, what the illness looks like, sex, sexuality, misconceptions, contraception, prevention, etc. It was a very interesting dialogue and I'm looking forward to working with and learning more from the people living at the facility. I'm also really excited to explore the city of New Orleans! I couldn't stop smiling after the meeting because I can't wait to go--I know it's going to be an unforgettable trip. Who knows, maybe it will spur me to do something with HIV/AIDS in nursing in the future...

I'M SO EXCITED!!!!!!