Week Four - A Week of Firsts

Got my first parking ticket here and I feel justified in fighting it based on what the sign said when I parked...but I know I won't. Twenty bucks just ain't worth the hassle of going to parking court. I bet the city knows that and banks on it. Grrr.

Today was the first day I walked outside and started shivering like it must be fall. Could it be?!!! I don't dare to hope. I've been looking forward to cold weather since I hear it means that "Cockroach Season" is officially over.

But the most important first was meeting my Very First Patient!

Yes it was our first clinical week in the hospital, and I will admit I was nervous. This surprises me since not much does. We awoke in the wee hours in the morning and made our way as a class to the hospital cafeteria to breakfast and have a meeting with our clinical instructor. This is the teacher who leads a small group of students throughout the quarter through the clinical (hospital and hands on care) experience. Of all the professors here -- and I really like them all -- I feel lucky to have gotten who I did. She's the best!

So we arrived on our floor in our small group and were oriented. Given a tour. The codes to all the locked rooms. Passwords to the computer system. (Basically the keys to the kingdom.) Then we were assigned our patient and I got a little bubble of nerves when I passed her room for the first time knowing I would shortly have to knock on her door like I belonged there and begin forming the Therapeutic Relationship. I'm amused at how skittish I was to do this -- actually making several "fly-bys" past her door, unable to make myself knock until I finally gathered up the gumption to just do it.

I was only there to complete a partial healthcare assessment on her, so I didn't have to make any physical contact or practice my limited "skills" on her just yet. Once I did go in, thankfully things flowed naturally through the questionnaire. She was kind, warm and amiable. I wonder what she thought of me? I know what I would have thought sitting in that bed:

"She looks like a doctor" -- in my lab coat I felt like a fraud. I really only know basic hand washing, vital signs and how to put someone in restraints...yet here I was like someone from Grey's Anatomy.

"A student?! --Oh brother, just let me sleep." -- the woman had just had surgery the day before and now she was having to sit there and answer questions like: what do you like best about yourself? PUH-LEEZE.

Still -- even if she thought those things, she hid it well. I have to say I feel blessed I didn't get an unhappy and uncooperative patient for my first time at bat. I thoroughly enjoyed my day on the floor, even though I was worried about getting in the way of the hospital staff -- the nurses and doctors who "belonged there." When I brought that up I loved my teacher's response. She said it was her belief that the nursing students had every right to be in that patient's room as the staff did. Makes sense, since that's how new nurses are made, and every professional there started at the bottom like I did yesterday.

It's fun and daunting starting something new. I like it.