Rounding Week 4! Post-Thanksgiving Crash

While I'm downloading training videos on medication administration, I'll post an update. This week we don't spend time in the hospital, instead we'll be doing intensive training on how to "pass meds." This is very exciting because it means we can be more helpful when we get back on the floor. And as I mentioned in my previous post, this skill carries with it daunting responsibility. Still, now that we are spending full shifts in the hospital, I like to stay busy and am excited to be expanding my skill set.

The patients I have had this term have been very sick elderly folks. And as it was approaching the holidays, my wise clinical instructor pointed out that this is the time the nursing homes like to send as many patients as possible over to the hospitals, since they'll be short staffed! So anything condition that may qualify gets them a ride over to see us. I wondered if he was just being cynical, but he spent twenty years in an ER and has seen this trend unfold many times. Plus, he confirmed it with some nurse's aids over in the homes. So, yes -- I had my hands full changing "adult briefs." (I hate having to spray them with the chilly disinfectant spray...Gasp!)

Man was I ever blue when the Thanksgiving break rolled around.

I elected not to go home, since I was just there several weeks ago. I hate crowds and the crush of humanity. I also hate spending money on expensive peak airfare. This meant I found myself with nearly a week to kill in The Burgh, mostly on my own. I made a list of things I wanted to do that school keeps me too busy for; poking around new neighborhoods, browsing the shops, seeing downtown, long walks, hand crafts, trashy novels. Then I worked through the list. It kept me busy and distracted from the sadness of being away from family on the holiday. Luckily, a few of us stragglers gathered at my girlfriend's house where we cooked our own rather marvelous spread and killed a couple of bottles of wine. (Yes, I did inject the bird with melted butter with an intramuscular syringe!) We are all here in town getting our next degree and, for whatever reason, weren't going anywhere. It's nice to meet new friends.

Apple sure has made the world smaller. Finally my mom and sister joined my iPhone cult and we were able to FaceTime on Thanksgiving. Attending school far away today is so much easier than in 1988. Back then I called long distance. Every day. Until the parents saw the phone bill. Plus, I wrote actual letters home. I feel like a dinosaur. In any case...video chatting is just one more thing I'm thankful for this holiday season while away from home.

I ended my break by splurging on a swanky, historic hotel downtown. The Omni William Penn. Lemme tell 'ya...go there. I was in heaven. I browsed Sack's 5th Avenue, Macy's and Brooks Brothers. Friends met me at the hotel for drinks, and we emptied more wine bottles. I got to reunite with my heels and dressy-dresses. I felt like a grown up in my big, king bed and attempted to sleep on every square inch (just to get my money's worth.) I love being too warm and slithering over to find another cold spot on 600 thread count sheets. It beats swiveling around in a tiny twin at the dorm any day. It was a glorious ending to a restful break.

I probably should have cracked the books, but I just couldn't make myself.

Now we have a couple of exams and clinical competencies to grind through in the next few weeks before it's time to head home for Christmas.

Whoopsie. Looks like those videos are finished downloading. Time to go learn how to stick people!