Sorry I haven't been updating my post as often as I should...
My last post was after I had passed my first class. I have since then completed my Pharmacology class (I got an A.. yahoo!) and I am now finishing up my med/surg clinicals. What a blast it has been!
When older nursing students tell me you will never forget the patients you take care of in clinicals... I didn't really believe them. We see so many different people, procedures, nurses, doctors etc, I thought that patients would just become a blur. I was wrong. I am going to try and tell the story without violating any HIPPAA rules (:
Yesterday I had my fourth day of clinical on a telemetry floor. I was helping the RN with a patient admitted with hyperglycemia (high blood sugar) and renal failure. They were admitted with a blood glucose level of 1500 (normal range is 60-100) and sent to the ICU. They were sent down to use from the ICU after their blood sugar levels started to come down.
That morning before breakfast the nurse asked me to get her blood sugar before she ate. I grabbed the glucometer, stuck her finger, and the glucometer read "HI, Out of Range." I thought I messed something up... but how hard is it to prick a finger and put blood on a strip? The nurse came back and redid it--she got the same reading.
She quickly ran to grab supplies for a STAT blood draw and sent it down to the lab. Once the stat results came back her glucose levels were above 700. If you don't know what that is High Glucose levels can cause organ failure, seizures, or diabetic coma. Not good.
Due to the extremely high glucose levels, the nurse called a Rapid Response Team. It seemed like organized chaos. The primary doctor, the charge nurse, respiratory therapy, nursing care partner, and a few other people I didn't know showed up. There were so many people in such a small room--but everyone knew what their role was and performed their tasks so smoothly.
They took labs, drew blood, gave insulin, and finally decided to send the patient back to ICU.
Of course, I was excited to help in anyway that I could. I am still new to the nursing world, so the only thing I got to do was help transfer the patient to the ICU.
After we dropped the patient off safely, we went back down to our unit and got started helping other patients on our floor. Maybe 15 minutes later, they called a code blue overhead for the ICU. It was the patient we had just dropped off.
We were lucky that she didn't code while we were transferring her to the ICU-- I am not sure if that's an experience I am ready for.
It was a crazy way to start off my morning of clinical. I was lucky to have seen the collaboration between all of the healthcare workers, and how cohesive the healthcare team can be. It makes me so excited to work as an RN. Everyday of clinical, I seem to love the healthcare field more and more.
