I'll see you in the ICU!

Back to the Back

Holy Cow, everything has log jammed from last week onto this week. I have to take the midterm (I missed last Friday) tomorrow after clinicals, and after that I will be back on track. My Final is Friday.

People are coming down with stuff, putting out their backs, and in general falling apart. I don't feel so bad now, I was really feeling guilty about hurting my back. (I'm better, btw)

A friend took out her neck and upper back and was referred by me to the student health services, where she got the same anti-inflamatories and muscle relaxants. She said she took one of the muscle relaxants and got all loopy (glad I didn't take those! I'm already loopy, imagine how much more loopy I could have gotten)

I'm sorry I haven't been able to return calls/etc, but I've been seriously busy trying to catch up what I missed last week, and getting ready for all the exams/assignments due this week. So far, I managed to do it, and tomorrow afternoon I'll be free to start cramming the final.

Yesterday was hilarious: a mandatory town hall meeting that was supposed to prepare us for integration. The overall, take-home message was "do NOT come crying to US!"

We got to hear several examples of where students failed to be proactive and screwed themselves over. What I heard is that we get even LESS structure and support and have to do even MORE way finding than we're doing now.

They're logic: "If you can make it through this, you can make it through anything."

ah...thanks, Columbia.

Story after story about being not able to contact preceptors, about preceptors going out on sick-leave and students calling the office saying "what do I do now?" and the basic come back was "go talk to the nurse manager and find out if there's anyone you can work with" but basically--go find yourself another preceptor.

Another great story was where one preceptor got into a screaming, shouting match on the floor because another nurse was pissed-off that she had x patients and the preceptor had a lighter load (x minus student, presumably, if I had to write the formula) and the student was caught in the middle of it.

"if this happens to you, you have to get in and say 'guys? I know there are a lot of strong emotions...but we can find a solution to all this' you have to fend for yourselves" and at this point, all of us having felt the way we've been made to feel by some of the nurses on our floor, we all burst into laughter.

Is she kidding?
While there is a heirarchy here, the 100% scorers, and smarty-know it alls, and the other end of the spectrum, on the floors, we're all big blue idiots. (reference to our uniforms)

We just try to do what we can, we do all the dirty disgusting jobs while smiling, and nurses dont' have to do anything but dispense meds, and yet we are so reviled.

The very thought of interjecting between two vicious, fighting, scray-ass nurses, was preposterous. We'd be handed our heads. What does she think we are? They hate and us! We're all cramming this in a fast amount of time and they know it, and they hate that, even if at the end of it we've learned quite a lot.

We've all seen plenty of them that don't seem to know much, (one student caught a medication error that would have been REALLY, REALLY bad) or maybe it's that they don't remember much, or maybe they did one of those 2 year junior college programs while working as a CNA and to them, THAT'S the way dues are paid. Or maybe it's that this school costs nearly a hundred grand for the one year. (whatever it is...60-70 grand tuition, plus cost of living...round it up to a hundred grand of debt)

"guys? we can find a solution"
BWAH HA HA HA HA HA!

that was a good lecture...worth the price of admission.
So I guess we get our liason and preceptor's phone numbers, Friday, and we're to begin trying to contact them IMMEDIATELY because I guess, it's next to impossible.

They made it sound like last year, people couldn't get through, no one knew what the student was talking about, even a few preceptors didn't know they were preceptoring because they had forgotten that they had said they wanted to in the beginning of the year and then when they were presented with "you're my preceptor" they said "oh. I am?"

Great job of communication, Columbia.
In lumine tuo, videbimus lumen.

posted by sketchmonkey @ 5:56 AM