using the diary…

A bit busy lately. Feeling *whew* like my brain is somewhat pressurised so I needed to come here just to relax and unwind a little.

Today was quite nice. I kept Sacha home from daycare to spend a little one-on-one time with her. I feel that between packing and moving and unpacking and working and study that both girls feel like they don’t see me terribly often. I understand that this isn’t the most ideal thing right now, but it’s the best Mike and I could do. I hope that when they’re older I can explain that I did this to make sure they had a nice childhood and not one frought with worry and poverty. Not that I like to think of myself as poverty stricken…oh no! There are thousands far worse off than me… I’m a bit… Financially challenged at times, although with this job life has been great. Bills are paid up, we have a lovely house and I managed to buy a new vaccum cleaner! I have never seen such an efficient machine in all my born days! This tiny little gadget manages to make my life that much nicer with it’s wonderful work (powered by moi of course!)

Anyway, the next few weeks are going to be tiring (i’m expecting). My (Foundations of Nursing) Tutor managed to put the fear of the (Nursing) faculty in my heart the other day with a list of expectations about the next few weeks. In 8 short weeks we have been buzzed through a range of topics including: Pain, Loss and Grief, Pharmacology, Asepsis (and I will add to this point in the next paragraph), Airway Maintenance and Circulation, Fluids and Electrolytres and a few other topics. We have a wonderfully stimulating essay due next week on "the challenges of day surgery," something I’m yet to give a crap about (ie: I have not started it and need to take the bull by the horns tomorrow!) some other research thingy due several days after (for my online subject) and then lab hurdles (or prac tests) and finally 2 weeks of clinicals (where we try and remember what we’ve learned on REAL patients) before coming back to one full week of study prior to final year exams! *shivers* I must say I do feel slightly daunted. The one thing I seem to be struggling with quite a lot is the drug calculations (math isn’t what you’d call my "strong point") and pharmacology. I would say that this has something to do with my advance standing given that my fellow classmates seem to have a slightly better grasp on things (I did not medications last year – Division 2’s don’t administer it)… so I have made an appointment to go and see my course convenor to get a bit of help.

Ok… onto the whole Asepsis thing. This week we tackled the whole "sterile technique" (in respect of wound dressings etc). This was a topic we covered quite heavily last year and I was taught by one of the most well known wound (RN) professionals who does many seminars of the "correct procedures" and what-not. Before I have a quick gripe let me say that if you’re not thinking clearly or doing the procedure "just-so" it can be very easy to destroy your "sterile field" and therefore bugger the whole procedure up. I’ve seen nurses in the field doing some very average jobs and I also know that you are not afforded great deals of time to do dresssings, therefore some people modify or choose not to adhere to the stringency of the regulations. I believe that if you don’t do it properly you may as well not do it at all. Underneath all of this there is a patient relying on you to keep him/her healthy etc. Anyhoo, my lab teacher was going through the procedure "her way." Less than a quarter of the way through it she openly contaminated the sterile field by placing her "dirty" tongs in the sterile area. I was a little bit stunned but figured she may have just done it in err. I advised her of this, expecting her to advise the class that if you stuff up you need to start again. Instead she tells me that "you can’t reinfect the patient with his own bugs" and "that the procedure has probably changed since you did it." HUH? So the whole "sterile technique" has just been chucked out the window (in the last 8 months may I add) because apparently the patient can’t be re-infected. hmmmm. Ok… Anyway I rationalised it and she basically indicated THIS was the way SHE did it and "end of conversation." When I got home I called my teacher from last year and she was horrified that we were being taught incorrectly and advised me to go and see the course chairperson to advise. So I’ve taken the last few days to think about it but I think I will. Not to ruffle anyones feathers or to get anyone in trouble, and not even to prove that I’m a giant smart ass… but simply because there are 370 new nursing students learning this procedure and that means there will be a possible 370 new nurses with incorrect ideas and techniques in respect to dressings and post surgery care. It worries me.

So yah.

I’m trying to establish when term break starts for schools. I hope i’m not on my clinical rounds when Tylah is at home. I think she is relying on this time for a bit of one-on-one with me. Truthfully I’m looking forward to it too!

Vee