This week I got to draw blood and change a wound dressing! I love being a nursing student. I hope everyone’s week is going awesomely! My week has been eventful, especially clinicals. I got to say I LOVE this semester’s clinicals.
I have got to do some fun stuff and the nurses have been great. Yesterday was a draining day….I had to be at school from 8-4 and I have so many projects to do I just want to scream. With nursing care plans, tests, group projects, & individuals projects I think I have enough to do…oh yeah and then I have to attend clinicals but before I know it I will be a Registered Nurse.
My Clinical Day
Now to clinicals, well I had clinicals today from 6:30 am-4pm and I worked on a cardiac floor. On this floor they had a lot of heart caths. The nurse I worked with was awesome and was all about me getting some experience. I got to go down and watch a VQ scan (it looks at the lungs with radioactive stuff and looks for abnormalities) and a vascular doppler scan. It was really cool because I got to watch the arteries and veins pump blood.
Drawing Blood for the First Time in Nursing School
Today I got to draw blood for the first time in my life. I have got to practice on dummies in the lab. I was nervous because I was thinking well I just hope I hit the vein. Well on the first try I got it in but the lady had really weak veins (she already had bruises on her arms from where they previously blew with someone else).
After getting some blood in the first tube, I heard this “poof” like sound and the nurse said that it had blew. I was like YIKES!! I really didn’t want my first blood draw to be like that. So we did another vein and filled the other tube. She told me to always use the wrist veins as the last resort for drawing blood because they hurt worst.
Doing Wound Dressing Change Wet to Dry in Nursing School
Then later on in the day was the awesome part. A nurse came over from one of the other units to get me to do a wet to dry dressing change. I have always always wanted to do one. We have practiced them in lab a lot. The person I was doing the dressing change on had gall bladder cancer and had part of their liver resectioned.
The patient had a huge wound that was about 10 inches long and 1 1/2 inches deep with green drainage. They said they had to change the dressing about 5 times a day because it drained so much.
Also the patient had a penrose drain (never had seen one of those before). I got to remove the dry galls and flush the area with normal saline. Then I got to repack it with fresh galls. It was so cool! It was the freaky looking but coolest thing I have ever seen. I swear it looked like something you would see in a horror movie.
I hope everyone has a great week! Until next time.
Sarah 😉