Friday, July 31, 2009

1st Day in the OR

Today was my first "official" day in the OR...a sort of mini-clinical before the real thing in September. My day was mostly observational, and I came in at 11 so the morning rush was over. I received some good advice: "Learn something new every day, even if it's only where the restroom is!" Here is what I learned today:

1.) At Erlanger, OR rooms 1-12 are to the right of the surgery board, the rest are to the left. I learned this after my instructor told me to go observe in room 6 and started walking down the hall to the left.

2.) If your CRNA tells you to sit in the breakroom for 5 minutes while she runs a quick personal errand, your instructor WILL happen to walk in the breakroom and ask "Do you need something to do?"

So, even though I didn't get to intubate or place an LMA, I learned two valuable lessons. Hopefully Tuesday in the OR (the 6:30-11 slot) will be more interesting!

Thursday, July 16, 2009

So much to do....so little time

We are 4 weeks into the second summer semester, and busy would be an understatement. This semester we are taking Anatomy and Physiology, Integrated Health Sciences, and Diversity and Ethics (another one of those blah! classes). For the first three weeks we had a test every Monday and Thursday so every spare moment was spent studying...including 5-6 hours on Saturdays (I didn't even study that much for NCLEX!). We start "clinicals" tomorrow so the tests are starting to slow down, just adding new kinds of stress. Our rotations from now until August are mostly observational and include the OR, PAT (pre-addmission testing), PIV (starting IV's in pre-op), a day in the pharmacy and a day in the anesthesia workroom in the OR.

Our professors continuosly warn us about the "personalities" we will encounter in the OR once we start rotating through which is another point of stress.

Our class as a whole is very cohesive and hopefully our ability to work together and pull each other along will be greatly beneficial in the long run. Rachel and I have already made some great new friends and try to find a little time here and there to be social and get away from the books for a little while.