I couldn’t sleep last night so I stayed up pretty late and now I am suffering the consequences. I am like a zombie. Brain even sounds pretty scrumptious at the moment. Speaking of brain, have you ever tried brain before? I know it sounds gross, but I’ve had chicken brain before. It wasn’t my idea. My parents said that if I ate brain, I would become a brainiac. Let’s just say I don’t think I ate enough brain then. Sorry, like I said in a previous entry, my mind wanders a lot and my thoughts are all over the place.
I had my alarm set at around 0530 so that I could be at the hospital by 0630 the latest this morning. However, since I had stayed up so late, I kept hitting the snooze button. The hospital that we are doing our rotation has limited parking and they offer absolutely ZERO parking on Wednesday which is prep day for us. The closest free parking would be on the side streets where you can park for 2 hours max before you get a ticket. Nice! Another option would be to pay for parking at a private lot and walk 2 blocks to the hospital. I wasn’t running late this morning per se, but I was the last one to show up at the cafeteria to meet up with my class before the instructor got there. I had my phone on silent and when I turned it on, I had 3 missed calls on there. Apparently, my classmates were worried that I had gotten mugged by bums just within that 2 block walking distance. 🙂 I’m not saying that it can’t happen, but I just thought it was funny. My classmates are the best, right? 🙂
Today was such a long day. We were given a tour of the four different units that we would be rotating through and thank god this hospital is not too hard to navigate. The last hospital that I was at had construction going on and it was really hard to get off on the correct floor when stepping off the elevator. There were a couple elevators where doors would open on both sides and believe it or not, some floors were not on the same level. Crazy, right? For example, there was an old 3rd floor and a new 3rd floor. With the old 3rd floor, you could only get there through the stairway while with the new one, you can get there by elevator. There was a floor in that hospital that was considered forbidden and I seriously thought I was going to get shot like 2Pac because I accidentally ended up on that floor once. You know the moving staircases in Harry Potter? It was exactly like that!
Like I said, we will be rotating between four different units: NICU, High Risk Maternity, Post-Partum, and Labor & Delivery. Tomorrow I will be on the Post-Partum floor and one of the tasks that I will have to perform is giving a bath to a baby. That sounds really easy, right? Well, it’s a lot easier if it was just you and your clinical instructor and the baby. However, this is definitely not the case. My classmate and I will have to make a huge announcement over the intercom stating that we are going to be doing a baby bath demonstration and that ALL are invited to come and watch! Holy hell! 🙂 I don’t have any children and I’ve never given a baby a bath before so that’s going to be insane! All I have to go by is reading the material given in class. I always think it’s a lot harder to perform something in front of an audience and have to explain what you’re doing and why you’re doing it when you’ve never done it before. I am sure things will go fine, but I am crossing my fingers that no one shows up to watch! 🙂 For the rest of the day, you do the regular ADLs, assessment, vitals, meds, and etc. for the mom and the newborn.
I am the most excited about Labor & Delivery and NICU. I hope I get to assist and watch a vaginal birth and a C-section. I’ve never seen either live and watching it on a video doesn’t count! I am only on L & D for two days so I don’t know if that’ll happen. Maybe I’m evil, but I can’t wait for NICU. I’ve always been curious about the NICU. It’ll be interesting to see the little preemies. I just think you always see these units on TV, but to see it in real life will be amazing! Not everyone gets this opportunity.
I love babies! They are my weakness. They are absolutely precious, but I feel so incompetent when it comes to taking care of them. I’ve never given a baby a bath, I’ve changed a diaper once, and I’ve seen people put car seats in their car, but that’s about it. I feel like a fish out of water. I am sure my nurturing side will come out and I’ll do just fine. I just have to put on my Nursey face and go in there and do it.
Ugh. I’m sorry, I am so tired and drained that this entry was extremely boring. Usually I am a lot more entertaining. I’m going to get started on my prep work. I hope that when I am done with this rotation, I will at least have a clue as to how to take care of a baby when I do have one.
