Channelling the Nurse Within

Last Thursday, I began the journey to move towards the next step to become a bigger part of the Health Care Industry. So far, its been a breeze, as orientation days can be. I've got most of the names of my new class friends down pat, and I think I've successfully established my quirky-friendly-"ice breaking"-uniqueness within the group.

Mostly its been listening, discussing, reading while listening, signing, agreeing and reading. And having enough breaks to consume mass quantities of coffee - in my dreams - because they stock the worst of the worst.... INTERNATIONAL ROAST!!! OH MY GOD! That is not coffee... looks like I need to bring some of my coffee expertise to school!!

I have some really quirky new buds... the few I've had the most time with include a quiet chick who sings in a metal band, a Bieber-fantatic zany quirky girl, a know-it-all opinionated but still fun dad of one, a overly-zealously-random Plebotomist [takes blood]... among those I've still got time to get to know!

Around study and school, I've still got work. Its really hard to remember I'm not a nurse YET, but I am heading there.

Today, however, I wish I had all the possible training. One of the residents literally went from consciously there, to suddenly unable to walk, to unconscious way too quickly. She was out for about 10 minutes, and for about 8 minutes my heart was racing SOOO hard. She's one of my favourites, and shes one that doesn't really speak but has alot of animation in her face. The idea that something possibly was seriously wrong and there was nothing that I could legally do to help other than assist the nurse and RN.

Thankfully, I had another carer with me at the time that our resident went down hill. Thankfully, there were two people outside of the residents room with phones that I could borrow - because 2 of the 3 carers on shift don't carry phones, and both of us happen to be in the situation today. Thankfully, I remembered my training to only speak the necessary urgency on the phone, and not to 'diagnose' the situation. Thankfully the nurses allowed me to ask questions afterwards, and thankfully they were both happy with how us carers handled the situation. Mostly, I'm thankful the other residents didn't get mad when lunch was late.

For a moment I was scared that I won't be good in urgent situations. But when I thought about it, I was mostly scared because I didn't know what I could do - but that is fine because - I'm not at that stage yet. I'm not trained in those areas yet. I've not had the time to build the experience to get the confidence yet.

So for now, i'm just channelling the nurse within...

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