You are a temporary receptionist recently placed at a school. You receive a package in the mail that is addressed to the school but also has a name on it that you don’t recognize. Do you:
1) Ask around with faculty to see if they know who this person is and once found deliver their package.
2) Ask the school director for their thoughts on what you should do with the package.
3) Open the package to find that it contains keys and spend the entire afternoon going around trying out the keys, only to find it doesn’t fit any of the keyholes you try.
4) You open the box and then stuff it in the desk and forget about it.

Good luck!!

Turned out the weekend wasn’t so bad.  Census is low in the hospital(s) (I add the ’s’ cuz it’s low at SUs hospital too), but just enough that they still had two NAs on the unit where I went Saturday night.  And for some reason the acuity was better than usual.  Made for an easy night.  In fact it was a light enough night the this happened.

Patient wants to go smoke.  The HUC calls me and asks if I have some time to take the patient out, even though he isn’t assigned to me.  The rationale is that it was getting dark at this point and the other NA is a female and the patient is an older male and smoking means going outside the building.  Made sense to me.  However, there weren’t any orders that said he could go out to smoke.  I went to his RN and asked her about the situation and she said she didn’t see any orders but as long as it wouldn’t impact my work she was ok with it.  I told her I need a definitive yes or no from her before I’d take him anywhere off the floor so she gave approval.

At this point it’s time to start getting shift vital signs, but I had about 2/3’s the load that I usually have and most everyone is easy.  I decide to try to get those VSs in first.  Half way through the HUC calls me again to take him because he’s bugging her.  So I stop and go get him.  Now, mind you, this guy also requires a walker to ambulate.  We’re half way from the room to the elevators when the RN calls out for us to stop.  She pushes her COW (combination computer on wheels w/med cart) down the hall to us and wants to give him his meds before we head out.

The RN is still not thrilled that he’s leaving the floor and to smoke.  She makes comments about calling the Dr. but proceeds to wanting to get his meds in him so she isn’t late with administration.  It also dons on her that he’s going to smoke so we do a full body search (in the middle of the hall) for any nicotine patches he might be wearing.  Then gives him his pills and comments that one of them is for his pain.  Now, this guy already wobbles like a weeble.  At this comment my eyes smack wide open and before I can even open my mouth she looks at me and says “don’t worry it’s nothing that will make him woozy.”  Then chuckles.  Finally she gives approval for us to proceed.

Now, I’ve given you all this….guy really, really, really just has to go out for smoke.  RN not thrilled and we go through all these exercises to just get him on his way.  So, we go down the elevator and out the door to a place where he can sit.  I kid you not, as soon as his butt hits the bench he looks at me and says “do you have a cigarette?” OMG, I almost hurt myself trying not to roar out laughing.  “Uh, no sir, I sure don’t.  Didn’t you bring some down with you?”  He didn’t and then proceeds to scan the sidewalk around him and finds a butt with some tobacco still on it, picks it up, looks it over, pulls the lighter out of his pants pocket and lights it up (YOU should have seen the look on the RNs face when I gave her this report!).  That, of course, wasn’t sufficient so he looks for more and ends up go over by the trash can to find another, which he did and finishes that one.  At this point he says he’s satisfied and we go back in.

I still laugh.  That RN left at 2300 which meant I got to hear her give report to the oncoming RN and that was a show unto itself as well.

LOL, still chuckling…

Sunday night I’m assigned to be the HUC (huh? me? You want me to do what?!?  Really!) on the Rehab unit.  1.  I’ve never been an HUC.  I don’t even know how to work the phone system there.  2.  I know that the Rehab unit doesn’t have an HUC through the night.  Well, I’m given a 5 minute intro course to being an HUC, how to work the call station and the almost how to work the phone and told I don’t have to do any of the paperwork (phew!).  I spend most of the evening reading my new “Alternate Format Questions on new NCLEX-RN” book.  At 2200 the scheduler calls my charge RN and says that they won’t have any place for me after 2300 and proceed to try to get the charge to keep me all night.  Yea, that was a fun conversation to hear.  (I’m not being sarcastic, it really was funny.)  In fact there were 3 float pool personnel on that unit plus one other RN floated in.  All of us were sent home or reassigned at 2300.  I got to go home  Worked 4 hours, got paid for 4 hours (though I missed the holiday pay segment), and got credit for 12 hours.  Not bad.

Ended up being an easy and fun way to get my hours in for September!

Ouch in a big way is all I have to say…

It weighs 11 pounds (5kg)! This thing is a footstool.

A lot of the material for the upcoming unit exam is from this text, and I’ve been spending hours upon hours at a time reading and reviewing and browsing.

A couple of days ago when I finished studying I noticed an ache in my left wrist. When I got up the next morning I realized I had tendonitis!!

Without doubt, nursing school is painful!!

The outlaws were in town for a visit and during that time we had homemade fondue (don’t ask).

Some background.  MIL (Mother-In-Law) had some heart issues earlier in the year and required the placement of a stent in a coronary artery.  With such that means she has some medication and dietary changes and restrictions.

During our fondue meal we had a variety of meats such as chicken, steak, and shrimp.  MIL was really tearing in to the shrimp and we of course encouraged her.  I contended that shrimp was meal she should feel free consume regularly to which she responded that she wanted to get as much in before she had to “eat right” prior to get her blood drawn for lipid panels.

It was here that the big seafood fight began.  MIL said that she had been told to avoid shrimp because it was high in cholesterol which SU supported.  Having just had a unit on senior nutrition a few weeks before and lived through a rather humorous classroom discussion about sardines being an excellent, nutrient dense, low-cost food choice for seniors I remembered that we also lumped shrimp in there as well (excluding the low-cost aspect).

My biggest contention was the sodium content rather than the cholesterol.

Well, I did more research and sure enough shrimp are an excellent choice for all of us and especially for seniors.  It is nutrient dense, high protein, and relatively easy to digest (providing you’re not allergic to shell fish ).

As for the cholesterol is does contain some cholesterol.  However, gram for gram it is lower than eggs.  And even better, shrimp has a unique property of having more HDL than LDL!

So, while you’re introducing cholesterol to your system you are giving yourself much more HDL than LDL and it’s the HDL that’s the “good” cholesterol which helps remove the cholesterol from your blood.

I stand my ground in the “Big Seafood Fight.”  Shrimp is a good meal choice for MIL, both in her pleasure and her health.

Maybe next time I can use that to get them to take us out to eat seafood rather than messing with the fondue  LOL

And thus ends summer break.

” Those were the days
We’d lay in the haze
Forget depressive times”
B. Taupin

The week started out fast and sped up from there.
20 hours of lecture, 4 hours of labs, 2 guest lecturers, 1-1/2 hr all school meeting, 1 home work assignment.  First test is this coming Friday and we have a discussion board posting due in two weeks that has to be done in our project group (yes, that again).

On a positive note, I was one of four recipients of a small scholarship that is named after the first graduate of our school.

And on the funny side, this is what I walked in to when I got home my first day:

A nurses learning is never done.

SU is working on her PCCN certification and was entrenched at the kitchen table with all her materials.  Even when nursing school ends the learning just begins.  Take special note of the Hogan book still close at hand! LOL

“I considered being a stay-at-home Mom until I found out that the kids would be there too.”

Especially if those family members are healthcare providers….

Mmmmm-Kay?

Tons to do just to get to starting gate.
It’s going to be an intense, challenging, and fun few months.

…you walk past someone in the store and you all look at each other and say “2 person assist…”

…someone is talking about their grandchildren and they are boasting about “how beautiful the child’s veins are.”

…when watching the young girl falling down at the end of her axel’s while practicing ice skating your partner says “she’s going to be having knee surgery at some point in the future.”