Tired...but good

So I just finished a three day in a row work run. Not uncommon and shouldn't be a big deal, but three 12 hour shifts (let's be realistic, 13-14 hour)-ummm tired! I think if I were in a job where things came easier, there was less critical thinking and I had the experience it wouldn't be so bad. By the end of yesterday I think my brain hurt!

My preceptor, Trish, continues to be awesome. This round she tried to step back and let me do the work. I really need this, the hardest thing to get used to is the prioritization and timing of your day. Ya never know what is going to happen with one of your patients or the floor in general that can throw a kink in your day, no matter how planned it is. With Trish stepping back I had to plan the days and like I said before the days were 13-14 hours. Not so good at the planning yet! At one point I was doing a line change in a room, though I had all the IV tubing I needed and then got to the final hook up to hook the patient back in and realized I was missing something. Trish just smiled- I am glad she let me get that far, I know things like that will help me remember.

I am gaining small bite of confidence daily- usually removed in big hunks the next day but I know things will get easier. I did get my first port access done, one try, just had to pull back a little to get the blood return. That felt pretty good because we don't get them on the floor to often because our patients use central lines and some of the nurses haven't accessed one before. It helped that the patient is a trooper and his family is wonderful so I was more comfortable.

One of the other things my preceptor did yesterday was have me do a full body assessment on a patient that we were admitting. She said she had already done the assessment but for me to go ahead and do it too. As I was checking him out I checked for capillary refill in his toes and couldn't even assess it because he was so pale. I mentioned it to my preceptor and she said that was the whole reason she had me do the assessment. That was a nice confidence booster that I realised it was abnormal and that I was comfortable telling her I couldn't get a good assessment. It was also nice to find out how to document that!

On top of the 3 day week I decided it was time for me to actually do something and get in shape. I could put "back in shape" but I really never was to begin with! So I joined Lifestyle Family Fitness in Apex over labor day weekend and went a couple of times last week before my 3 days of work. I met with a trainer on Friday and he gave me a quick circuit workout to do when I was short on time. Needless to say I was feeling it a lot on Saturday and Sunday. Trish was laughing at how hard it was for me to sit down and stand up. I am so out of shape. I'll keep ya updated on that too. Currently I would like to be able to go from only doing 10 "girl" push ups to 12 real ones. We'll just have to see how long that takes!