So as of now each student is assigned one patient at a time, so if your one patient gets discharged, obviously you get assigned a new patient. Each patient you have requires a lot of paperwork to hand in to our professor each week, so if you end up with several patients who have been discharged, that's a lot of paperwork. Even though each patient requires lots of paperwork, you get used to it and it's not so bad after a while. Next week however, things are going to be a bit tougher because we'll be assigned 2 patients at a time! WooHoo! I'm actually super excited! Even though it will be almost twice the paperwork, (there's a couple forms we only have to fill out for one patient, not both) I'm really looking forward to the challenge! We're doing just about everything with the patient now, we started out with giving bed baths, making beds, performing oral hygiene, wiping butts...you get the picture. But now we're actually giving medications, and charting everything on the patients chart! =D I love being so independent. Of course as students, we're under the watchful eye of our clinical instructor until we become proficient at doing whatever task we're working on.

I'm currently at Kaiser Fremont, which has the brand spankin' new computerized charting system, which has been absolutely amazing. Everything you need to know about your patient is right there, and you click on exactly what you're looking for.

Hopefully soon I'll try to post a list of different patient diagnoses I've dealt with, both so you can see what I'm working on and so I can keep track of what I'm doing. =) Now of course due to HIPAA, I cannot release personal information, so no identifying factors will be linked to each medical diagnosis. All that will be listed will be the reason why the person is in the hospital, such as Total Knee Replacement, or Abdominal Pain. No age, no gender, no names. HIPAA can be a burden sometimes to work around, but it's for patient protection and safety.

Well I'm up late enough as it is, I've got to be at the hospital for clinicals at 7am. At least we get to go home by around 12, our instructor is sick. She came to clinicals today not feeling well, she's been sick since at least monday, but took a couple days off before coming to clinical today. She's been to the doctor and it's just a regular virus, non-communicable and not swine related, but she needs rest. So as of now we have clinical tomorrow but I'm kinda excited there's a possiblity that clinical could get cancelled tomorrow if she hasn't improved enough. We shall see.

*Yawn*....Good Night!

So I thought I'd go ahead and try to start blogging on a regular basis regarding my progress throughout the nursing program. I created this blog a little while ago, but figured I should use it and try to keep it updated.

So for those of you who may not know, and sort of an introductory post, I'm a first semester nursing student at Ohlone College, after applying to multiple programs for 3 years, twice a year. I'll be the first one to tell you that persistence and a lot of prayer pays off.

So as of now, we only have 3 1/2 weeks left of the semester, but in that time we have a lot going on. We've got 2 major exams, a research paper, a teaching plan for a patient to create, and lots of reading as well as patient care. Most nursing programs, SJSU for example, don't let students start doing clinical work with direct patient care until at least a year or more once they've started the program...Ohlone starts us in the hospitals our 5th week of school.

It's been quite an experience so far, I've had some great patients and some not-so-great patients, but they can really teach you a lot. And a lot of what you learn from them, you can't always find in textbooks. It's easy to take your life and health for granted as you live day to day, but when you're looking at a patient whose life is in your hands and they're struggling just to live each day as it comes, it gives you a different perspective on life. Take each day as it comes, and live it to your fullest. Never take it for granted. God is in control, always.