The Big Day

Today was the day...The day to see if I remembered everything that I had learned this semester. Today I went into my testing. I felt calm, cool, and collected. Today was not as bad as I thought it was going to be.
I performed everything perfectly...well almost. I aced everything except transferring the client. Everything was going smoothly until I assisted my client into her chair. She had sat down in the chair and then that is when I realized it...I forgot to put a transfer belt on her. A transfer belt is a woven belt made of canvas that is placed around the client’s chest. This belt gives the nurse a place to hold onto the patient at.
Luckily I clued into this and I put the belt on her to bring her back to her bed. Unfortunately I remembered too late. This however is not a big deal. I caught on to what I did wrong and what I have to do for my retesting.
I cannot let this spoil my dreams. I just have to remember if at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.

To improve for next time I have included a video that shows how a proper transfer should be done.

Overcoming Communications Barriers in Health Care

I believe that technology is helping to overcome the communication barriers in health care. The advances in technology over the past years have given health professionals the ability to communicate with each other whether they are at the same location or half way around the world. The advances in technology have also given patients the ability to communicate with others. These may be patients who have lost their ability to communicate and by being able to use technology they are now able to voice what they are feeling. Technology has also provided less likelihood of miscommunication. If a health professional has any issues, they have the ability to double check electronic versions without having to track down the assigned personnel to a particular patient.

Coming Closer To The Big Day

In these last few weeks of the semester we have been getting in to full swing. We are now able to do almost all basic care for a client. I find that the biggest challenge that I now have is remembering everything that I have learned over these last three months for my final testing. I do not think the testing will be that bad...as long as I remain sane. Who know that something that seems so simple could be so stressful.
This testing consists of everything that we have learned over the semester from how to make a client’s bed to how we would feed a client with a gastrostomy tube (this is a tube that is placed surgically through the abdomen and into the stomach where a liquid nourishment is fed).
Well I will keep you posted on how well in goes.

Tastless Surprise

Thinking back over the first semester of nursing I have had many new experiences. One in particular that comes to mind was when I was in my practicum class and we were learning for to feed our clients. Everything was going fine and no one had any major issues.
Then all of a sudden one of our practicum teachers came along with medicine cups with some sort of liquid in them. We never thought anything of it and then they asked us if we would like strawberry, vanilla or chocolate. The little cups that they were passing around had Ensure (a liquid nourishment) in them. We were told that we were going to be able to try what we could be giving our clients.
After trying the Ensure, I would say it was not that bad if you like the taste of a hint of flavour and chalk but, it is a good source of nourishment for the client if they are having issues.

Introduction

Hi, my name is Gabrielle. I am a first year nursing student at UOIT in the Collaborative Nursing program. I am from Westport, a small town about four hours from Oshawa. I am from a family of seven kids and am the middle child and only girl.

I am new to creating a blog and I think that it does have its benefits because you are able to share information and your thoughts about a topic you have created. Even though a blog is probably not the first type of communication I would use it does seem like an interesting one.