Safety Precautions, Sutures and Wound Care

This semester I am taking Fundamental of Nursing. This past week we learned about making beds, transfering a patient and tying restraints. This week we checked off on safety precautions, sutures and wound care! Chelsea and I had a blast practicing and checking off today in the lab. Here is Chels ready to go into a room that has safety precautions! Who knew there were so many steps to gowning up! This week in lab we also learned how to pull out staples, it wasn't too difficult, they let us practice pulling staples out of a piece of cardboard. The seniors in the program explained that it is a lot easier to pull out staples on a person than cardboard. Last, we learned about wound care. Keeping a sterile field is very important when taking care of a wound, from sterile gloves to sterile instruments. I have learned so much so far and I absolutely love it.

Here is a collage my Mom made! : )

Christmas Break/St. Croix

Christmas Break has come to an end. I had a blast hanging out with my family over the holidays. Here are some snaps. : )My nieces Katelyn and Kara with scarves on!Mom is my Guitar Hero.My niece, Kara and I. My sister Karen braided our hair! My Birthday Girl Katelyn!
After Christmas Break, we went to St. Croix, where one of my favorite basketball players, Tim Duncan was born and raised. St. Croix is a beautiful island! The weather there was around 85 degrees everyday!

Amazing Guava Juice

We were able to go to Christiansted (Duncan's hometown) for the day. Fort ChristiansvaernMy sister, Brittany and I being silly. She is one of my best friends. I enjoyed being able to spend time with her over the break, including watching the Foodnetwork channel every night (since we couldn't get internet access in our room!) We made some good memories together. Love ya Britt!Shrine of Tim Duncan we found in Christiansted

The island reminded me of the LOST island.

I'm so grateful for the relaxing Christmas Break.

Catch up

Christmas Break is finally here! Finals ended December 10th. So now I'm catching up on the blog.

As for my Health Assessment class, I was able to use a friend of mine from Kindergarten for my final exam (Head to Toe assessment). My friend is also a nursing student and I had a blast being able to practice with her.

It is amazing to look back at the beginning of the semester and see how much we have learned. This semester I was able to go to the hospital twice. I absolutely loved being in the hospital. I was nervous about going to the hospital because I had no idea what we would be doing exactly. Our clinical instructor was able to pray with us before we began our day. She was so helpful and always there to answer any of our questions. Our clinical group was on the Renal/Diabetic floor and we were able to do an assessment on our patients. We each had one patient to take care of. The assessment included vitals signs and assessing each system (cardiovascular, respiratory, etc). We were able to practice charting too.

We went into the hopital the first time before Thanksgiving break. The first patient I had was not too alert, so it was easy to be able to take my time assessing each system without the patient being too annoyed with me as a new nursing student. :) It was fun to actually put into practice what we have been learning in the lab. The second time we went into the hospital was after Thanksgiving Break. My patient was a sweet elderly lady who was in the hospital for epistaxis (a really bad nose bleed). I was able to be in the room when the doctor came in to check on her. My heart went out to her because she was in so much pain. I really wanted to pray with her there, but the time didn't seem right. Later on when I went in to check on her, she was still in so much pain that she wasn't talking very much. God gave me the opportunity to ask if I could pray with her and she nodded. Before I left for the day, the lady thanked me for praying with her. I was so blessed! I thank God for the opportunity to pray for his people, and I know God is the ultimate healer! God works in awesome ways and I can't wait to show God's love to others.

Here is a picture of my clinical group. This was our first day at the hospital! These girls are amazing and are going to be wonderful nurses!

Our clinical group went out to celebrate the completion of our Health Assessment class. We had a great time sharing memories and getting to know each other even more.

It was nice to be able to fellowship with these ladies, and next semester some of us will still be in the same clinical group with the same instructor!

God has been so faithful this whole semester and I couldn't have done it without Him!

CO/ Hazmat Drill/ Alumni Weekend

This week/weekend was very busy! This week we checked off on the abdomen. For the abdomen we inspect, auscultate, percuss and then palpate, usually for each system you inspect, palpate, percuss, then auscultate. I thought it was cool to listen to the stomach with the stethoscope, it makes some funny sounds.

On Wednesday, the nursing department was participating in a simulation for Virginia Baptist Hospital and Lynchburg General Hospital. About 20 girls from the nursing program participated in the hazmat drill (hazardous material). We were told we were on a bus and got into an accident with a chemical truck. Each of the students got a card that read what happened to them in the accident, so that the people at the hospital could respond with the right medical treatment.

Our scenario was "My feet and legs are burning."Brittney's was "Victim is unresponsive."
Overall both hospitals did a great job taking care of us. When we got to the hospital they had warm blankets ready for us (it was really cold on Wednesday). Some of the girls were sprayed down because they had "chemicals" (Gatorade) on them, luckily I wasn't one of the ones to be sprayed down! It was interesting to see what the nurses and doctors would do in a situation like this. This simulation was a lot of fun and I hope I'll be able to participate in something like this again!

On Friday night my friend, Hannah, from MD came down to Liberty with her mom. Hannah's Mom was here for alumni weekend. She was amazed at how much LU has changed since she graduated. On Friday night we walked around campus, then Hannah was able to stay in my dorm for the night.

Below is a picture of Hannah and me with Michael Tait (singer from DC talk). He was staying at the same hotel as Hannah and her mom. DC talk was the first CD I owned. He was a really nice guy and did the half time show for LU's football game.
On Saturday, we went to the Vines Center (below) and watched a volleyball game. Of course we had to walk through the tunnel.Then we walked around Demoss (main building for classes). The Nursing Department is also located in Demoss. Hannah is a freshman, studying nursing also! I had a blast showing her around the nursing lab! I really enjoyed having them here at LU.

Here are some fun pictures that we took on our way to the football game!Hannah's sister Lauren drove up on Saturday with her friend, Rachel, who graduated from LU this past May. It is such a small world!Liberty University Football Game!After the game, we all went to Doc's Diner (on campus), it is dedicated to Jerry Falwell Sr. How kind of God for such a great weekend with friends!