Week 5

Week 5 is well under way.  This is the second half of our third course.  There is less content that we had to learn, only two days of lecture, unlike last week we had four long days of lecture.  This sounds like it would be a breeze!  Of course, they have other plans for us.  We have been kept extra busy in lab.  We have our lab final tomorrow and I am currently in complete panic/freak out mode.  We were just told yesterday what our final will actually look like and consist of.  Today, in our four and a half hour lab, we went through four scenarios, samples if you will, of what our final will be.  This difference was today we worked in our lab groups, and got into pairs within these groups to take one section of the assessment we will do for the final.  We also had actual patients!  Paid actors to lay in bed and be our patients.  It was challenging and overwhelming and at times fun to actually talk, touch and assess actual people!  We were also exposed to different lab instructors.  This was to help us relax tomorrow since we have no idea what instructor will be grading us. So this lab final is a beginning shift assessment.  Individually we will hear a report which is what the nurse before our shift will report to us.  For our exam it will be a tape recording.  We listen to this report on a patient, this patient will have some issues, of course, and we must do a variety of assessments including an intervention on the patient.  Tomorrow we will have mannequins as our patients and the instructor grading us will be watching from another room (we will be videotaped again) and be the voice of the patient when we interact with him/her.  I. AM. SO. NERVOUS.
The instructors said over and over that the exam will be easier since we won't be working in pairs and our whole group, we will be doing it all on our own and be able to do exactly what we feel is necessary.  I sure hope they are right.

I left lab today feeling completely and utterly incompetent.  We had four different scenarios and three of the four went pretty well.  WE are new to all of this, we have only learned so much and our instructors expect us to make mistakes and to have many questions.  They expect us to know what we have been taught and not beyond that.  Well, one of our instructors, did not quite follow this mindset, in my opinion.  Our patient was in pain and the actor portraying this elderly patient did a phenomenal job.  To make a long story short (and to save myself from getting all worked up again) I will just give a nutshell version of the story.  Our lab group of ten students had five groups of two.  Each pair had one section of the whole assessment (five sections total).  This instructor was constantly interjecting (none of the other instructors did this), she rushed the groups, made comments pertaining to what we were doing that contradicted what other instructors had taught us.  When we finished with the assessment, our instructor more or less scolded us for not doing the one thing we hadn't been taught yet!  We explained that we had no idea this was possible, we hadn't learned that and didn't know that was in the scope of practice for nurses.  Her only real reply to us was that we really should have pharmacology before we take med/surg (both courses we haven't had yet and clearly the curriculum isn't up to us!!).  My nutshell of a story is dragging on...sorry!  I was so beyond frustrated, annoyed and overwhelmed.  I left that scenario thinking, I can't do this, I am not meant to be here, I am incapable of this whole assignment and I will fail.  This is supposed to be a learning exercise and all I got from that experience was a complete loss of confidence.  I am hoping I do not have that instructor for my exam tomorrow.  I talked to my lab partner and friend for awhile after class today and she helped to restore some of my confidence...now I need to pick myself up, study my skills and do the best I can tomorrow.  My exam is at 8:30am, I am in the first group.  After I hopefully pass this exam, a few classmates and I plan to go get mimosas and study for the lecture final on Friday.  This fun never stops!!