salut!

words & epherma

10/28
2009

10/19
2009

  • PG Cravings

    You know how people always ask pregnant women if they’ve had any funny cravings, such as pickles and ice cream? (Seriously, I’ve heard more than one person ask a pregnant woman or her husband about “pickle and ice cream” cravings). Well, I was thinking - is that so weird?

    See, I like pickles. I also like ice cream. There are lots of people who dip their french fries in ice cream (not me), so why is it so unfathomable that someone would garnish their ice cream with a pickle?

    So I’ve decided that I’m going to try it. I’m not gonna go out of my way to purchase pickles and ice cream, but if I ever have an opportunity to eat them concurrently, then I will.

    Stay tuned.

    P.S. No, I’m not pregnant.

8/8
2009

  • A photo of our family portrait. Please excuse the glare. Taken with my iPhone.

  • A photo of our family portrait. Please excuse the glare. Taken with my iPhone.

  • Virabhadrasana III

    This was the peak pose in the sequence I taught today, except I modified it by doing it at the wall.

  • Oh wow, what a moron.

    I’m officially tired. Of my job. I mean it’s great, I’m still feeling very lucky to have it, but wow - I cannot wait to graduate and be an LPN. Being a PCA is just so tediously tiring.

    Or maybe I’m just getting tired of working. Last week, I worked five days in a row - big whoop, yes - but it was the first time I had worked five days in a row in over two years. And it probably would’ve gone better if I were not assigned to the most notoriously “heavy” (by way of work) group of residents, one of which decided that she did not want to live there anymore, and would therefore do whatever she could to make everyone’s lives a living hell until she was reassessed and allowed to go back home.

    Little does she know, that if she keeps acting the way she does, and claiming that certain non-witnessed things are happening (if at her age you fell down every day of the week, you would either be a) dead or b) broken in many places by now), the only place she’s going is Long-Term Care. Not home. Never home. When you’re in assisted living, it’s because a doctor said that you may never live at home again, not even with a home care aide. That’s the thing with chronic diseases. They’re chronic.

    I mean sure, once in a while I bet people just recover totally and are allowed to go back home. This type of thing happens just about as often as a complete reversal of osteoarthritis. Which is not to say that it is impossible, it just really doesn’t happen very often.

    Anyway.

    The moral of the story is: nobody believes a liar even when they’re telling the truth. Which is very important because one day, you just might end up falling. Whether or not anyone believes you is beside the point, because either way the nurse will assess you for any damage. The point is you are going to get a whole lot less sympathy. And when you’ve just about squeezed everyone of all the empathy they’ve got, sympathy’s all you can get.

    SOOOO… I. JUST. WANT. SUMMER. TO. BE. OVER. So I can go back to school full-time. No more distance - doing a full-time course load via distance is just INFINITELY HARDER right now than just doing everything on campus. Maybe I just need a change. I like distance ed, I’m proud of myself and everything I’ve learned and accomplished by myself… I just want to do my last year on campus so that I’m guaranteed to graduate on time, and more importantly (because I will make myself graduate on time anyway) I will be guaranteed first pick for my clinical placements. Over the distance students anyway. And as full-time student I think I have more choices as to which area to specialize in for my preceptorship.

    Anyway, I’ve already done two of the courses from next year via distance, so that’ll lighten my course load.

    My hat’s off to those who go to school to be Health Care Aides, love their jobs, and continue to do them for the rest of their lives. The entire healthcare system rests on your (very tired, yet I’ll bet very strong) shoulders. Please keep doing what you’re doing. I will never forget what being a Health Care Aide is like (the good, the bad, and the ugly), and I will never, ever, ever, take one for granted.

    Just a few more weeks. Then school. Then graduation. Then the CLPNA exam.

    Am I a nurse yet?

7/21
2009

  • So, I know that I promised I would start blogging regularly when I started my clinical. Then, I said that if I was too busy to blog about being a student nurse during clinical (which I definitely was), then I would blog about being a nursing attendant while attending nursing college via distance ed. 

    But here we are, 2 months later. No regular blog posts. Sorry. Too busy? Well, always, but that’s not really the reason. The reason I’ve found it difficult to blog about being a nursing student/attendant is because I don’t know how to properly maintain my patients’ privacy.

    Now don’t get me wrong, there are simply TONS of nursing blogs out there, whose authors manage to share amazing stories while (successfully) respecting the privacy of their patients. I’m just… kind of scared to try. I don’t want to say anything that could incriminate myself either - not that I’ve done anything illegal, or wrong, for that matter. It’s just I’m flashing forward to potential employers somehow finding this blog and taking something the wrong way… you know?

    Anyway, suffice it to say, I LOVE MY JOB. I haven’t revealed my place of employment on Facebook or anything, but I do know that some people must know where I work. Anyway, during the interview process, my employer and I referred to the job title as “nursing attendant”; however, we actually refer to each other as “PCAs (Personal Care Aides)”. It’s just semantics, it’s the exact same job (Health Care Aide = Nursing Attendant = Personal Care Aide). Since I have one year of nursing school behind me, I’m qualified as a “certified” PCA, which means I get the certified wage, which is good. 

    I work at a private facility, so the wages are awesome, too. I don’t get benefits because I’m just a casual worker (my choice), but I hear they’re awesome as well. The building is literally a 3 minute drive from my neighborhood, which itself is a 3 minute drive from my baby’s daycare (also a 3 minute drive from my neighborhood) - something I was immensely grateful for the day I had to leave work early to pick up my sick child.  

    But, I digress. Back to loving my job: I love the clients. I like the staff. I like the system. I like how as a PCA, I’m working on a very personal level with my clients. I can really get to know them and to help them in very important ways, and I can really feel that the work we do (as PCAs) makes a huge difference in their lives. I mean, this is all very obvious, and profusely advertised in job postings (“Make a Difference in Others’ Lives!”), but it’s so true. It is both immensely gratifying, and deeply humbling. I am a little sad to know that when I graduate and become a nurse, I will never have the same kind of opportunity to develop the same kind of closeness that a PCA can with a client, but I think this makes me even more grateful for the time I have with them now. 

    Of course, I’m not saying that LPNs or RNs (or NPs for that matter) cannot develop a close, personal bond with their clients; in fact, they’re supposed to. But what I am saying is that PCAs/NAs/HCAs work with clients in a way that facilitates a relationship that is more human-to-human; something a little less centered around nursing diagnoses and problem-solving. It’s the dressing, the bathing, the ambulating, and the portering - it’s all very, well, personal! As a PCA you can really know your clients, not just as patients, but also as people. 

    PLEASE BE AWARE THAT MY COMMENTS REFER TO MY PARTICULAR WORK SETTING. I work in a designated assisted living facility - which means that we work where they live, rather than the other way around. In such a setting, the clients are vastly more healthy and able than those in long-term care (for example), and therefore only interact with the LPN (we don’t have RNs; the LPNs act as the team leaders) if they need narcotics, anything with needles, wound care, cancer meds, etc. You get the point. So in this setting, the PCA interacts with the client waaaayy more. 

    Also - and this really cool - since we’re a private facility, the PCAs administer medications as well. Love it. Love the practice I’m getting. Of course, the LPN does the insulin, narcs, etc., as mentioned above. 

    As for school, right now I’m studying for my Mental Health Nursing Final. Every course I take inspires me to want to work in that area (last month I was convinced I wanted to be an OR nurse; now, I want to work in Mental Health). I just love my work as a student and as a PCA. I’ve never been happier studying anything in my entire life! Really. I’m so glad I decided to look into this two years ago, and finally got the guts to apply. And now, this time next year, I’ll be an LPN! So excited. 

    So ‘till next time!

5/4
2009

  • Practicum: Day 1

    Parking was… difficult, to say the least. They had street cleaning scheduled today, which confused most of us. I just parked at the mall, which I’m not supposed to do, but whatever. We were only there for a couple of hours anyway.

    So, today was orientation. And that’s what happened. A tour of the continuing care center… A chat about expectations… A scavenger hunt… It was great.

    Let me just say, that after today, I have a deeper understanding of the phrase “ashes to ashes, and dust to dust” (unless of course, you’re lucky to remain healthy throughout your whole life). 

    And that’s all, unfortunately. More tomorrow!

4/29
2009

  • 4 more days till practicum! I’m soooooo excited.

    Baby started daycare this last Monday, and seems to be enjoying it. He’s not cranky at home, which tells me that he didn’t have a terrible day; when I leave him with a babysitter that he’s not entirely too fond of, he gets really testy and cranky and increasingly attached when I get home and for like, two weeks afterward. Since daycare started, I find that he’s responding to his name more and is asserting his independence more (especially when it comes to feeding himself). All this after only three days! 

    Of course, there are problems. He didn’t cry when I left on the first day (he was distracted by all the new toys) but he’s been crying when I left since. And he doesn’t like to sleep on the cots provided from him during nap time… Actually, nap time seems to be a problem in general, but I’m sure he’ll get over that too. 

    All in all, it’s going great! Now all that’s left is for subsidy to kick in, and we’ll all be happy campers.

    I’m so glad I decided to have him start daycare a week before I started my practicum. Now that I know how he’s dealing with things, it’s one less thing I need to worry about. 

    And of course, I’m job hunting. I plan to start working in June through the end of October, then I’ll have my acute care practicum and then since I will have finished all my theory courses by then (I know I can, I know I can, I know I can!), I will just zoom off into my last two practicums and then graduate before April! Yay! And then I can write the CPNRE exam in May, and be an LPN no later than June of next year! Woohoo! So excited for myself. 

    More soon! 

4/9
2009

  • The Medicine Buddha

  • The Medicine Buddha

| Next »