Clinical Rotations

I'm finally getting a chance to touch patients! I started last week with my rotations around WAMC. For several weeks I'll have the opportunity to shadow different nurses in different units in the hospital. Here's my list:

• Medical ward
• Surgical ward
• Mother/Baby unit
• Psych
• PACU
• OR
• Hematology/Oncology clinic
• and many more!

It may seem that this sounds like nursing school all over again. That was my first thought. However, being in a new hospital and not using my nursing skills for patient care in about a year made me think twice about the importance of these rotations. This time I'm able to actually do assessments, chart on the computer with MY codes, and stick IVs without a preceptor. It's different now that I have a RN license.

What's really been helping me prepare for working the medical is asking the various units this question: what is the one thing I need to know about the patient that you transfer to my floor? I've been getting different answers from different units. Every patient from these units have special needs that as a medical nurse I need to be attentive too. For instance, the nurses at the hematology/oncology unit told me that taking care of the implanted ports on the patients' chest is the most important thing to remember when taking care of their patients. I was taught how they worked, performed blood draws from that port, and was checked off by a nurse so prove on paper that I am capable of taking care of that port. Mismanagement of the port could lead to infection, injury, and/or harm to the patient.

I have several more weeks of these rotations. End of March I should be hitting the medical floor and running. I hope it goes well!

Happy Birthday 108th b-day Army Nurse Corps!

Wow! 108 years the Army Nurse Corps has been alive and well! The last week we celebrated the birthday of the ANC at Womack Army Medical Center with many events:

• Cake cutting ceremony
• Rolling history tours of WAMC
  
• Fun Run/Dog walk
• Pizza Party
• Ice Cream Social
• and an ANC ball!
  

I wish I could have gotten a shirt, they looked really cool this year. Oh well, there's always next year...





"Embrace the past, engage the present, envision the future"