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"When you take antibiotics that kill off the normal bacteria, there’s a vacuum. So you open the door for fairly nasty bacteria that carry resistance genes to move in.
That’s not a good thing. What you want are normal, happy, friendly, innocuous bacteria everywhere in and on your body."—That made me giggle inside. :P
Morris, J.G. Jr. (2008). Germ Warfare: Are We Creating a New Generation of Superbugs? Nutrition Action Health Letter (Center for Science in the Public Interest) 35(8), 1-6.
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Another inspiring quote written on the door of a random washroom stall
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Am I seeing a trend starting?
Perhaps this is all due to sheer coincidence (and I certainly hope so), but I am starting to spot a trend going on whenever my term break is near, which has started today, as of this moment. This aforementioned trend is that during my break, either I myself will get sick or someone close to me will (i.e family members). For the longest time, it’s always been me who catches those silly colds, like during a long weekend in November, I lost my voice completely for the entire weekend and got some really hacking, annoying cough that lasted for 3 weeks. Back in October, when I started my week-long break in between rotations, my mom got some “mysterious” stomach viral thing (?) which consisted of severe pain in lower abdominal area, passing out several times on the street, bouts of diarrhea with blood, and was hospitalized the night of and stayed there for exactly a week. Thankfully (or not), the GI doctor said her case was a “mystery” and hence no follow-up or a proper diagnosis was made. And what about this time, when I am about to start my 2-week break before preceptorship? Wellll, my dad has been complaining of upper gastric pain when he’s lying in bed at night for the past 3 nights, with no other significant symptoms during the day. Mom brought him to see a GP today, and was immediately ordered to get some blood test done and to get an abdominal ultrasound at the local hospital ER. So…I am just keeping my fingers crossed that something will come up and that it is nothing too serious and that it is completely treatable.
And also, my sis and I agreed that maybe I should avoid taking any sort of break in the future, for the sake of my own health and also of other people’s health.
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"You can’t change your situation. The only thing that you can change is how you choose to deal with it."— Character “Katherine” from the movie 50/50
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Very true…
(Source: candytomysoul)
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Review 101
Nursing diagnosis: Increased anxiety related to pre-examination jitters secondary to sleep deprivation and fatigue as evidenced by increased heart rate, increased blood pressure (presumably), perspiration while sitting, self-report of “having butterflies in stomach”, and loss of appetite.
Interventions & Rationales:
1. Implement non-pharmacologic stress relief exercises such as taking slower and deeper breaths to facilitate better gas exchange, which will then slow down heart rate and to reduce the feeling of anxiousness2. Use mental imagery exercise (i.e. imagine how you’d feel POST-exam) as distraction to reduce constant focus on the upcoming exam
3. Decrease caffeine consumption to avoid further exacerbate stated symptoms
4. Do exercise if appropriate to increase level of endorphin (happy hormones) in body in attempt to reduce level of anxiety
…
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the final stretch
Studying for my last(!) final exam for my nursing undergrad and my brain is filled to the brim with phrases like: (X) related to (Y) secondary to (Z) as evidenced by (A, B, C)…
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"You have a good heart."— Says to me from, according to the nursing notes, a ”pleasantly confused” elderly lady
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"Excellent!…Great!…Excellent!"— Instructor’s response to almost every student’s input on case study. He is either very enthusiastic or…just way too enthusiastic for a Friday morning class.
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Yesterday, I was quite disappointed after knowing my final preceptorship assignment. But maybe this means something. 2 years ago, I was assigned to do my very first clinical practice in the same hospital. I was such a newbie in nursing that I didn’t know a thing about literally anything. I didn’t know how to do a proper head to toe assessment on a frail old man who was left speechless and paralyzed after a stroke. I was fumbling as I tried to wheel an elderly lady who was on palliative care to the shower room. My instructor walked in and spotted an peripheral IV cannula dangling in a patient’s arm and she asked if I had saline flushed it, I looked back at her clueless. I was either too scared or exhausted, or both, most of the time. Occasionally, something would perk up and brighten my day but overall, I was glad to be done with that rotation. On the very last day of that rotation, I broke down in front of my instructor because I said that I didn’t even know if I liked nursing at all. She reassured me that I was doing more than okay, and then I moved on to the next rotation.
Looking back, I realized that I came out from that rotation knowing more about nursing in general than I had imagined. How to connect with patients who are aphasic, who are on the brink of death, who are so delirious that they needed to be strapped in their beds to prevent them from falling, who are unable to physically or mentally care for themselves anymore, and the list goes on…
Fast forward to today, I am merely 3 months away from graduating with a BSN, and lo and behold, out of all the other hospitals and units, I am assigned to finish my final 2 months there again.
And through the ups and downs of my days in nursing school, I am thankful for my family, my bf, my nursing buddies, and some of the greatest and nicest nurses out there. I thank them for being there for me when I am reaching out for help or advice, for listening and understand (or they try!) as I complained/whined/cried/laughed about anything and everything that I came across. I couldn’t have done this all by myself.
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This is Mary Magee. At the age of 25, during the 11th hour of a 12 hour shift, she suffered a needle stick injury while working as a nurse in an HIV/AIDS ward. Unfortunately, she became the 13th healthcare worker in the nation to contract HIV this way.
For the past 24 years she has remained anonymous, the incident was publicized under the name “Jane Doe” as she did not want to live with a stigma or become the poster-child for HIV infections in nurses. Instead, she worked tirelessly to help pass safety legislations for the protection of healthcare workers.
An article about Mary Magee and her decision this week to go public can be found here.
Got my first needle prick injury last week, and similar to this story, it was around the 11th hour of a long and busy 12-hour shift. Thankfully though, my patient was tested to be completely cleaned of any infectious diseases, including HIV and Hep B and C, and so I am (in theory at least) safe. But still, that was one frightening experience and one that I will remember for quite some time for sure…
