Jennifer Vitti

I should learn to be more motivated to write more often, so then I don’t have to write these super long catch-up posts and let you all know everything that I’ve been wanting to share!!

So as mentioned in my previous post I did finally get to see a vaginal delivery on my VERY LAST DAY of maternity clinical. Close call! It was AMAZING. This was the parent’s first child, so it was extra special too. The mom didn’t want a lot of people in, but she did allow me to be present for the labor and birth, so I felt very honored and that made it a more intimate setting, so I really got to get to know the parents and the main nurse. For the first pregnancy/birth this mother had a very easy labor and delivery. She only pushed for twenty minutes! I was able to participate by helping the mother to hold a leg. The father was very nervous/excited, but such a sweet guy! He had to sit down at first, but toward the end of the pushing he was able to stand and see the birth of his first child! I think I mentioned before, but new dads were probably one of my favorite parts of this experience! When the baby was delivered (good sized healthy baby) the parents both cried (and so did I haha…I’m an emotional girl). I know not all labor and deliveries go that smooth or quickly, but it definitely made me want to have kids (don’t worry–this won’t be for a while) even more than I already did. I was not “disturbed” by the birthing experience at all as some people had warned me I might be. So it was a good end to a good rotation. I was very pleased.

Now I’m onto a different hospital for pediatrics. I’ve done three weeks at this clinical site so far. I have done two weeks on the pediatric floor and one week in the PICU. I’m loving this experience. I knew I would though haha. Pediatrics is definitely what I want to do when I get my licensures (long term I’m looking into Pediatric Primary Care NP), so it’s nice that I’ve been having good experiences here as well. Definitely seeing a lot of different things both acute and chronic. I gave 9 medications last week and I was very proud of myself because  that is the most medication I’ve ever had to give and it was the first time I had to really do any med calculations (usually with adults–which is what it has been in all my previous rotations–it’s all 1/2, 1, or 2 pills basically or IV meds that are pre-made) here I had to calculate oral preparations. And it all went very smoothly, so I gave myself a little pat on the back for that. I really enjoy working with the parents too. Two of my patients have had really great moms involved with their care who I got to know well during my shift (it’s another 12 hour 7 AM-7PM shift, so we’re there with the kids for a long time!). Having a child hospitalized and/or with a chronic condition can not be easy to handle and I definitely give major props to these two women (and all the family members out there) who gave such great care and support to their children. Looking forward to my next 3 clinical days here–two more of which I’ll be on the floor and another of which I’ll be in the emergency department. Should be an interesting 3 weeks!

In the midst of the clinical fun I also had round 2 of both maternity and pediatric exams. They went pretty well. I seem to be staying pretty consistent-B’s in Maternity, A’s in pediatrics. I’m hoping to boost my maternity grade with Round 3 of exams coming up this week (and pediatric exam the following week) and then with finals. There are only 2 more maternity classes and 2 more pedi classes, one more exam in both, two days of finals, and three days of clinical left before I’m out for a month for summer vacation!

My last news is that my family will be getting a puppy in the beginning of September. After Shadow, our much beloved 12 1/2 year old flat-coated retriever, passed away in mid-May our house has NOT been the same. With my mom and I being very much involved in the dog world through the dog walking business, and my sister being pre-vet and my dad and brother also loving animals our house has been very empty with only my sister’s crazy cat. So after much deliberation and discussion we decided to get another dog. We decided to go with a different breed, however, because although we LOVED the flat-coat breed and temperament, their incidence of cancer death (as young as age 3!! and with an average life-span of only 7-8 years old) is just too much for us to handle. We apparently were very lucky with Shadow living as long as she did, but we are not prepared to take that chance again at least not right now (I think especially me and my mom will always have a special place in our hearts for flat-coats and may go back to that breed later on in our lives, but right now we need a change). So after doing some research and talking to breeders we are getting a Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriver puppy. And just this past week we officially got the word that one of the breeders who had a litter born two weeks ago has a girl puppy for us to take home second-week in September! We are so happy and can’t wait to welcome ______ into our home (we are not in agreement in what to name her yet haha, so I’ll have to fill you all in on that later!)

~love always~

Jen

The baby dance worked!!! Thanks to everyone. It was beautiful!! Longer story later!

~love always~

Jen

Tomorrow is my last maternity clinical and so far I still have not seen any vaginal births. Please everyone do the baby dance for me tonight, so that I get to see one tomorrow!!

Hopefully I’ll have a good update for you tomorrow night!

~love always~

Jen

Hello hello hello!

Similar to Emergiblog I have had a blog crisis and despite the huge amounts of stuff I want to tell you all, and yes even some downtime moments where I could have blogged, I just couldn’t bring myself to write. But here I am! I’m back again after a few weeks of rest!

So what’s new with me? I’m still in my maternity rotation (only 2 more weeks though! then I switch to pedi ) I have not seen a vaginal birth yet! One week I was in labor and delivery and the other two weeks I was on postpartum/nursery. The week I was in labor and delivery I was SUPPOSED to see a vaginal birth, but that did not happen. The woman was being electively induced, this was her fourth child, all previous had been easy vaginal births. I made nice with the family–great family!! It was basically my first day in maternity (orientation was not very helpful except in terms of learning where everything is on the floor, but not learning much about actual maternity aspects), so the nurse at one point in the beginning sat down and taught me A LOT about maternity including how to read the fetal heart monitor, which was great! My patient received an epidural, and the nurse helped me put in my first Foley into a REAL PATIENT! This was VERY EXCITING because I had not had an opportunity to do so yet AND the patient had the epidural, so she couldn’t feel what I was doing down there, so that calmed me down. My patient was great and she was very supportive that I was a student, so she didn’t mind that the nurse walked me through things either. I know feel like I have a better sense of what I’m looking at “down there”. Hopefully next time, epidural or not, I’ll be able to do one as well! Later in the labor things were still moving slowly (she was GBS positive, so they wanted to make sure they got their two doses of Penicillin in before they sped it up with the Pitocin) and I was getting very comfortable with the family and vice versa, so I hung out in the room with them while the nurse worked at the nurse’s station. There was a change of shift at 3:00 PM and the new nurse arrived. All of a sudden like literally 8 people come rushing into this poor patient’s room looking at the fetal monitor and talking about the mom and the baby (in front of the mom no less). Then they are unlocking the wheels of the bed and saying “You’re going to have an emergency C-section”. The poor woman bursts into tears because she had NO idea what was wrong with the baby, she had never had a C-section before, and this was all sudden. Apparently the baby was having variable decelerations (which he had been having for a while, but he was having good accelerations, so they were just monitoring), and then his heart rate started not coming back up. They were worried the baby was not getting enough oxygen because the cord had prolapsed when the doctor broke her water. So I saw an emergency C-section instead. Apparently one of the nurse’s afterward told me that an “emergency C-section” and a “non-emergency C-section” are very different (basically acknowledging that the poor mom got taken by COMPLETE surprise and that they aren’t always super polite in emergency situations–I have “eh” feelings about this, but I won’t get into it). Most importantly!! Mom and baby did fine! Apparently there was no obvious signs of any cord prolapse and baby came out with a great set of lungs The nurses referred to him as a “tricky baby” I believe. So that was fun.

Postpartum has been a good experience too. I love seeing moms and their new babies, but what I’ve realized is that I also love seeing new DADS…they are soooo sweet and just genuinely happy! I’ll save some of my postpartum stories for a later blog entry. In general though, I’m very much enjoying my maternity rotation. I don’t think I’d want to be an OB/L&D Nurse, but it’s fun for these 6 weeks.

I also just finished my short, but SO FUN, School Health Nursing rotation. I was in an elementary school. The nurse was FANTASTIC. She really let me “take the bull by the horns” and be school nurse for two of the three days I was there! I really strengthened my assessment skills, learned a lot about this age group (ice packs = magic), and also got to see a lot of “cover your butt” health care- so important especially in pedi. I loved it though. Even though I was only there for 3 weeks, 1 day a week, I still saw some kids all three times, and on the last day I got happy squeals of “Nurse Jen…you’re back!” Melts my heart <3 I could definitely see myself doing School Health Nursing down the road when I’m sort of ready for a change of pace, but want to continue working in the pedi age group. I didn’t have very high expectations (I’m ashamed to say) of this experience and I was blown out of the water by how much I enjoyed it! Not all programs get to do a rotation in School Health so I feel very privleged.

Last topic before I call it a night–we took our first exams in both Maternity and Pedi. Maternity was okay (passed!). My boyfriend was home for 1 week (the only week of the whole summer that I’m going to see him before he finally moves home at the end of August) and I will be the first to admit that I did not study as much as I should. However, I thought the test was very fair, so I’m glad I passed this one, but I know I can do even better next time. Pedi exam went very well! I was nervous because pediatrics is supposed to be “my thing”, so I put a lot of pressure on myself. Luckily, I did great and can relax now!

Onto another full week! I’ll write again soon!

~love always~

Jen

Back from a whirlwind weekend in Rochester for my boyfriend’s college graduation (Congratulations baby!). It was a lot of fun and a good break.

I’m in the beginning of my second week of Summer Semester. This summer I’m taking Maternity and Pediatrics. The first half of the summer I’m doing Maternity clinical then the second half of the summer I’ll switch to do Pediatrics. Also for the first three weeks I’m doing School Health clinical in an elementary school.

First impressions? Surprisingly so far I’m not enjoying class that much I’m very suprised by this since pediatrics is what I want to do. Our classes are three hours each, peds on Monday and maternity on Tuesday. We sit in uncomfortable seats and the material is sort of jumbled up on pre-made powerpoints from the textbooks for one of them. I really hope that this is just because it’s the beginning and you have to get through the fluffy stuff first. It’s not deterring me from peds though because it’s not the material itself that’s boring it’s just how it’s being presented. Again hopefully it’s just first week or so disorganization.

Clinicals on the other hand I LOVE as usual We’re doing our first 12 hour shifts for maternity. Last week we got to give a baby a bath and learned how to take vitals (speedy little heartbeats!!) and then do lots of orientation stuff. I also got to feel a few uteruses (uteri?) one post-c-section and one post-vaginal delivery. Very interesting. I loved it. I loved being around the new parents and the babies!

And this week I’m heading to the labor and delivery room!!! CANNOT WAIT!

School Health clinical was awesome too. We’re all sent to different local schools. I’m at an elementary school and it’s so much fun. The nurse I work with is FANTASTIC. She’s awesome at interacting with the children, parents, and staff as well as teaching me tons. The kids are all really sweet. My favorite observation is that at this age (1st grade-5th grade) especially with the younger kids, they are SO honest. If you ask them if they think they’ll be okay to go back to class they’ll tell you the truth and all the kids I saw last week said “yes I’m ready to go back to class” no one was trying to get out of anything. It was so refreshing haha. The nurse said that this week she’s going to sit back and let me be the school nurse (except I can’t give meds since my instructor is not there with me), meaning I’ll triage, treat, and document (she’ll be right there though and help me if needed, and then go over all my documentation afterward since it will be under her name). I’m very very nervous about this, but very very excited! I think this will be a great experience. Talking to some of my peers (everyone at different schools) no one else is getting quite the experience I’m getting–it seems everyone else is assisting in minor ways or more observing. Hopefully next weekend I’ll have a great report about that experience!

~love always~

Jen

First I just wanted to again say THANK YOU from the bottom of my heart to everyone who sent their thoughts to me during my difficult time (see previous post). I so so so appreciate it. We’re all still sad (I guess we’ll always be sad in some ways), but my family and I are starting to feel better and despite the void in the house things are getting back to normal.

I wanted to dedicate a post to reflections of last semester. I took Acute Care (aka MedSurg) and Psych/Mental Health Nursing in the Spring 2010 semester. I felt like I really got put to the test both in clinical and in class.

Psych Class: Not the most difficult class (that’s okay by me), but still an important one. Psych is present in every aspect of nursing. I felt we did a very generic overview of most of it, however and didn’t focus on very many of the specific diseases (went in depth on Schizophrenia and Depression mostly and then only touched on some of the other ones). Needing Psych 101 as a pre-req we’ve all had the general overview of Psych, so I wish we had gone more into the nurse’s role with the treatment of each disease. I did get to read Just Checking: Scenes from the Life of an Obsessive Compulsive by Emily Colas and then write a nursing focused paper on the book. Great book that is humorous, easy/quick read, and really captures the picture of someone suffering from OCD. We did study heavily in class the psych medications, which (as I saw in clinical) does seem to be a huge part of the psych nurse’s job.

Psych Clinical: I do not recommend any school/program allowing students to do psych clinical rotations during the evening shift. I am considered a “day student”, but since there are not that many hospitals near me they put me on a night clinical that was closer to my home. Which at the time I VERY MUCH appreciated. I still appreciate it, but I would’ve so much rather have done a day clinical. You don’t see anything at night at least not in respect to nurses. (there were a couple admissions while we were there and only a couple of people in the group got to go to one and they came back and said that it was amazing and they really saw a side to psych nurses that we hadn’t seen all semester, but they had to beg our instructor to let them go and she wouldn’t let anyone else, so I wish she had taken things like that more into consideration, but oh well). And the patients are tired. They didn’t want us there. I felt like in that clinical more than in any other clinical I was a waste of space. I did get some good conversations with patients though and I feel definitely more confident in my “therapeutic communications” skills, so I guess all was not lost!

Acute Care Class: What a pain. I learned SO MUCH. But almost too much. I feel like I didn’t get a chance to wrap my head around anything enough to fully grasp it. I was always behind in the readings (not because of lack of reading either…it was just legit almost impossible) and I was always stressed. I believe this is somewhat of a universal feeling among nursing students though. Some people may like/enjoy the class more than others (I would put myself somewhere in the middle of the spectrum between love and hate), but everyone agrees with how difficult it is just because of the sheer amount of material thrown at you with so little nursing/nursing student experience (I find that if I have an experience with a certain disease, patient, nursing intervention, etc. I of course remember it so much better). So that was that. Glad I took the class. Even more glad it’s over.

Acute Care Clinical: This is what I’ve been waiting to talk about. This was such an amazing experience. FANTASTIC clinical group. Really strong instructor.  She admitted on the last day of clinical that she gave me a lot of tough patients (not on purpose). Some people in my group seemed to get a similar experience every week. Mine changed DRASTICALLY from week to week. I had a lot of emotional patients (dealing with death, illness, etc.), some controversial issues, and some very rewarding moments where I made the right call and really felt I helped my patients. Even the days when I left and wanted to cry I found them in retrospect to be GREAT learning experiences and I wouldn’t trade them for anything. I had patients cry to me, talk to me, yell at me, and hug and thank me. I loved it loved it loved it! I am so excited about this career. I can’t wait to continue with more clinicals and become a nurse!!!

So I actually ended up with 2 B+ (as opposed to what I originally thought one B and one B+) officially. Glad it’s over. Glad to start fresh with pediatrics and maternity! I’ll post on Sunday with thoughts about my first week!!

I’m off to Rochester for the weekend to the RIT graduation to see my boyfriend graduate! Congrats Sam!!! I love you!

~love always~

Jen

My world got turned a little upside down the past few weeks. I just didn’t feel like writing. But I’m back. I will tell you all what’s been going on and then expect a post Wednesday night or Thursday about my “reflections” of second semester and then over the weekend I’ll do yet another post about introducing my summer semester (which started today, but by the weekend I’ll already have had both my classes, one day of maternity clinical, and one day of school health clinical, so I’ll have lots to share).

Here we go…

The week of May 2nd was my finals week. Refresher: I took Acute Care and Psych this semester (again reflections to come mid-week). The finals were both hard, but I did fine on both. And I PASSED both classes, so that’s all I seem to care about. First semester I wanted my A’s. This past semester I just wanted to pass (80 or above is passing for my school). So I got a B and a B+. Again nothing spectacular, but I passed and I’m moving on.

The week of May 9th I had off. Started off with some sad news about a family member who I won’t name or go into details since this is a public blog and my name is attached to it. But my thoughts and prayers have been with this person since I found out since it’s tough news to deal with.

Then Monday was devastating. We had to put my dog, Shadow-12 1/2 year old Flat-Coated Retriever, to sleep. She was 12 1/2, but it was still very sudden and unexpected. She had hemangiosarcoma. She had a great day-swimming, went walking with my mom all day, then I brought her home, she ate dinner fine and then after dinner started acting weird. She just was shivering a little and wouldn’t lift her head up. My mom came home and we decided to take her to the animal emergency. They immediately said she was very pale and rushed her back. The vet came out and told us there was a large mass on her spleen and blood in her belly. Hemangiosarcoma is a tumor that is RAPIDLY fed by the blood and then bursts. Usually a tumor develops and bursts within 6 weeks! And by the time a dog has any symptoms it is too late. There is a surgery to take out the spleen (usually more successful before the tumor is big and bursts and also tougher on an older dog even if she was in great shape), but the dogs usually only live a few days to months after this. My mom being in the dog world knows a number of people who lost their dogs to hemangiosarcoma and quite a number who have tried the surgery and have not been successful. So it was agonizing, but Shadow was put to sleep. My mom and Shadow especially were inseparable, so it was a VERY tough week in our household. Going back to work on Tuesday (walking other people’s dogs) was tough on my mom and I. Although we are still sad we have talked about what happened as a family, our feelings, and if there was anything we could’ve done differently and we have all come to the conclusion that this was really the only choice and there wasn’t anything we coud’ve done differently keeping Shadow’s specific situation in mind. We know she had an awesome life and was very loved and she did have a fabulous last day as well. (Those of you who have never had pets might not understand my long spiel about the situation and how sad my family and I are, but it’s tough and those of you who have pets or who have lost pets you know how it is!)

Here’s a pic of me and my baby girl:

RIP Shadow-You spoiled us, puppy!! best.dog.ever.

And then I wish I could tell you that my bad week ended there and the rest of the week only was not good because of grieving. Nope! Wednesday I was supposed to have my interview for the position I wanted so badly! It got cancelled because the only days they do orientation were days I was in school. No bad comments about the hospital I would still like to work there again maybe after I get my RN, but I was just disappointed on top of my already tough week. (That was really the only hospital that was convenient for me while I’m full time in school for these two semesters before I get my RN, so although I’m keeping my eye open for other CNA jobs, I’m not actively looking. I’ll work for the dog walking company for the summer and the fall and then get my RN in January. I would’ve liked to have a foot in the door for when I got my RN, but looks like I’ll have to work a little harder. That’s okay. Who knows maybe I’ll get lucky or maybe the economy will turn around for new grads! I will get a BSN from my school as well, so that should help a little bit).

The rest of the week was fair. I worked. I cried a lot. Yesterday was my 23rd birthday (my little sister told me I was almost half way to 50…thanks a lot!) and it was the first day I really was feeling better and more like myself (and I didn’t cry!) Just had dinner and CHEESECAKE (my fave) with my family and that was great! That was exactly what I needed.

Then back to school today until the beginning of August. I’m looking forward to working in maternity and pediatrics!

~love always~

Jen

Quick quick post because then I need to get to bed. I’ve been SO busy studying for finals (apologies for the neglect). I have my huge acute care final tomorrow (so scared-worth 30% of my grade). And I have my psych final on Saturday. So I’ve been busy. It’s just on so much and I feel like I’m not retaining anything. I try to comfort myself by telling myself I’ll feel like I know more when I see the multiple choice answers and just keep telling myself what our professor tells us before every test “you know more than you think you do”. But in true Jennifer Vitti fashion–I’m panicking! When I sit down to take the test I’ll be fine. Then after the test I’ll be nervous again until I get my grade. It’s just how I do things and I can’t break it!

Oh and before I head out–I GOT AN INTERVIEW! For the pediatric CNA/PCT job that I have been waiting for! I’m so excited. This could be my in! It’s not til next Wednesday, but I will definitely keep you all posted. FINGERS CROSSED!

~love always~

Jen

p.s. GOOD LUCK TO EVERYONE IN THEIR FINALS!

Yesterday was my last “hell” day of the semester!! I took my last Med-Surg exam before the final and handed in my last paper! I feel like I finally took a breath when I woke up this morning–rested and happy! Tomorrow and Friday are my last Med-Surg Clinicals. I also have two more psych clinicals, three more med-surg classes and one more psych class! Then I have two finals the week after next and I’m done with this semester! Can’t wait to start fresh with pediatrics and maternity mid-May.

My grades aren’t as good this semester :/ but what can you do? I’m still passing and that’s all I care about at this point! As long as I can hold on to that through finals (I should be able to!!!) I’ll be happy

I also now have a study buddy in school! We get along really well and usually I don’t like to study with other people, but when we study together it just works! We’ve only just started REALLY studying together (at first we’d sit together as we’d study on our own), so we’ll see how I did on this past test and then if it went well (I do think it went okay!) then hopefully we can continue studying for the next few semesters as we complete our bachelor’s.

STILL nothing new on the job hunt– making some more calls tomorrow to check on my application status and now that school is starting to lessen up a bit I’ll probably be sending out more applications. Really hope I hear something soon!

~love always~

Jen

p.s. this video really made me smile: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPsmSPZDjLM

This semester is FINALLY coming to a close. I handed in a 24 page paper today…so relieved to get that out of my hands. It was a Care Study paper–lots of stuff went into it. I had my last psych exam this week (not including the final). Next week I have my last Acute Care exam before the final and a 9 page psych paper on OCD. Then I have my last week of classes and clinicals. I also have a pedi-math exam getting ready for the summer semester of pediatrics and maternity! Followed by a week of finals and then I’m done with this semester! I thought it would never end. I learned SO MUCH, but boy am I ready for a fresh start.

I was reading my psych textbook the other day and I forget what specific mental disorder they were discussing, but they said “you know that saying…what doesn’t kill you only makes you stronger? Well that’s not true… what doesn’t kill you only makes you crazy”. They phrased it slightly differently than that (although honestly not too different haha) and I had a good chuckle about that because sometimes I definitely think that…especially about nursing school.

Called the hospital I’m applying to for the CNA job yesterday–the position is still open, but they haven’t “finished processing my application yet”. Looks like they’re not in desperate need for this position especially since it’s been open for a while. I still have hope, but they’re definitely not jumping for joy that I even applied haha. They were very nice about it though–apparently there is only one person who does the hiring for the whole hospital, so they said it can take a while to process the applications, but if I haven’t heard in a week I am ENCOURAGED to call back. If the position is still open and has been open for a while then I doubt that I’m really competing with anyone for the position, so if I call back in a week they at least will have to give me a straight answer! Still crossing my fingers…

The week is almost over everyone–take a deep breath!

~love always~

Jen