Jennifer Vitti

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!