The First Clinical Experience
It was an early morning in April. My friends and I arrived 45 minutes early to our long term care facility in Scottsdale, Arizona. The three of us sat in my car and anxiously awaited stepping foot into the care facility as we had no idea what to expect. I began to wonder what the patients would be like and how I would care for them. My heart began to race as I was afraid of hurting the residents and not promoting healing from their ailments. Honestly, I didn’t know what types of illnesses would place individuals in the healthcare unit in the facility. That terrified me. I wanted to know everything I could ahead of time in order to appropriately care for the older adults on the unit, but that knowledge wasn’t attainable. …show more content…
My partner and I were designated to help care for an elderly gentleman who recently had an ischemic stroke. Our resident was sleeping in a chair in the center room and neither of us wanted to wake him until it was time for breakfast. I asked one of the LPNs on the unit if she needed any help and she wanted us to take our residents vital signs before medication administration. We awakened him and walked him to his room to provide for privacy while we took his vital signs, which included taking blood pressure manually. This was a skill that I was not entirely confident in, but I knew it was crucial and something I needed to do; it was essential to put my patient first. I felt for my resident’s brachial pulse, placed the cuff on his upper arm, put the diaphragm of my stethoscope where I felt the pulse, and began squeezing the pump. When I had finished taking his blood pressure, it was very low. I took the blood pressure again, and the second time was just a low as the first. The patient was on an antihypertensive medication and I knew that administering the medication with a blood pressure that low could result in life-threatening manifestations.
After finishing the whole set of vitals, I informed the LPN of the blood pressure. I was proud of what I had accomplished within a few hours in the facility. I had properly taken a manual blood pressure and informed the LPN of a blood pressure …show more content…
I talked through everything I was doing in order to educate the patient, and I pricked her finger with a lancet. Having previously performed the skill, I knew that the blood glucose monitors require a bit of blood in order to read the glucose level, but I didn’t realize how much blood was required. I was able to squeeze what I thought was enough blood onto the first strip, but I didn’t have quite enough; the monitor showed an error message. I “milked” her finger and used a second strip, but there still wasn’t enough blood. The nurse stepped in and tried to obtain enough blood for the test, but unfortunately it wasn’t
It was an early morning in April. My friends and I arrived 45 minutes early to our long term care facility in Scottsdale, Arizona. The three of us sat in my car and anxiously awaited stepping foot into the care facility as we had no idea what to expect. I began to wonder what the patients would be like and how I would care for them. My heart began to race as I was afraid of hurting the residents and not promoting healing from their ailments. Honestly, I didn’t know what types of illnesses would place individuals in the healthcare unit in the facility. That terrified me. I wanted to know everything I could ahead of time in order to appropriately care for the older adults on the unit, but that knowledge wasn’t attainable. …show more content…
My partner and I were designated to help care for an elderly gentleman who recently had an ischemic stroke. Our resident was sleeping in a chair in the center room and neither of us wanted to wake him until it was time for breakfast. I asked one of the LPNs on the unit if she needed any help and she wanted us to take our residents vital signs before medication administration. We awakened him and walked him to his room to provide for privacy while we took his vital signs, which included taking blood pressure manually. This was a skill that I was not entirely confident in, but I knew it was crucial and something I needed to do; it was essential to put my patient first. I felt for my resident’s brachial pulse, placed the cuff on his upper arm, put the diaphragm of my stethoscope where I felt the pulse, and began squeezing the pump. When I had finished taking his blood pressure, it was very low. I took the blood pressure again, and the second time was just a low as the first. The patient was on an antihypertensive medication and I knew that administering the medication with a blood pressure that low could result in life-threatening manifestations.
After finishing the whole set of vitals, I informed the LPN of the blood pressure. I was proud of what I had accomplished within a few hours in the facility. I had properly taken a manual blood pressure and informed the LPN of a blood pressure …show more content…
I talked through everything I was doing in order to educate the patient, and I pricked her finger with a lancet. Having previously performed the skill, I knew that the blood glucose monitors require a bit of blood in order to read the glucose level, but I didn’t realize how much blood was required. I was able to squeeze what I thought was enough blood onto the first strip, but I didn’t have quite enough; the monitor showed an error message. I “milked” her finger and used a second strip, but there still wasn’t enough blood. The nurse stepped in and tried to obtain enough blood for the test, but unfortunately it wasn’t