Winter Semester Recap

I am officially done with finals and I seriously can't believe I am done with this semester. I had been dreading this semester of school and during the first few weeks I never thought there would be a light at the end of the tunnel. Now looking back I can see that I learned SO MUCH this semester. My nursing classes were Critical Care (ICU) and Psych Nursing, both of which are very challenging. My other "fill up my schedule so I can keep my scholarship" classes were Islam (totally interesting, I'm so glad I took this one), Mission Prep (has an amazing teacher and it doesn't really matter that I won't be going on a mission any time soon) and Nutrition and the Prevention of Chronic Disease (actually, mostly a waste of my time). Here are the highlights of the semester:

• During my first ICU clinical I witnessed my first code (Short for Code Blue, meaning the person's heart has stopped beating). I watched the doctors and residents do CPR on this woman and push medications trying to bring her back for a good 45 minutes, she ended up passing away. It was actually a very peaceful moment. That changed once they brought her family back to tell them she had passed away. It made me so sad to see this family greiving for their mother/grandmother. I ended up leaving the room because I started to tear up. It was then I decided I probably don't want to be an ICU nurse.
• One of my last clinical days was in the cardiac ICU, which was my favorite clinical day so far. I got lucky to be paired with an awesome nurse who let me do everything all day with him watching and talking me through the difficult parts. It was also amazing that our patient started the day on a ventilator and completely sedated and ended the day breathing on her own and walking around her room. I actually felt like a real nurse that day. It was then that I decided I could be an ICU nurse someday.
• Then my ICU rotation ended and Psych began. I did my Psych rotation at a residential psychiatric rehabilitation facility. Although I did learn at this rotation, it was probably the most boring clinical rotation I've ever had. There was lots of down time and just not that much for student nurses to do.
• The boredom was interrupted by one moment of sheer terror. For an extra clinical experience, I observed court hearings for civil commitment of individuals who are a danger to themselves or society. My instructor is an official court examiner, which means she does an interview with the patients before they go before the judge. After the interview she gives the judge her professional opinion if the patient qualifies under the criteria for civil commitment. I was sitting with her in a tiny (probably 4' x 5') room. The first patient comes in and just by looking at him you could tell he was disturbed. My instructor started asking him questions, which he wasn't really answering, then suddenly he LUNGED AT ME! Of course I screamed. My instructor and the security guards who were standing right outside the door intervened almost immediately. As they tried to get the patient back into his seat and away from me he kept saying over and over "I need to hit her. Please let me hit her." It was terrifying, my heart was beating so fast! His interviewed ended pretty quickly since he was completely fixated on hitting me, and tried to do again, but the security guard kept him under control and escorted him from the room. Thank goodness for those strong security guards!

Ben's semester has gone really well. He takes his last final (Physics) this morning. He's been studying really hard and so far has A's in all his classes. I'm so proud of him! Also, I want it noted that when I told him the above story about the patient trying to attack me he laughed at me. Good thing I love him, despite his lack of empathy for my terrifying experience.