three credits closer, and other good news

Anyone who has had to interact with me frequently has had a long couple of weeks. But I think the hardest part is over.

The Professionalism project is officially a wrap, and good riddance. I did far more agonizing than I needed to, because I had no idea what pain was yet, because I hadn't started the Health Assessment class yet.

My video and H&P for the Health Assessment class were both submitted this week, on time. I wound up having to shoot three times to get all the footage I needed, and replace some stuff I screwed up, but it's done. I'm lucky that the editing wasn't too difficult. The class discussion board is full of nightmare stories about videographers not showing up and people having to transfer footage from 8mm film to VHS and having no way to edit. A few of the nurses said that they couldn't even bear to watch themselves on film, so they just crossed their fingers and submitted the tape unreviewed.

This leaves me with four more written assignments to close out the Health Assessment class: a posting and follow-up discussion on the health promotion website of my choosing, a nursing care plan for my patient, a personal health plan for my patient, and a 3-4 page paper about the health issues I discovered in my patient. I have three holiday weekend shifts coming up with low-maintenence partners, so I should make some progress over the next few days.

reindeer games

I took a day shift on the SCTU today, to free up the coordinator to go to a meeting, which he missed because he blew out a tire on the Turnpike or something like that. The good news is that I spent some time stuck in a drafty garage with absolutely nothing else to amuse myself with besides schoolwork, so I got a fair amount accomplished. We picked up a few 911 jobs, and only made it to one, which turned out to be the legit ischemic stroke. He didn't have a headache, his grips were equal, and his speech wasn't slurred, but he was complaining about acute vision changes and had a B/P of patent-pending over pretty-damn-high. He also had this sort of receptive aphasia thing going where he could sometimes follow some commands, and answer some questions, but at other times he would respond inappropriately. You could tell he knew you were trying to tell him something, and he just couldn't sort it out. We dragged him into the ER, which, miraculously, wound up TPAing him in a reasonable time frame.

My transfer patient recognized me from an ER admission at Christ Hospital over a year ago, and seemed very happy that I was going along for the ride to Newark with her. She and her mother started recounting details of the conversation I'd had with them. I don't remember anything about the case from a year ago, other than that I felt badly that they were stuck in the ER as an admission hold for hours on end, so I was trying to keep them comfortable. Really nice lady, and really sick, and she's younger than I am.

I re-shoot the video for class tomorrow, where I have to prove to Excelsior that, among other things, I am competent in caring, and in performing a neurological exam.

a girl in trouble is a temporary thing

It's no secret that the health assessment course has been driving me up a wall this semester. It's forcing me to get help from other people, and that just sucks. It is also a clinical evaluation by PhD nursing instructors. In EMS we talk about book vs. street. . . at least they bear a passing resemblance to each other, and even the most tightassed EMS instructor will concede that appropriate practice will occasionally vary from theory. Nursing doesn't always share this view -- a "good" nurse will do things a certain way, and that's that.

Fortunately, I am blessed with friends who are helping me. I shot some footage of the exam last night, which will probably all get scrapped, but at least now I have an idea of what I am up against. I have an exam room and pretty much all the toys I need. My stunt patient is being very accommodating. And I have an awesome cheering section. So now I am going to relax, review the material, and put off making any skull sized dents in the plaster walls for a bit.

mentors

This week, I am finishing Phase V of the whole PSPR saga. This entails an online discussion with other BSN students who have completed their projects as well. Some were low speed, but a few of them were actually pretty cool.

I am pretty sure that the chat facilitator evaluated my pediatric portion of the CPNE back in Albany. She stands out in my memory as being friendly and laid back, in stark contrast to most of the other evaluators I encountered. She asked us a few questions about our project mentors, and I had enough fun answering the one following that I figured I'd post it here.

4) What 5 characteristics should the professional mentor have? We all have different needs and values!

This list represents a composite of the best qualities of some of the people who have acted in the mentor role to me over the years. I've never been able to come to terms with the word "mentee", so I hope that it is forgiveable that I've used "rookie" to stand for that person who is in receipt of the mentor's guidance. That is the prevailing term in the workplaces where I have received my best mentoring, and have occasionally had the opportunity to mentor as well.

They possess a good understanding of how they developed into their expert role. They remember where they came from.

They understand the ecology of professional development. They see that rookies keep them honest about keeping up their skills and education. They know that investing in the rookie today improves their chances of having a good person to work with as a colleague in the future. They remember that they might report to that rookie one day.

They protect their rookies without hampering their development.

They take pride in the rookie's success without claiming ownership of it.

They understand that professional development is individualized. They don't take it personally if their rookie chooses a path different from their own. They are reconciled to the path they are taking as a professional, and they don't approach the rookie as a chance to do it over.

a quick recap of the rest of October

I have been slacking on blog entries as of late, so I'll run down a few of the many things that happened this month, and what I learned:

1. As I mentioned in my last post, my PSPR paper was accepted by Excelsior. I have my asynchronous chat session starting in five days, and then it's officially a wrap. This project has been dragging on for over six months, so I'll be happy to never have to think about it again.

2. It is pointless to bring a health assessment textbook onto a commercial coach flight. Every other page opens to a full color glossy photo of something that the person next to you would rather not see, and they are far too big to read discreetly.

3. There is no way on God's green earth that I'm getting everything done this semester that I wanted to, so I'm going to stop trying. I'll be happy to pass the HAPE course; anything beyond that will be a bonus. Life's too short. Excelsior offers the capstone class in May as well, so I'll only be pushing graduation back four months, not eight. I have the beginnings of a plan for the TAC course, but I'm not going to worry about it until HAPE is in the bag.

Plenty of non-academic stuff has been keeping me busy as well. . . maybe that will turn into another blog one day.