Clinical Day 1

So I had my first clinical last Friday, and with everything getting back to normal didn't really have the time/energy to post about it. So here is a recap of clinical day 1.

Friday Day 1:

I arrived at the long term care facility at 6:50. The shift that we would be working actually is from 6am-2pm, which involves pre-shift briefing, and resident assignments. We thankfully got to skip this part, although I am sure it probably would be beneficial to see how it goes at some point. On this particular morning things were not running as smoothly as they could have been because one of the CNA's (Certified Nurse Aid) did not show up. This not only put everyone in an instantly bad mood because they have dealt with this before, but it also put everyone behind schedule in terms of getting their residents up and ready to head to the dining room for breakfast.

The CNA I was assigned to was working in a hall that was made up of residents who required a significant amount of assistance in performing any sort of daily activities. All of our residents required lifts to be moved from their beds to their wheelchairs, to the toilet if they could, or anywhere really. These lifts are mainly because the residents no longer have full functioning of their legs, their backs or arms. I have also learned that they are very helpful since my assigned CNA and myself are both on the shorter side :) We were rushing around trying to get the residents changed (most have briefs that require changing, dressing, combing hair to avoid "bed head", and of course teeth) We were behind schedule because each CNA was given an extra handful of residents to care for since they were short staffed. I would say on average it took around 20 minutes from the time we entered the room till we had the residents all ready for breakfast. Usually residents are in the dining room at 7:30 for breakfast, today we were pushing 8:30 with our last few. It was very challenging work today, and was very repetitive.

I definitely don't think that I would be able to do what we did today every single day. But my CNA told me that it grows on you. She said while some days are just terrible and everything seems to be going wrong, other days are so rewarding and she learns so much from the residents. I spent a lot of time with Betty, a very nice old woman who once she learned my name was all she would call. "Lena! Lena! Lena!" I heard from down the hall when I left to check on one of our other residents. After we had moved her to her bed, she kept saying "I want you, I want you, don't leave". So I stayed with her gripping my hand for about 15 minutes. It did make me feel good that she wanted me to stay with her, and I guess that is one of the things that you get to look forward to when you go to work everyday, the joy that you can bring to someone, even if it is just holding their hand for 15 minutes.