Shots, Shots, Shots!

I know what you are thinking: "She's not posting about taking shots is SHE?!??!"

Nope, I am not.

I am posting about giving shots.

Real shots, with real needles, with real medicine in them, to REAL PEOPLE!

The day finally came! I think all of us in nursing school have been talking about giving shots from day one, how we just couldn't wait to poke somebody. Well in reality, it was kind of fun, exciting, and new, but also so nerve racking! I mean it is a REAL person! We gave shots in clinical last week to our patients, and to other patients on the floor who might need them as part of their daily meds, or because the hospital offers (not sure if they actually require for patients) a flu shot and a pneumonia vaccine upon discharge. It was pretty exciting because we got to give a variety of shots, insulin in injection pens, Heparin in needles in the stomach (anti-coagulant that is given to most patients to avoid blood clots while in the hospital), & flu shots. A lot of patients are given pain meds through their IVs, but we haven't done this yet, and won't until next semester. I think part of the nervous part was that our instructor was in the room with us, along with another student to observe, plus the patient themselves, and in some rooms family members. It would be hard I think to let a nursing student give you a shot. I mean they don't know what we are capable of, how much we have learned, how many shots we have actually given. I would be freaked out too!

I think I did well, and I know that the more you practice, the more comfortable you become, so I will be practicing every chance I get. In our skills lab we have chunks of fake skin to simulate the different types of tissues you give shots in, along with a million types of needs and syringes so that we can practice our technique before doing it on patients. I'll be practicing every time I am in the lab, that's for sure. This week we will be practicing on each other in lab when we give each other the flu vaccine. It is required of all Mercy students, as well as employees, even though I really don't want to get one. I have never gotten a flu shot, and I think for the most part I have been pretty healthy, so why start now? Because being in the hospital setting for 25+ hours a week is probably going to eventually hit me, and then it will hit me hard. So I am trying to think positively about this shot, and hopefully I won't get sick from it!

You might get lucky and have a second post today...we will see how much studying I can squish into today :)