does anyone care

hey people, I know some of you make comments periodically. Thanks for reading and keeping up! But a question? Does anyone care that I keep doing this? Its not hard and I dont mind but if not one reads it why waste time? Let me know what ya think? thanks!

Medical Moulage Anyone? see pics below

I was able to participate in a medical moulage activity for a western U.S. burn conference being hosted this year at my hospital’s Bothin Burn Center where I was made up as an electrical burn patient. Then nurses seeking advanced burn care certification tested on me explaining the care they would provide for a patient with my symptoms, etc. This was really interesting and I enjoyed it. The nurses I worked with were very impressive and inspiring. 

I learned all about: Moulage (a French word meaning casting/molding) is the art of applying mock injuries for the purpose of training Emergency Response Teams and other medical and military personnel. Moulage may simple or vary complicated and complex including theatre to provide additional elements of realism. I can also help desensitize military personnel and others to the shock of injuries.

Practicing ER and ICB (Intensive Care Burn Unit) nurses had to talk through the care they would provide for me with electrical burns. The part I found so cool was that I could follow it all and in fact I knew it all! While waiting for the moulage activities to start I asked the nurse running my scenario if I could test with her first on myself. She said sure, and I was able to say what I would do for a patient in my condition just like the other nurses would later do on me. We talked through the entire scenario and she said I hit all the major points. This made me feel really confident, even though I just finished learning about burns and shock and just completed exams on it so I should have known it! I was impressed that I really had learned all I needed to know in my pathophysiology and medical surgical classes. That there were no details or more advanced actions that had been left out or censored for my novice nurse learning.

Also, I was super impressed by the nurse running my scenario. If nursing had rock stars she would have a burn care rock star. She was amazing and her experience and competency was incredible. Nurses provide the majority of specialized burn care and therefore they are uniquely prepared for handling burn patients versus all other medical professionals.

It’s still not the area for me though. Below are some pictures of how they made me up! They did it from scratch with putty and paint!

My story was this: I was a tree trimmer who accidentally hit a power line while trimming a tree and got shocked with 100,000 + volts. I lost consciousness and was disoriented and brought directly to the hospital without any care bring provided to me.  I had neck pain (cervical fracture due to voltage down my neck), and second and third degree burns on my hands and arms. (white paint = third degree) if you can see in the pics I had peeling skin on my upper arm. Also I have entranc and exit wounds on my hands. Because my burn was electrical I had more internal damage than external visible damage however other "moulage victims" had more extensive visable burns.. but I wont put up their pictures without asking them first.

left hand = entrance wound

right hand = exit wound

getting done up (makeup time)

all made up, sorry its hard to see the make up with the lighting

If you want to know more

This discovery health website describes a skin graft procedure and burns with minimal extraneous information or details. It very well describes what some of what I saw and did in the burn unit including a skin graft and care of burns and post skin graft wounds. check it out if you want to know more.

http://health.howstuffworks.com/skin-care/information/anatomy/skin-graft.htm/printable

program seems soo long

Some days, the program seems soo long. All the summer breaks are nice but they extend the program by almost two years and some days the end is so far off it's exhausting to see how much more I have to go. I am glad I am doing it but wish it would take a little less time, I am already tired of being a student again. And I think Ruby is tired too! lol

Burn Unit

Today I rocked. I rocked to a level I didn’t even know I was capable of. I am not kidding; I truly didn’t know I had the capacity to perform what I did. And I didn’t know I would be able to keep from falling apart emotionally afterward.

I am glad I got to go to the burn unit, I am more glad that it is over, and I am most glad that I never have to go back. I am amazed by those who work on the burn unit and honestly admit that it is not the place for me.

Next please!

So I got to do a shot clinic! I was super nervous at first but now giving shots is just routine! And it was kind of fun! One person after another kept sitting in my chair to get vaccinated! I got that skill down now!

is this for real?

I keep thinking the amount of homework (mostly reading) I have aka over 300 pages last week is inhuman and I dont understand how they expect us to actually learn that much information.

And then an outsider who lives with another student made this same statement to me. He didnt know how they expect us to do all they assign and actually learn and retain it. I feel like I am moving so fast sometimes I am not learning what i need to. Sometimes it makes me wonder if I am doing what they expect or if I could be doing it differently.

Burn Unit

Today I had another clinical class. I am doing my clinical's this semester at St. Francis Memorial in SF. It happens to have the only burn unit in the bay area (except for children which go to Oakland Children's Hospital).

I finished my clinical experience today at 4pm. However, I have heard that while patients were initially treated at area hospitals critical and severe patients are since being medivaced or ambulanced to St. Francis' burn unit. I find myself wondering how the hospital is doing. They have an amazing team there and I know they are providing the best possible care.

So far the most intimidating thing I will be doing in school is spending an entire clinical day in the burn unit. I am terrified, grossed out, and turned off by the burn unit, and even with my limited burn experiences thus far I know for certain it is not an area I want to work in. I am so very thankful that others have a heart and desire to work with such patients. However, I don't feel bad admitting that its the one area I cant handle. Some nurses cant handle working with kids, or don't like the elderly, or other populations, I have a very hard time with burns. But I am a student and in two weeks I will be spending my entire clinical experience in St. Francis' burn unit. There will definitely be patients from the San Bruno explosion tonight still recovering there when I am. I already think they are amazing people for surviving and enduring what they have to come. I cant decide if I want to know any more before that clinical as it scares me even more to learn their stories even before they are my patients.

Clinical Day 1 - medical surgical floor

Wow, crazy crazy day. I cant really reveal too much personal patient related data, at least not on the web. But I have such a good story from today! Lets just say.... Some things I didnt think were possible turned out to be possible. The craziest things can happen and times ten at that. But overall, I was very impressed with how in the face of patient non compliance, indifference, and aggressiveness, the care staff still remained positive, supportive and respectful of a patient who did not return these feelings towards the caregivers. I learned so much.

great weather, no clinical

Of course, the nicest day of the week, thursday when it will be unheard of warm and sunny in SF I will be inside in a my clinical from o dark thirty to nighttime, missing it all :( boo

Also I have more days off this semester however I feel like I have less time! 200 pages to read this week alone for only one class!! There is soo much information to learn and read and do things with. AHHH

What does it mean!!??

Ok, so I had my pathophysiology class today. The teacher is super high energy and awesome. She even made the most hilarious reference. There is this video a guy made about seeing a double rainbow,  that has gone totally viral  and even been featured on cnn. He is clearly high on something and keeps saying "its soo beautiful, but what does it mean?" and crying and stuff and is soo funny.

So my teacher said she wants us to challenge ourselves and not just regurgitate textbook answers but really think about how to apply concepts and be able to come at them from more than one direction. To be able to understand more than their definition. She then said she hopes that we have moments like this "BUT, what does it mean??" she emphasized while staring intently at the projector screen (perfectly mimicking the video) and then sniffled before cracking up and telling us if we haven't seen it go see it. It was soo funny, I was majorly disappointed that I didn't record the lecture as it was a priceless moment.

So needless to say, I think she will be pretty cool and never boring early Friday mornings. Also, here is the video in case you want to check it out.

New semester, new blog

Out with the old posts in with the new. Its a new semester, a new attempt and the same old sidekick ruby.

I had my clinical orientation, it was pretty sweet. I think I am going to learn a whole bunch there and am really excited about all the different things I am going to do. I am on a medical surgical floor. One portion of the floor is dedicated to chemothearpy patients, which I think will be really interesting. I will also get to shadow/participate with nurses from the operating room, emergency room, burn unit, iv team, gastrointestinal team, wound care nurse, in addition to daily medical surgical stuff. Sweet. My teacher seems pretty awesome too. Getting up at 5 am was awful though, too early.