And the next unit is... :: N30010 Clinical Journal Entry #21

... labor & delivery!  Not sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing, but at least it's not peds.

I absolutely hated my pediatric rotation.  Hated.  Dreaded.  (Yet I LOVE pediatrics... get that.)   Peds was miserable.  First of all, the low patient census and the fact that (I recently learned) the Cleveland Clinic is just not a large pediatric center, made our instructor overly eager to pair 2 of us up with 1 patient.  Patient sharing is good for maybe your first one or two days in clinical (as in, ever) and that's it.  We didn't get much experience doing anything, and if we wanted to learn, it took extra effort on our part.  Our instructor was a far better lecturer than clinical instructor, the drive to clinical was too long and too early, and well, I could go on.  Then there was the fact that our instructor failed some of our papers for no good reason at all.  She have me a 16.75 out of 30 because she didn't like the order of my headings, and I made a couple tiny APA errors.  I questioned her about it (politely!) and she said I didn't include half of the points listed on the paper description on the syllabus, to which I got even more upset seeing how I went over it a zillion times and checked each point off as I put it into the paper.  Then, when I didn't do so well on our proficiency tests, she told me I "didn't even try."  Right.  Funny how I came to her for help after taking the practice proficiency tests, and she had nothing to do or say.  I talked to some of the other students who had her for clinical, and they told me she did the same to them, too.  Out of the 5 or 6 clinical instructors we could have had, we got her.  Partially thanks to her, I hated peds, and totally thanks to her, my final grade in the course dropped from a high B to 1 point below a B. Did she take a calculator to figure out the exact grade she could give my paper to drop my course grade an entire level?  They say nursing professors can be vicious, and unfortunately, I just experienced my first one who was truly, completely unreasonable.  I asked her if I could come in during office hours to talk to her about my paper so I could learn to do better, and told me she didn't have anything to tell me other than to go ask for help at the library.  What?!?!  The library staff would have probably told me I had a good paper.  Seriously...  I rarely can't stand certain people but I'll have to say I really can't stand this professor and am thanking God I don't ever have to talk to or see her again.

So Tuesday was our pediatric final, and Friday began our Parent and Newborn Nursing rotation.  Until the end of the semester in mid-December, we will be working on the Labor & Delivery, Postpartum, and Nursery units of our local city hospital.  (Only a 20 minute drive, hooray!)  Our clinical instructor seems really nice and fair (a little free-spirited, has a lot of rules but doesn't seem like she's good at enforcing them), but we only got to see her for a few hours yesterday because she went home sick with H1N1.  (Or that's what she thought it was...)  So we got a half day off, which was nice.  I spent the extra time getting my H1N1 vaccine since my doctors office finally got them in.  All of the local hospitals ran out of vaccines, and it just so happened my PCP had them in when I called to check on Friday.  Then I went thrifting (because I love thrift store shopping!) for a little before coming home and getting started on our OB/L&D worksheets.  (Using our very graphic textbook of course.  The picture of the placenta makes me want to vomit!)

As I said, I'm not sure about OB... let me have more than a few hours of orientation, and I'll get back to you.  I was assigned postpartum/nursery for the next 2 weeks, followed by 2 weeks in labor & delivery.  Then for the remaining weeks, our instructor said she will try to put us on units where we haven't gotten experience.  (eg, if we didn't get to see a C-section, she will try to get us on labor & delivery with a patient who may be getting a C-section)

So that's that.

Then there's my little girls on Wednesday.  I took L Bug to the pumpkin patch on Wednesday while Mom kept Baby S.  (Mom's still on maternity leave.)  They had a petting zoo, a little kids train, pumpkins (of course!), a corn maze, etc.  I'll have to post a picture or two... we had so much fun!  I love Wednesdays.  I think even after I graduate, I'll stay with this family until the girls are both in school and don't need a nanny anymore.  It's only 1 day a week (Mom works from home except for 2 days - 1 of which I have, the other which Grandma has) and I absolutely love the family.  So, so fun.

This week, we have our first OB lecture and clinical of course, tomorrow I go see my liver specialist and a new pain therapist, Tuesday I'm getting my hair done and going to see the Cavs season opening game (!!!) with Jonathan, Wednesday I have my girls, and Thursday I have a genetics exam.  Big week.  It doesn't ever end. 

I want to get married, graduate and get a job, have our babies, live in a nice little condo, you know, be a grown up.  But still, it's just living day-to-day.  I think that's what it'll be like for the next year and a half, but you know what?  I believe everything happens for a reason, even things that seem wrong, messed up, confusing, or just plain "not part of the plan."  I think we just need to fight hard, love harder, and let life happen... and be grateful for every minute of it. ♥