Week 3 as a Level 3 Nursing Student!

This first part is copied from a mass msg I sent out earlier, but it really just has a huge effect on me and I would personally appreciate it if someone sent it to me, so this is me sharing my love with you.
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i trust you're all doing well. i've had a really moving week this past week and i wanted to share it with ppl i care about. a few events that happened at riverview really struck me and motivated me and inspired me and i wanted to share it with you.

i'm 22. some of you are my age, some younger, some older. one of the patients i talked to was my age and he has schizophrenia. literally, schizophrenia means 'split mind'. schizophrenia is a very devastating condition. it not only affects a person mentally, the drugs have some serious physical side effects, and a person's social skills are affected as well.

so i was talking to him and i really put myself into his shoes and i was just so saddened. i asked him what an 'ideal situation' was for him and his response was "having a job, having a life, a marriage" and for some reason, i was really shocked. why was i shocked? in reflecting, i think it's because these things seem so simple to me (us). a job that would sustain him, not even a job that was highly coveted. just a job. how simple is that for us to do? then i thought about how he was at such a low point in his life, he talked about how he was feeling so depressed, yet despite those feelings, he still wanted those things that are so easily attainable for ppl who don't suffer from mental illnesses. i really admire his courage to face what's the come, i'm really inspired by his strength to dare to dream, and i'm really motivated by his story. i can't imagine my current situation as being the highest point in my life. i would like to think that it can only go up from here and it isn't THAT hard for me, but for him, it's a road full of adversity and uncertainty.

i think to this day (of my one year relationship with nursing haha), this is one of my most valuable nursing experiences. and because of this, i want to share it with ppl i really care about. i send this to you for a number of reasons:
1. i want to show ppl that the stigma of mental illness is unwarranted
2. i want to share this story of courage, perseverance, and inspiration because i believe fully that we are all capable of achieving whatever it is that we want to do with our lives and
3. because i cannot imagine what life would be like without these stories. it makes me want to do more with my life and really chase my dreams. it really puts things into perspective for me and it's incredibly humbling.

i guess in a roundabout way, i wanted to share this with you guys because i think we're all capable of chasing our dreams, because we can do it so easily. we don't have restrictions on when we can go out, we don't have to earn the reward of leaving our houses for only 2 hours, 3 times a day.

it really moves me and inspires me to do more with my life and i hope that you can appreciate the story and hold it dear to you as I have.

The second story comes from my actual assigned patient. Schizoaffective disorder is a condition similar to schizophrenia but coupled with a mood disorder. My patient had the flat affect which was interesting to note, though it did throw me off quite a bit when the patient would say "I'm very happy" but maintain an expressionless face. The biggest milestone with this patient is that I was actually able to try out some other methods of controlling anxiety. I have no training whatsoever in this type of therapy but I decided to give it a try and it worked. It honestly worked for them! It was amazing to me because I didn't think I could do it and I felt like I was making everything up as I went and I wasn't even 100% sure it would do anything, but they said that it did and that they may try it in the future and that it was really helpful. I really developed a great rapport with this patient and it was so heart warming to have them actually form an expression similar to that of a smile!! When I asked whether or not they were able to express emotion and smile, they said they were ok at smiling then added that I was really good at smiling!!! I was so touched that I managed to illicit any type of expression. Mental health's really starting to impact me in a way I never imagined possible.

Week 2 as a level 3 nursing student

This week has been one of realizations! As much as I'm enjoying the research and readings on mental health issues, I'm having a hard time adjusting to the pace in mental health nursing. I've become very accustomed to the fast paced, task-oriented nature of nursing and mental health nursing is a completely different framework altogether. I'm finding it a bit hard to understand what my tasks are when I'm at the hospital. The patients get up, we take vitals, they get their meds, and they pretty much do activities with the occupational therapists and recreational therapists. This kind of nursing is a whole lot of talking, but when patients don't want to talk and they don't want to play games, I find that I'm unsure of what to do. I ask the other nurses and health care workers if they need help with anything, but they say no. So it's a bit of a challenge for me.

This semester seems super intense. I think for the first time since starting school last January, I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed with the volume of assignments. It may not be such a bad thing to have a two week break during the Olympics. I know it's just a matter of organizing myself, but I'm just scared I won't be on top of everything. Having said that, I won't let it happen either... :)

It's nice having a day off in the middle of the week - I'm really productive in that I get readings and patient research done. Time to go to pharmacology! Have a great week, everyone!

Week 1 as a level 3 nursing student

Level 3 is comprised of our mental health rotation (8 weeks), pediatric rotation (4 weeks) and maternity rotation (4 weeks). This semester, I'm at Riverview and Surrey Memorial.

Finding out that I was assigned to Riverview was slightly daunting...but I honestly believe that it is a matter of exposure, or for me, inexposure. The more exposure you have and the better you understand it, the less intimidating it is. You hear all the time that you need to be open-minded as a nurse and I can honestly say that I think I'll be in situations where I'm very uncomfortable this semester, but isn't it true that you always grow the most in awkward situations? No? Is that just me? :) I think there will be times where I won't know what to say in response to a patient, but who has all the answers all the time, right?

We had our orientation today at Riverview and I was so surprised to hear that there was such a rich history behind it all. It opened in 1914/15 in Coquitlam. Back then, there weren't roads or anything leading out to it, so access was very limited. The means of transportation was via train, which only went out a few times a week! One of the things I found amazing was the fact that the staff and their families used to live on the grounds and it was actually one of the 5 biggest municipalities (back then, of course)! There was a nursing school there and the students actually lived on the grounds as well! They were a completely self-sufficient community, complete with a farm, piggery, cannery, bank, gas station, fire hall, and I'm sure I'm missing other things! I just think it's sad that it'll be closing down in the future - there's such a strong culture there...a really strong sense of family, it seems. There are lunchtime staff running groups, everyone knows each other, the staff who are working there now have been working there for a LONGGGG time.

To talk more about the other classes, I think immunology will be a LOT more interesting than microbiology - the topics seem to tie in to nursing a lot more (maybe I just wasn't so into microbi, I dunno). PBL seems like a good group, it will be itneresting to see how the semester unfolds..we have a lot of strong personalities, a lot of us are really outspoken, so it'll be neat to see how we all work together. NURS 3036 - my mental health class seems really interesting and I love love love psychology, so I'm super stoked for it.

This semester will be a lot of work, but nothing I can't overcome. :)