November 2, 2011
Today I was placed with a patient who had a very long list of health problems. It was a busy day so I learned a lot, but was also very overwhelmed. Today was the very first day that I saw just how sick a person can be. This patient was being kept alive only because of 3 different blood pressure medications, nearly constant infusions of packed red blood cells and plasma, and ventilator support. I learned how important it is to keep the blood pressure IV drips running constantly. When changing bags I was instructed to never stop the pump, but just switch over to a new bag. It was alarming to me that even if the patient is without pressors for a minute their blood pressure can drop dramatically and their life is then threatened. I also learned about double checking blood with another nurse so that you make sure the patient isn’t given a blood bag that hasn’t been typed and cross-matched with theirs. In addition, today I got really good at drawing blood and sending it for to the lab for testing. I got better at interpreting lab values to see if the patient’s condition was getting better or worse. In this case, we watched the liver enzymes very closely and also the BUN and creatinine to see how the patient’s kidneys were doing. All in all it was a very stressful day!
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