This week has been a little rough with my CI coming back from vacation. I was used to my expectations from her and then got used to the expectations of me by everyone else while she was gone and now she's back and it's been a transition. She's been commenting on everything that I do, or what order I should do particular things. (Like, "Make sure you put patient 1 on the treadmill so you can finish patient 2's manual!") I know she's just trying to be helpful, but I've got it under control! ;) Well... for the most part.
Well, after two really rough days, today was GREAT! :) :) I was so glad to have a good day. I had a couple of rough ones and was feeling down. One of my pulmonary patient's perked me up right away in the morning. The respiratory therapist will bring donuts in periodically for the patients on Fridays and there were some donuts on the table. My patient looked at the donuts and looked at me and said, "Sister... in the game of life you've got to keep your eye on the donut and not the hole." It made me laugh and made me realize that I was worrying over two "bad" days and really, I've been doing really well overall at this clinical. Then, we got a patient with congestive heart failure and he is high risk for exercise (his cardiologist sent him to us!) so I have been working with him. Basically, we do a functional activity (like stairs) and then I take his pulse and blood pressure. Then we will do another activity, then vitals, and back and forth for the whole session. So, it's a lot of work just to make sure he is doing well. Beyond his congestive heart failure, this patient has a long psychiatric history including paranoid schizophrenic. I was able to sort of teach everyone a few tips on dealing with him based on one of our lecture's from neuro, which was awesome! Basically, I just make sure I fully explain everything we are going to do and what we are doing and why we are doing it. His therapy session is very structured and I make sure to not whisper around him (we do try to discuss his vitals to the side from time to time). So, if we do have to discuss something, I always come back and tell him what we are talking about, so that he doesn't feel paranoid and feels safe. So far, everything has been fine and he is actually one of my favorite patients (and the source of my in-service)! After he left today, my CI told me she was really impressed with how I was handling him and that I was doing really well with him. That made me feel good! And then, my patient at the end of the day, who is a little hard to warm up, told me she thought I was really empathetic and she can tell how much I care about her and my other patients and that I've been very patient and kind to her and she thinks I will be a great therapist! It made me feel awesome!! Especially after a couple crappy days!! Finally! A good day and I'm feeling great again!
