Lab Nursing and Male Nurses

     The past three days I have experience many different kinds of nursing during our "Clinical Enhancement" week.  I remember when I got this internship I was so excited for this week because I would be able to see so many different aspects of nursing and decide which ones I like and which ones I do not like. Tuesday I was in the GI Lab (snore) and then shadowed a Wound and Ostomy Care nurse. The Wound and Ostomy Care nurse was interesting but I don't think I could ever do that as my daily job. If you don't know what an ostomy is, it is an opening in your abdomen (usually) that allows for the elimination of waste products if your body can't eliminate them naturally. You can have one for urine or feces so as you can imagine these things smell and are not appealing to the eye. The most interesting part of the day was when we went to change a colostomy bag (ostomy of the colon) in a patient in the local psychiatric hospital. I don't even have to go into much detail for you to imagine what that experience was like...

     Yesterday I was in the Cath Lab all day where they do cardiac catheterizations, place stents, etc. I didn't really connect with any of the nurses there so I didn't have a very good experience. It is fast paced and organized very much like an OR but the nurses have very little responsibility and they seemed bored all day.

     Overall, I do not think I would want to be a nurse in a lab like the GI lab or Cath lab. There is very little patient contact and it is very repetitious. I am glad that I was able to see that side of nursing so now I know what I don't want to do!

    Today I had a great experience with two different male nurses, one in Radiology and one in Critical Care. I haven't had the chance to work with any male nurses in my clinical experience, especially in OB, so this was something new. I began the day with one of them in Radiology. I thought this was going to be similar to lab nursing so I wasn't expecting much, but so much goes on in Radiology that it was more interesting than I thought. Radiology includes Nuclear Medicine (stress tests, etc.), CT Scans, Pediatric Sedation (to sedate kids for procedures) and Special Services (stent placements, fistula repairs, etc.) The nurse I was with showed me around and quizzed me on different things regarding the procedures and I was surprised by how much I knew (Go Clemson Nursing!). He was very good with all of the patients we had and really seemed to enjoy his job. We even got a free lunch because a vendor came to sell the lab some supplies! My second experience with a male nurse was with a Critical Care Transport Nurse. His job is similar to the PICU Transport Nurse that I was with Monday except he rotates around all of the ER's and ICU's. When he first walked up to introduce himself I was surprised because he was so attractive. I soon learned to find he was not only attractive, but a great nurse. He showed me around the entire Emergency Department which is way bigger than I realized. It includes Adult Emergency, Children's Emergency, Isolation Area for Psych patients, Chest Pain center, Intermediate Care, Urgent Care and Congestive Heart Failure Observation. We took a few patients from the ER up to ICU and helped a few other nurses with procedures. It was a really slow day in the ER but I was able to see some weird, I mean sick, people.

   I was so impressed by both of my male nurses today! I wish more guys would choose nursing as a profession! To end this post here are two interesting/funny stories that happened today in the ER...

1. A nurse called my mentor and I over to start an IV on this lady. She was a diabetic and apparently homeless. She had a huge ulcer on her foot and she smelled like a trashcan. I asked her where she was and she looked around and said "Home!"...She had no idea where she was or how she got there. Anyways I went to reach for something and I bumped her. I didn't know she was wearing a wig but it goes flying onto the floor! She has no idea what happened so I just put it back on her head but it was crooked for the rest of the time and my mentor and I couldn't stop laughing because it was just such a ridiculous situation.

2. My mentor and I were trying to start an IV on this guy and he kept telling me how beautiful my name was (Sammy?...) and how pretty I was, etc. Then out of the clear blue sky he tells he me shot and killed someone once. He reallllly knows how to impress a girl.