So it's been awhile

My excuse is the same: I've been really busy!

Life has a way of doing that to you--that is what I've really noticed. In the craziness and busyness of life, it's easy to forget what is important and focus on the tasks. I'm very guilty of that, and it has recently affected every area of my being.

So, I've made some changes. Nothing profound or life-altering, but a perspective change. It won't influence necessarily what I do, but it will influce how I do it.

I guess the best practical example of this would be how I view patient care. I made the change to go into nursing based on a love I have for people. It is easy in the day-to-day craziness of nursing school, however, to forget about that. Somebody has a weird disease and you flock to the room to see the disease, forgetting about the person. I took care of a patient who was physically an adult, but mentally 4 years old. He had various physical and developmental challenges, and he was difficult to take care of. He had every kind of isolation restriction you could imagine (my friends who know that I do NOT want to take care of sick people are laughing by now!), and he had a trach, a PEJ tube (a tube that sits outside of the abdominal wall and puts everything directly into part of the small intestine), a foley cath, and was stooling himself. It was all my worse "fears" combined into one patient. At first, I dreaded doing care because it was a lot of work (and, to put it mildly, it was gross). As the day went on, however, I realized that he deserved and should receive dignified care. I wouldn't want someone taking care of me who was doing care based on a "have to, " without looking at the fact that I was a human being. I took care of a very elderly woman the next day, and as I was helping her bathe, I caught sight of her wedding ring. Her husband had long been deceased, and it hit me that someday, that could be me. This woman, at one time, was 28 years old, busy chasing after kids, preparing meals, and laughing (or crying!) just to make it through the day. In other words, she used to be where I'm at in my life right now. I would hope that, if I am in her position someday, that someone would take care of me with loving, dignified, quality care (even if the care isn't glamarous). There is nothing that is "beneath" me to do, and I am vowing now to not be one of those nurses who refuses to do things that "aren't nurses' jobs"

On another note, we are redoing the office. New paint, new carpet (coming soon!), and new-to-us furniture (my parents have GORGEOUS office furniture that they are getting rid of and letting us have!). Maybe I'll be more motivated to study in this new and improved office? Pics coming soon!