So far while on prac, all the nurses and staff have been really nice to me, showing me how to do leg bags, tape down IDCs and things like that. But today there was this one nurse who was so rude, not just to me but to the doctor as well. Or rather she just butt into our conversation while discharge planning for a patient. And then she had the cheek to tell me to do my shower assessments in the bathroom outside the DASU cause I “took up an hour and she couldn’t shower anyone else”. I was just so ticked off by that cause I had asked the other nurse who was looking after the patient I was assessing and she said it was fine to shower in the bathroom I took it in. So I retorted back to her that I did ask the other nurse and she said it was fine and she had the cheek to say back to me well don’t do it next time.
I was honestly so ticked off as she had told me off in front of the doctor, the social worker and the other nurse. She could have approached me in private to tell me and the only reason why I took so long was cause the other nurse was drying off the patient’s IDC bag’s velcro and checking that the IDC was still in place. I still remember that lady and I tell you I don’t want to deal with her much anymore. She’s not the usual nurse on staff, she’s from the agency and basically I think they get paid a lot more than the normal nurses cause of them having to cover for normal nurses. Today we were short staffed in the DASU as there were quite a few people sick so everyone was trying to do extra stuff around.
I think I was so angry for about 15 minutes I couldn’t quite think straight and I had forgot about time and that I had the case study tute with Sally at 3pm. Today we got the dog from Animal Companions and he was soooo cute! He even can ’say hello’ by barking to how many fingers are on the volunteers hand. Say if she sticks out 3 fingers, he’ll bark 3 times. So smart he is.
Recently on the DASU, the pressure mattresses for a lot of patients were not set at the right weight and therefore I’ve sort of made it my mission to check and true enough I found 1 today that was turned up to 110kgs for a person weighing about 60kgs. Poor person’s mattress was as hard as a rock. We’ve let the team know and basically continue monitoring people’s mattresses.
Well, I’ve got 2 home visits tomorrow. 1 to do by myself since I first interviewed the person yesterday and I’m going to go check up on his home setup. I’m off to write outline for cell, since I’ll be leading cell and I haven’t prepared anything at all. I’ve been taught not to do it the night before but oh well, things crop up so I have no choice really. Off a writing I shall go!
I was told today by my patient at Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital that I have a nice complexion. I guess I didn’t know what to feel: happy that I have good complexion or shocked because that came out of the mouth of a elderly gentleman. I guess I was stunned that after the hour long interview and standardised assessments that I had to do with him that he actually noticed my face. I guess I take what compliments I can get, after all I did wear make up today 
As I work on the ward where most of them are older people, I sometimes see an older couple on the ward, where one of them is an inpatient and the other is visiting them. It breaks my heart sometimes to also see people who don’t get visitors at all and spend the whole day staring at walls and doing nothing. What amazes me to see sometimes is that the old couple have been married for so long and yet still support each other so well. Sometimes I wonder if I’m going to have a husband to look after me when I’m old, a person to spend days with and to look after each other.
Today is one of those days where I spend time on the bus and I think lots of random thoughts to myself. I had interviews with 3 clients and 1 team meeting back to back and now I’m feeling rather exhausted from everything. I have yet to write the reports for the clients. I’ve got a meeting in the morning tomorrow and have to look through files for patient notes and I’ve got that case study presentation things happening tomorrow as well. I’ve just finished the case study and I’m going to get that printed out and I should be done for the day. I took over today for my supervisor at the Falls Clinic at the Day Hospital and I’ve pretty much took over half of the role of a senior OT for the day. I can tell you that it is no joke what she does. She’s in charge of the DASU which is the delirium unit and as well as the Day Hospital OT stuff and home visiting for both places. It’s a jolly lot happening all at once, but I’m glad I took this prac. Its pretty much opened my eyes to a lot of things and I’m loving the experience, though I’m just flat out by the end of the day. Productive nonetheless.
Speaking of being exhausted, it is now 9pm and I’m off to print my case study and off to bed I go. I’m just way to pooped to do anything else but read in my nice warm bed.
Smile if you want me to kiss you.
I forgot who told me this and when I heard that I smiled at that. Corny as it sounds, its one of the more logical ones I’ve heard.
I’ve been down with the flu since Thursday. I started a nagging sore throat on Wednesday night but I had Strepsils and plenty of water, in an attempt to try and flush out the bacteria. I even gargled salt water on Thursday morning to try and kill of the germs.
But alas, I woke up on Thursday morning, feeling rather tired and not wanting to get out of bed. Assuming that it was just a case of theweekendisnearitis, I rolled outta bed amid a bad sore throat and feeling rather cold that morning. But mind you, it is in the middle of winter now so one would expect it to be dead cold. Made my way to work and lo and behold, felt very much colder than usual and was shivering while going around the wards seeing patients. I had to do a shower assessment in the morning and while I watched in on one and did one myself, I was feeling so cold it wasn’t funny. I had to pretty much wear my heavy winter coat on top of my OT uniform and long sleeved shirt to keep warm over a warm cup of coffee.
After the action meeting at 8.30am and eating half a croissant, I still didn’t feel too good. I tried to keep up, but soon the body aches had begun, I officially have moved into flu territory. Admittedly its far less severe than my previous bouts of flu but its right smack in the middle of prac nonetheless. After lunch time, I didn’t think I could handle feeling so cold and so painful anymore and longed to curl up on my bed and just fall asleep. So I took off and went home, and I had to wait a blooming 35 minutes in the freezing cold and rain for the bus which was blooming late. I wasn’t a happy camper. I thought I was delirious that I had misread the bus timetable but indeed the bus was just extremely tardy.
I got home by 2pm and popped my contacts out put on 3 layers of clothes and crawled under 3 layers of blankets and dozed off effectively till 8pm when I thought it’d be a good idea to take some flu tablets. So off I trudged downstairs to get some soup into me, since I hadn’t eaten anything apart from half the croissant for morning tea. Got those down and went back to sleep from 9pm till about 8am Friday morning when I had to phone my supervisor to let her know that I would not be coming in to work that morning. I guess I could have, but I thought I’d better take it off, just in case I get worse and end up having to come back home again and stuff. So I effectively slept most of Friday away, willing my body to fight the flu. My fever went down on Friday morning so I felt much much better. Its awfully dreadful to be feeling cold even though you’re tucked in under 3 blankets, socks on, PJs on and still shivering.
I worked on Saturday, just having a slight cough and runny nose but it worked out alright.
Played tennis on Sunday, and amazingly enough I am not that sore today. Only slightly sore in my bum (I still don’t get why the muscles around my ischial tuberosities are aching) and my other limbs are fine. I guess this is a rather good form of exercise for me haha This week will probably be badminton since most of them are off on cell retreat, but we’ll see how it goes.
Well, I’m here to report that I’m currently having a slightly runny nose and a very mild cough but otherwise, surviving nicely. Team meetings after the 2 ward rounds were rather relaxed today, we had quite a few people get discharged while we were on shift today. Bumped into Justin Ti while seeing a patient and was quite amused to see them hunting down patients to sign off for their musculoskeletal part of their log books. So I have no become the person to go to for patients that they need to sign their log books haha
Anyways, I should be off writing my own case study and racking up the hours for my portfolio. Toodles!
I played tennis yesterday with Nic, Chester and Russell after church. Not one of my wisest moves due to a few reasons:
1) I didn’t plan on playing tennis therefore did not bring proper gear - no footwear or proper clothes or a tennis racket. I ended up playing in a dress ala Maria Sharapova and in thongs I had left in my car instead of the high heeled boots I had on for church.
2) I had never played tennis in my life and am used to playing badminton.
3) I didn’t warm up prior to playing.
As a result of my venture into the world of playing tennis, I now have a sore butt, wrist and back. Apart from that, I’m really enjoying tennis…Hehehe….Another session scheduled for after church next week. Here’s to hoping I don’t get so many sore body parts!
I just finished my first week of prac at the sub acute medical unit, more fondly know as SAMU, at Charlies. The verdict? I’m loving it! With it being my 1st prac and things, I was excited but apprehensive like what if I injured a patient or things like that. Getting my bearings around the ward and getting a hang of what OTs do on this ward has been great! When I stepped into G block on the first day, I was so scared and things but now I’m loving it.
The fact that we had like 2 afternoon teas was great too LOL
I got to look at the DASU (Delirium Assessment & Surveillance Unit) and watch in on a kitchen assessment with a patient. It was very interesting to watch.
I must say, I never thought I wanted to work in a hospital but now I do. I walked in on day 1, with everything looking a bit old and slightly dinky, but its not that bad. I was quite scared on Monday I nearly puked my breakfast out hahaha but I’m all good now.
Anyways, I’m off to go shower. Update soon! Possibly with a picture of me in our ‘glamorous’ plastic aprons LOL
It has been a rather busy week for me. In between sorting out my prac preparations, attending tutorials, reading up on rehab and assessment techniques I managed to have a breather down at Amanda’s place in North Dandalup over the weekend. I tell you, that was definitely a weekend well spent. We went down on Friday night and came back on Sunday arvo and I’m feeling a little less stressed with prac prep and a little more on the ball. We all went down for the Leaders’ Retreat for church and it was a wonderful time of relaxing and seeking God. I think I feel a bit more ready to start cell in semester 2 with more to give.
I’m currently reading up on my Trombly & Radomski book, which my supervisor has given me prep readings to do. And I’m supposed to be skimming through half the book in a matter of a few days. I’ve prepared most of my paperwork so it isn’t going to be so bad on the 1st day of prac. I guess I have to say, expect less updates cause I’ll be away from home at 7am till 6pm 5 days a week and I have reading to do after work and sleep to catch up on.
Here’s to an exciting prac!