Daily Schedule: Monday and Tuesday--> Lecture 9am-3pm w/ exams every Monday.
Wednesday- Friday--> Clinical 6:30am-3:30pm
Actual Schedule: On the Med/Surg floor whenever the instructor decided that she was bored and that there wasn't anything else to do or to be learned she would let us go early.
What to wear: Scrubs, comfortable shoes and support socks
What's in my pockets: patient hand-off report, patient med. list, pens, stethoscope ( I think I used my stethoscope a total of three times on this rotation), change
Patient notes you'll be asked to write: VS, I & O's, safety
What to study: congestive heart failure, pulmonary embolism, ostomies, hematology/oncology. A lot of what you study will have to do with the population of people that come in. This particular rotation was in the center of farming/agriculture so there were a lot of older patients who worked until their bodies couldn't keep up anymore.
A few unforgettables along the way: Discount on food/coffee! A patient of mine who saw the Pearly Gates. Patient with a GI bleed who is a Jehovah's witness. Some pretty awesome nurses and assistants who goofed off with us in the hallways. Having the electricity go out in the hospital. Going to the county fair for a "community assessment." This really was a time for us to get out of the hospital and eat our way through the fair.
This was a fairly laid back rotation without too much work, which was very much welcomed considering this was the summer from hell. A word of advice: Do not enroll in an accelerated nursing program unless you are absolutely, positively certain that you want to go into the nursing profession. Just sayin'.