In preparation for clinical, we went to the School of Medicine's brand-new simulation lab. They have a woman who's in labor that talks, breathes, bleeds, etc. It was pretty interesting. The instructor can control what happens with the simulation. But this lady actually gives birth. Her cervix dilates and she pushes out the baby. It's really interesting. Since it is a model, it's not totally realistic and in her case, her labia are pretty far apart so you can just peer past them to see her cervix. A classmate of mine kept looking past the labia to see the cervix, rather than just feeling for the cervix. It was hilarious. We kept telling her she couldn't do that in clinical because she wouldn't see anything. I also learned that in this new rotation we will need to quantify post-partum bleeding by direct observation of used pads. Never thought this would be part of my patient care. Just when I think nursing can't surprise me more...
The ear infection/mastoiditis drama has cleared up mostly. I can hear out of that ear now. It's still a little tender, but I would be too if I had gone through all of that crap. It was such an interesting life experience. I've never had anything like that happen to me ever. And I do not wish to repeat it. But by far the most annoying thing to come from the entire ordeal is now when I shower, I have to gob on a huge goop of vaseline on a cotton ball and shove it in my ear. (Apparently this keeps the ear from getting wet...) It's totally disgusting and I equate it to a wet willy. Gross. It has completely made shower time less enjoyable.
My other class this semester is a LGBT & Public Health class which is cross-listed with Women's Studies. I'm excited to be able to take it and it hasn't disappointed me so far. One of our first readings for class quoted my undergrad department head (she's also my mentor -- a huge source of inspiration and encouragement!) Plus I'm just happy to be back in my element, as well as meeting people outside of the nursing school. There's one particular girl in this class who I want to know more about. She reminds me of a younger version of my twin girls' mother.
6 comments:
public health class sounds great!
and OMG, I cannot believe the model. that's crazy. I want to see.
The model is indeed crazy. And whoever controls what happens to the model kind of gets to play God, or maybe gets to play baby if the baby is indeed the instigator of a lot of labor as someone told me they might be.
And quantifying postpartum pads by observation... um... well, I guess it makes me feel more reassured by what my childbirth educator told us when we were worrying about gross or potentially embarassing things happening to us during L&D. She said, "There is no substance or fluid that your body can produce that your midwive, doctor or L&D nurse haven't seen before."
Cool! One for the grownup girls to play doll with! I want one too!!!
I remember that model from school. The vulva kind of creeps me out because the lips are so far apart. Can you imagine walking around like that?
We have one of those women - they freak me out a bit!
One of the pharm schools I applied to had a simulation lab for everything. Apparently they thought it was better to let you practice drug therapy on models. It was kind of cool actually, nothing like seeing a model having an adverse reaction to something.
Glad to hear that the ear is clearing up too.
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