This is now my second term being in the nursing program. My classes are both med surge and medical ethics. Due to short staffing, my schedule has been changed and I was scheduled to take both my med surge and medical ethics class on the same day. I was very hesitant and afraid to have both classes on the same day because of important days like midterm and finals. I posted on a page asking if having a schedule like this is doable. I have skills lab on Thursdays and clinicals on Fridays. Due to the pandemic, we are not allowed to go on an actual clinical site, so we are required to go to a covid testing site for our direct patient care hours. I am very much looking forward to learn in med surge, medical ethics, and skills lab.
It is the first week of med surge and pharmacology and we are learning different surgery settings, purposes of surgery, preoperative nursing responsibilities, preoperative: routine diagnostic tests and laboratory tests, patient teaching, gerontological consideration, medication reconciliation, informed consent, registered nurses’ roles in the operating room, different types of anesthesia, and postoperative assessment. So far, my med surge professor has been very generous to prepare us a reading guide as an outline to our quiz. The med surge book is full of information and numerous pages, it’s hard to know what would actually be on our quiz. We are required to read 3 chapters this week, each chapter is about 80 pages or so, but with this reading guide it helps us read what we need to know on the quiz.
We have also been introduced to this new active learning. In active learning, we are required to actively participate or present topics, rather than the professor. Thankfully, our professor gave us time to prepare a presentation and try to understand the material because we have never learned the material before. The school administration encouraged us to read ahead to understand the material and participate as the professor is lecturing. In the med surge class, the professor gave us the topic we had to present and she split us into groups of 5 and each had to discuss signs/symptoms, etiology, diagnostic tests, NCLEX questions, or treatment. We had 30 minutes to prepare the presentation and then come back to present in front of the class. In pharmacology, my professor lectured powerpoints to give an overview of the chapters and what to focus on when taking the quiz. After lecturing, we were also split into groups and had a week to prepare our presentation. This was a new way of learning that our school decided to try to get the students to actively learn because some would not participate. I am still not used to speaking in front of people, but doing these presentations and speaking about topics I had not learned yet, was definitely an experience.
In my skills lab we were required to do ATI modules. On the very first day, we did a head to toe assessment and it was a nice refresher, since we had just done it in our skills lab for 101L. On the weeks after, we learned to do foley catheter insertion on both male and female, wound care, aseptic technique, insulin administration, ostomy care, tracheostomy care, airway management, blood transfusion and IV site. Going on campus was a different experience, because it is learning how to apply your knowledge. My professor gave us scenarios while giving care and helped us critically think. I do not feel extremely confident in the skills I’ve learned, but I feel content knowing that we were able to at least practice, rather than not being able to do the skills at all. I feel that I need more practice on my skills. This class was not very difficult for me because I did not feel the pressure of having to know the procedure step by step. I learned that there are several ways to do care and procedures. My professor taught us that we will do things conveniently and comfortably for us and for the patient as well.
It is now our finals week and I am quite nervous for my med surge class because I had failed my proctored exam horribly, so it put me in a failing position. I feel very confident in my medical ethics class, as it was the last quiz of the term and I earned a 100% on my quiz. I feel that I have learned a lot of new material in both classes. The material I learned is not common sense as the first term seemed like. Not only did I learn about new material, but I learned how to manage my time, studying, social time, organization, and planning. I learned that procrastination and doing the minimum is not going to work from this term and on and even until the end of my nursing program, I will have to continue to work on my habits. I need to continue the studying and working habits, that have worked for me this term and keep moving forward to reach my long term goal.
0 comments