Questions
What were your responsibilities or duties this week?-Shadow a nurse in the ICU
What new knowledge or skill did you learn this week?
-Learned how oral hygiene is done if one has a ET tube
-Learned how oral medication is given if patient can not take it
What was the best thing that happened at the site this week?
- I got an orientation of the ICU
-I got to see basic care the issuing of medication to an unconscious patient
What was the worst thing that happened at the site this week?
-Learned that someone had died in the ICU
This week was GOOD.
Experience Record
Technology observed:
There were a lot of different kinds of machines like ventilators and monitors, which did a variety things. The ventilators helped with breathing and the monitors checked a patient's heart rate, pulse, breath rate, and oxygenation. There were lots of tubes as well.
Diagnostic procedures observed:
A patient who was unconscious and on watch for seizures was shaking on her right side. The nurse asked for help from another more experienced nurse to verify that the shaking was from the patient slowly waking up and not an actual seizure.
Therapeutic procedures observed:
A patient was unable to take pills due to having a tube down their throat. The solution was to have the pills crushed into a powder and mixed with a liquid and then injected into them through the IV.
Diseases/disorders observed:
One patient a brain tumor who also started to suffer from seizures.
Medical terminology encountered:
Endotracial Tube- It is a tube that goes through a patient's nose or mouth, down their trachea.
Seizure- It is a sudden abnormal electrical discharge of the brain which results in physical manifestations such as twitching and convulsing.
Journal
The ICU is very clean and open in the halls. It is necessary due to the critical conditions of the patients and open space gives room for the equipment to be moved around. The personnel are almost all dressed in scrubs except for a doctor or two were wearing formal business clothes. The major equipment is all kept near the center of the floor for easy access to both sides. Except for AEDs which there is on on each side and ventilators and monitors which are in each room. There is a nurse in charge of every two rooms which are right next to each other. That specific nurse's station is right between the two rooms and has windows so that the nurse can still watch their patients.
The staff is all really nice. They all also seem to get along well. Which is not surprising due to the fact that they work together for long hours in possibly life-threatening situations. They also watch each other's patients if one need a quick break or rest. They also work in near perfect harmony with each other. For example, a patient was just brought in and was needed to be moved to the bed from a different bed. It was cool how they all went to each side and moved the patient over, then swiftly started to hook the them up to the monitors and such. Safety is a big thing in ICU due to how fragile the patient's conditions are. My nurse changed gloves multiple times and always disinfected their hand before entering and after leaving a patient's room. They also put on PPE when moving the patient, like the gown and gloves.
There are a lot of machines and tubes needed especially in ICU. I got to see and ET tube and how oral care is needed and done when one is in use. There is a packaged kit that contains some sponges and, I think, a paste that is like toothpaste but stronger and safer in a way. I also got to see that two nurses are needed to check any kinds of problems if some kind of alarm goes off. For example, I believe a patient's oximeter fell off and their oxygen level was being measured incorrectly which lead to the alarms. The nurses went in and immediately went to work on checking what was wrong without even speaking to each other. It was really cool.
I had a very good time in ICU. Even though I could not do much of anything, it was still cool to see how a real professional is in their field. There is a lot of walking due to the fact that there is almost always something to do. Then when there is a moment of quiet, there is lots of charting to be done. Nothing truly serious was going on so it was not as stressful as it could be. I got to see some of the basic and less spectacular parts of the job which as also equally needed for patient care. My nurse was very nice and helpful and so were the others on the floor. I also got to learn about the nurse and their career which opened a perspective of the job and the commitment it needs.
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