To vibrate or not to vibrate, that is the question...

I love these cartoons from nursetoons! This one is quite appropriate. (Click on it to make it more readable.)

Yesterday was my last OB clinical and I had my evaluation today--all is well and I passed with flying colors, though I don't really trust my instructors evaluation of me because she spent most of this rotation absent--how can she possibly know if I did well or not?

Case in point: had a patient with Intrahepatic Cholestasis of Pregnancy (ICP) yesterday. Very difficult situation, and this patient had loads of meds. My nurse asked me if I wanted to give an IV push and hang an IV piggyback. Now, in our program, we DO NOT do these these types of med administrations. We learn how to do them in skills labs but do not practice this in clinical on patients. IV pushes are very serious--basically a nurse gives medication into a vein via IV and it circulates throughout the system within 6 heartbeats! there is no going back with an IV push--it has to be done correctly, slowly and by someone who has some idea of what they are doing.

So, my instructor told my nurse before we started the day that I could do whatever I wanted as long as the nurse was with me. I don't know how I feel about that? Tried to call my instructor to see if she wanted to come watch me do the meds, but she wouldn't answer my page as usual. Told my nurse I would love to do it but wanted her there on top of me every step of the way. Everything went well, actually did two pushes and had a good experience.

Found out from a classmate the instructor was off napping in an empty room...

At the end of our day I asked my instructor if she got my page. She reached down to her waist to grab her pager to check for my page but it wasn't attached to her waistband. She looked at me and laughed.

"Oh, I don't know where my pager is? It must have fallen off?"

I looked down at her pants and noticed a buldge there--she followed my glance and said, "Oh my," as she started rooting around in her underwear. (!)

"Oh there it is, " she said as she finally located the missing black box, "It was in my underwear all this time. I wish it had been on vibrate!"

Uh, okey-dokey.

Anyway, today at evaluation she asked what skills I had performed during this rotation. To her surprise I reported:
4 caths
3 IV's (not counting the skills lab one on my partner)
2 IV piggybacks
2 IV pushes
a handfull of IM injections
lots of oral med administration
a handful of blood draws
a couple IM injections on newborns

And a few other miscelaneous things. I loved putting people on the monitor, reading strips, and coaching people through contractions. I saw one vaginal and three c-sections. She never did do my checkoff on assessment the last day. So, that's that. My classmates and I went out to eat last night and laughed a lot over the whole clinical experience. Sort of unbelievable. We have a lot of stories.

I think I am really dissapointed about my instructor, but it didn't ruin clinical for me. Thank God for the amazing nurses I met who were there for me and taught me so much. I love OB and hope I can get a job there right after school. We will see...