Mid-week update

Because of my busy weekend and having so many assignments to work on this week I have been too tired to update my blog for a few days.

Monday
• Subcutaneous and Intramuscular Injections - read up on this and then practised in lab. We injected into a piece of foam that has different layers for epidermis, subcutaneous layer (fat) and muscle which the 'patient' holds against their own body part. The injecting was the easy part, the difficult bit was setting up the needle, drawing up the medication and so on and keeping it all sterile.
• Edited and did layout for drug brochure group assignment

Tuesday
• Clinical Assessment Workshop at uni
• Went shopping at Target and bought two pairs of black pants, black shoes and socks to wear on clinical placement. All on special and so cheap, I love Target!
• Worked on Clinical Assessment Group Assignment which was putting together a nursing care plan for nutrition and hydration. Because I was working on this I missed most of the last episode of Blood & Guts. The bit that I saw was about the pioneers of anatomical research. They disected a dead body which was one of the grossest things I've seen so far because the skin was all hard and dehydrated and inside it looked like the flesh was all yellow and rotten. Next week a new series is starting on SBS on Tuesday nights called "Anatomy for Beginners" and each week they'll be disecting a body. I'll definitely be watching that.

Wednesday (today):
• Clinical Assessment Lab: Assessing the Gastro Intestinal System, listening for bowel sounds, palpating the abdomen and so on. Our teacher for this class has done a lot of work in liver transplants so we she gave a very interesting presentation and discussion on that topic as well.
• Acute Care Lab: Male Indwelling Catheterisation, Removing Sutures and Staples (again we used foam pads for this that had the stitches and staples already in them), setting up and using a sterile field.