Wednesday 14th

In today's labs we covered:
• Female Indewelling Catheterisation (using a plastic manequin of a female groin area, without any legs or upper body)
• Setting up a Patient Controlled Analgesia Machine (usually for morphine)
• Operating a Gemini Intravenous Pump
• Mental Health Assessment

My homework that I did today was to research foods that won't exacerbate nausea and vomiting, to share with my group tomorrow. This is what I found out:

Nausea with or without vomiting is a common side effect of surgery. Nausea can prevent you from eating enough food and maintaining your nutritional intake and weight.
Dietary strategies to manage nausea include:
• Avoid foods that:
o are fatty/greasy/fried;
o are spicy or hot;
o have strong odours.
• Eat small amounts more frequently and eat slowly.
• Eat before you get hungry, because hunger can make feelings of nausea stronger.
• Avoid eating in a room that is stuffy, too warm, or has cooking odors that might disagree with you.
• Sip cold clear fluids (e.g. cordial, flat gingerale, lemonade, diluted fruit juices, icy poles and jelly). This is particularly important if you are vomiting to prevent dehydration.
• Have foods and drinks at room temperature or cooler; hot foods may add to nausea.
• Rest after meals, because activity may slow digestion. It's best to rest sitting up for about an hour after meals.
• Choose stomach-friendly foods, such as toast, crackers, yoghurt, creamed rice, oatmeal, boiled potatoes, rice, noodles, steamed/baked skinned chicken, canned peaches or other soft, bland fruits and vegetables, carbonated drinks that have gone flat.

Source: http://www.virtualmedicalcentre.com
Article reviewed by:
The DAA WA Oncology Interest Group

Tonight I went to a Le Bop dance class with my friend from work. We've been to this class 3 or 4 times now and it's heaps of fun. It's a type of partner social dancing which originated in France in the 1950s. It is also known as Ceroc.

I haven't quite mastered this move yet because I'm still a beginner.

Tuesday April 13th

Uni:
• Clinical Assessment & Decisions workshop
• Met with Medications group to plan group assignment. We decided to do a drug brochure about Panadeine Forte.

Lectures:
• Gastro-Intestinal Tract Medications
• Inflammatory Bowel Disease
• Assessing Cardiovascular System

Nursing Skills Videos:
• Using a Gemini Automatic Intravenous Infusion Pump
• Establishing and Maintaining a Sterile Field
• Reconstituting Powdered Medication – Rubber Capped Vials (for injection)
• Bathing a Client in Bed

TV:
• Blood & Guts: A History of Surgery - Fixing Faces. This episode was about reconstructive surgery - noses, face transplants, cleft lip and so on. Definitely the most horrific episode so far in this series, especially all the soldiers who suffered burns to their faces in world war 1 & 2. It was really sad.
• Operation Live: A neurosurgeon removed a tumor from a woman's pituitary glad, accessing it through her nose and using an endoscope to look inside. Although the tumor was only small it was causing excessive amounts of growth hormone to be secreted from the gland and consequently she had enlarge feet and hands. This was the last episode in this series.

Back to School

Morning Reading:
• Central Nervous System
• Depression
• Anxiety
• Angina
• Atrial Fibrillation
• Reviewed Circulatory System Anatomy
• Storage of Medicines
• Medication - Oral Routes
• Instillation of Nose, Ear & Eye drops
• Topical application
• Respiratory Route - metered dose inhaler

All of this was to prepare for my afternoon medications workshop and lab. In the lab we practised reading drug charts and performing patient assessment and safe administration of oral drugs, eye drops, transdermal patch and nebuliser.

World's Longest Cat

And a couch hog!

Friday 9th

Lecture Half-Marathon:
• Hospital in the Home (24 service for post-op patients)
• Information about Clinical Placement
• Drugs used to treat Central Nervous System Disorders
• Endocrine Medications (Diabetes)

Also did some homework for Medications and Clinical Assessment group work and emailed it to my group members, and went to the Hawthorn library to borrow drug books, anatomy books and medical dictionary.

Tuesday April 3rd

Mid Semester Break Lecture Marathon # 1:
• Anatomy, Physiology & Pathophysiology of the Lymphatic System
• Anatomy, Physiology & Pathophysiology of the Immune System
• Care of the Infected Surgical Wound
• Intravenous Antibiotics

Videos:
• Measuring Oxygen Saturation with Pulse Oximetry
• Administering Oxygen via a Nasal Canulae

Tuesday Night SBS Viewing:
• The Operation: Surgery Live – Hiatus Hernia (Keyhole Surgery)
• Blood & Guts: A History of Surgery – Spare Parts (Organ Transplants) - the most interesting part of this was comparing the two patients who received the first and second hand transplants. The first man hated his new hand from the get go. He thought it was ugly and too big and his immune system rejected the hand. He carrying around a dead hand which looked horrific and he felt more handicapped than before he had the transplant, and really depressed. Eventually, about 5 years later, he had the hand removed. The second patient had lost his hand over 30 years earlier. His new hand looked completely different to his other hand, it was fair skinned, only light blonde hairs and it was clearly a female hand. However he totally adopted the hand as his own, it healed beautifully and he did all the physiotherapy enthusiastically and gained 80% of the functions that he had in his other hand. He started doing all the things he couldn't do before like pick up his grandchildren, learn carpentry, played tennis and musical instruments. It was a good example of how important patient compliance and positive psychology are so important for successful outcomes, no matter how good the surgeons are.

Thursday April 1st

Yay! Finished for the week. Now I'm going to enjoy a three day weekend and have a complete break from studying. Next week is mid-semester break. I plan do some catch up study and homework on Monday and Tuesday and then I'm working on Wednesday.

I got great feedback on my Post Op wound care patient teaching plan, both positive and constructive but nothing bad. The teacher made a booklet for each of us which had copies of everyone's care plans with the teacher's comments. This allows us to read each other's research (we all had a different topic) to share knowledge but it also allows you to see the standard of other student's work, how they organise it and so on. I think that's useful.

Today I handed in my first assessment (about informed consent) and gave an oral presentation about it in class which seemed to go down well. Because of the two things I had to hand in this week, I haven't exercised this week (since Sunday) because I've been doing the homework in the evening, and by the time I'm done it's too late for the gym and time for dinner. Next week I'll be more active in my week off.

In labs this week I learned:
• Administration of 0xygen
• Inserting a Nasogastric tube for feeding or suctioning the stomach
• Musculoskeletal Assessment
• Integumentary Assessment (Hair, Skin & Nails)
• Respiratory Assessment

This weekend, Manny and I are going down to Dromana for Easter. I'm looking forward to some really hearty food.