I Passed!!!

Tuesday I spent my clinical day in the CVICU (cardiovascular intensive care unit). It was such an interesting day. The most interesting part was seeing a "fresh heart" come in. The patient had just had open heart surgery to have a valve replaced. As soon as they said they were on their way up from surgery all of the nurses rushed into the room that had been set up for him. As soon as his bed was wheeled into place everyone started rushing around in an organized chaos. They were doing assessments, hooking up all of his lines, setting up the ventilator, and all kinds of other stuff. One nurse was assigned to do nothing but chart. She wheeled that computer in there and was typing away as each nurse called out different things. There's no way I could have gotten everything! It was amazing how everything was so crazy, but flowed so well. I spent all day telling my patient that she had, indeed, had open heart surgery the previous day. She kept insisting that no, she hadn't had surgery yet - she was waiting to go back. Her RN came in and said "Doesn't your chest hurt?" Her reply was "No. Why would it?" (Maybe because the day before it had been split open!) The RN then said "Look down at your chest. Do you see that big bandage that goes all the way from your neck to your belly button?" She looked down and said "Yeah. Are y'all getting me ready for my surgery or something?" She also kept asking me to wake up her husband... who was not in the room. The RN told me that it was normal for them to not remember going back to surgery and to be confused and think people are in the room when they're not - but he said it's very unusual for them to deny any pain. They normally can't figure out why they're having intense pains, but as soon as you explain that they've already had the surgery they understand. I got to see some pretty cool things with her. When her family came in first thing in the morning they were really upset by her appearance. At that point she was still on the ventilator, she had lines running all in and out of her, we hadn't had time to wash the green cleaning stuff from surgery off of her yet, and she was in wrist restraints because she'd been trying to pull out the tube in her throat. A little while after her family left I got to watch them extubate her (pull out the breathing tube). When her family came back in they were amazed at how much better she looked with just that gone. My grandfather had open heart surgery, but I was so little I guess I didn't go back. I called Mom and asked if they let the family back while he was still on the ventilator and she said yes, and it was very traumatic. I believe it! After being back there and realizing how bad it looks I don't think I'd want my family to see me that way. I'd rather them just wait until I'm awake and the tubes are gone! I really enjoyed the clinical day there, but I don't think that I'd like to work there. There was so much going on I think I'd be overwhelmed with more than one patient.

This semester we have an NCLEX review class to prepare us for our licensure test after graduation. At the beginning of the semester we took a practice NCLEX predictor test and it said that at that point there was an 87% chance that I'd pass the NCLEX. To graduate we're required to pass this test with a 90% predictability or better. Our entire class was pretty stressed out about this. We took another practice test two weeks ago and it put me at a 91% predictability. This did not make me feel good since I BARELY passed it! I kept thinking that the stress would get to me and I wouldn't pass the real one. We had the for real predictor test today and I passed with a 96% predictability!!! Yay!

I should find out about the job sometime next week. I'm nervous about it because I have a feeling at least a couple of the others who applied will have experience- and I have none. I've decided that if I don't get the job I'm just going to wait until after the NCLEX to apply for any more since I'll be an RN after I pass it and I can apply as a registered nurse and not as a graduate nurse awaiting the NCLEX. That way I can also enjoy my summer for a little while and not have to focus on anything except passing!