Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

Today was the day I have been stressing about since the start of Nursing School!!!

"Pass-Offs" were today.

Which means we were given 4 different patient scenarios to prepare for, throughout the last few weeks, and then we are randomly assigned to 'pass-off' one of them in front of a professor.

For example, the scenario I ended up getting was the following:

'Cassandra Bullock (June 3, 1972) is a 37-year-old woman who had an L2-L4
discectomy and fusion yesterday evening. It has been 10 hours since she last
voided urine, so there is now an order to insert a straight-catheter and leave it in if there is more than 750cc’s of urine output. She has been receiving Toradol IM
every 6 hours, which is due to be administered soon. She has also requested to be
logrolled onto her side for comfort.'

This morning I didn't have my scheduled Pass-Off until 10:30am, but I was up at 7 feeling the stress in full-i-want-to-barf-mode. I forced myself to go to Einsteins Bagel for some early morning deliciousness, and then I made my way over to the school to increase the stress level. When I got to school the Nursing halls were filled with other fellow nursing students who looked like they were going to vomit as well. We took turns asking questions and stressing each other out, until before I knew it, it was 10:30am. Which meant at any moment a professor would walk out and say "Emily, you're with me, let's go."

And just as I believed it would happen, out walked Gretchen, the professor that I barely know. However she turned out to be so great, I was able to pass off the catheter, pain med injection, and logrolling procedure without much help, and anything I may have forgotten, Gretchen kindly prompted me by saying things like "Oh whats this bracelet on my wrist?" Oh yes, I needed to check the medication against her name and date of birth located on the bracelet =)

So for being the day that I dreaded since the beginning of time, it turned out to be a success and one that I am most proud of! Each semester we will be doing "Pass-Offs" so I guess I better get used to the stress. But it sure is nice to know that I can do caths now, and roll people over in beds. Haha yessssss. So Happy day! Now home to enjoy American Idol, and some type of unhealthy food, to celebrate!

And remember folks.....