The Last Week

So, I spent some half days doing (what I know feel is) the same old Health Promotion business. Home visits with interesting people with interesting problems, which are very fun, really. But it's hard to ignore the fact that you're reading them the same check-list, over and over. The skill there, and the skills the people I work with really have, is keeping the procedure nice and fresh.

I spent Thursday and Friday on the Heart Care Unit, which was fucking awesomely out of this world. Critical Care really is my cup of tea, if this hasn't been made clear through my usual ramblings. And given my previous experience in Cardiology, it was a comparatively good deep end to dive back into. I had worried, over the Summer holidays and my current placement (involving few clinical skills) that I would be clinically void. Worse still, I feared I'd lost my edge communicating with and providing care for critically and acutely ill patients. But I haven't! That's exciting.

I had some really good experiences. I worked with the same senior staff nurse for both shifts, who was both a great nurse and a superb teacher. I impressed her with my knowledge, enthusiasm and willingness to get involved - another three things I'm glad haven't waned.

Yes, HCU was very good for me. Given I have an exam coming up about managing care for someone who has just suffered a cardiac event, it was a valuable education experience. The HCU in my current hospital is quite well staffed, which is excellent to see, and there is a more proportional population of men in the nursing side of things, a fact that fills me with optimism. Other than that, it simply reminded me of how much I *LOVE* the core.

This isn't to say it was easy. There were patients who had lots of things going on in their lives, and needed high levels of support on every level - social, spiritual, psychological and medical. This is one of the hardest parts of working in acute and critical care, but it's also one of the most important ones that I'm eager to learn more about, no matter how difficult.

This week I have to try and sort out some spoke placements, which is fucking awkward, especially when it comes to sorting them in other hospitals who are not 100% connected to my place of learning. I can't help but feel my current placement is eager to ship me off for as many away days as possible, which seems a bit besides the point, but we'll see. This week isn't all doom and gloom, though - oh no! Firstly, I'm going out on the tiles tonight to see one of my favourite ever bands. Second, I get to attend and observe some angiograms on Wednesday, which will be lots of educational fun. I look forward to it.