First Day..

First day of University class is over and I think it might be okay. I guess we will see what happens in the next few weeks. I am thankful for the great group of girls I go with. Having a good giggle after class sure does relieve some stress. Thank you girls....

It's over..

Can you believe it? The end of this coure is here already! I can't say I am sorry. Although I do have to admit I did learn a lot about plagarism and citing references in academic writing. And I learned about new technology readily available on the web which is designed just for nurses. When I have time I will be checking these sites out. But what I really learned is that I go to school with RPNs that work at the same hospital as me and I am just now getting to know them through school. Funny how you can work in the same profession and in the same facility, yet not know your fellow co-workers. I have had some very heart warming comments, full of encouragement from some of you and I am now looking forward to continuing on with the RPN - BScN bridge program. And of course working with all of you at the Ross!

Another day ....

So today is another day and it's all good. I know this blog is supposed to be about nursing and ICT but today I am writing about another form of communication. A communication that we haven't really discussed in class but probably have all benefitted from at some point or another in our lives. Verbal communication. I, personally would not be a nurse now, nor would I have gotten through yesterday without the support of my family, especially my husband, my son and my daughter. And of course I can't forget about my co-workers, who had to put with me for 12 hours yesterday. All of the support given to me through verbal communication keeps me balanced and focused. So imagine what it does for someone in the hospital who is sick and scared, with no family. Someone who just needs to know that there is someone who cares enough to listen to your hopes and fears and to know that tomorrow is another another day.

To carry on or not?

Well, after spending a very sleepless night, the question today is, do I go on with this bridge program or do I not? I'm posing this question to myself after receiving news back on my first academic paper. What a disaster! I wonder, is it worth putting myself through this stress at 50 years old? (Boy, that sounds old today) Right now I don't think so. I really enjoy learning new things and as we all know in nursing it is all about learning new stuff, but right now I'm thinking that I am in just a little over my head on this one.I wonder if anyone else is having these doubts? If so I sure would like to hear from you. And now it is off to the work I love best....Nursing at RMH.

Communication Barrier

With todays technology you would think that communication barriers would be a thing of the past. However they do still exist and no matter what we do I think they will always be a part of our lives in one form or another. When deciding on what to write about for my communication barrier, my daughter suggested I write about something close to heart, my dad. Eleven years ago, before I became a nurse, my dad suffered a very severe stroke leaving him very dependant and very aphasic. The first time I saw him after his stroke which was maybe an hour,he was lying in his hospital bed. I knew from the doctors that he had suffered total left paralysis but he still looked like my dad, and he looked happy to see me. And I thought well this is not too bad, we can deal with this,that is until he opened his mouth to speak to me and all that came out was garble. I don't know who was more shocked, him or me. He tried again and again to talk and still nothing came out but this garble that made absolutely no sense. The harder he tried to talk to me the worse it got and then all of sudden he exploded with one explosive word - SHIT -. We looked at each other stunned and then together we laughed. Over the next few days we attempted unsuccessfully to communicate with each other only to get more and more frustrated. Not having the nursing skills I have today and not having been exposed to anything like this before, I was at a complete loss as to what to do. I approached the nurses there for help. They suggested cue cards and hand motions. So I set to work and made cue cards for just about every emotion and expression I could think of that would help us communicate. Surprisingly, my dad was able to use these cards to answer almost any of my questions.And made him feel like he was participating in the conversation. It's amazing how much you can say with so few words. We also developed some hand signals to aid us in our conversations, our favourite being one hand over the heart and the other hand pointing at the other person. I love you. Although in my dad's case, his signals were all one handed but the message came across loud and clear. We carried on this way having some great 'talks', happy that we had conquered our communication barrier, until one day my dad suffered another stroke and I had to say goodbye.
Being a nurse now, I often think of my dad when faced with a new stroke patient who is aphasic and know I will be okay with the communication barrier.

Using Chatrooms to Share Info

There are so many different modes of technology today, it is sometimes difficult to determine what type would work best for everyone. Personally, I find chatroom discussions work for me. In nursing, everyone has something to say either about patient care, a new medication that is available or news from a recent seminar . Whatever it is we want to share it, and cannot always be in the same place together due to shift work and/or personal committments. Chatrooms offer the ability to share information on a somewhat personal level without actually being together. Sometimes a person may have some things to say but for whatever reason is unable to speak up in front of a group of people; chatrooms offer that person the opportunity share his/her
information with a level of comfort.

Nursing Shortage

Everyone talks about the nursing shortage. I found this video clip on You Tube and thought I would share it. I found it interesting yet a little disturbing.