Sunday, April 21, 2013

End of semester two clinical placement

Well, yesterday was the last day of my clinical placement for semester two.
Honestly, i felt that the three hours spent in the ward every week were too little for us. But i'm definitely not ready to work longer yet. I know too little to help!



me, Z, S, A - the nursing freshies in the ward

I'm trying to remember some interesting diagnoses that i've come across for the past few weeks. 

1. hypokalemia
This was quite frightening actually..The patient's hands and legs were tied to the bed and she kept staring at Z, A, and me when we were sending her to the radiology department for CT scan. We were not sure why she was tied to the bed, but we suspected that she just had a seizure.

2. suspected tuberculosis
This was a silly one for Z and me. We kinda freaked out when we found out that the patient whom we interacted with in the ward earlier might have tuberculosis. Z and I even tried to hold our breaths when the patient talked to us. I FEEEEL REALLYY BAD! Well, actually the doctor just asked us to check the patient's SPO2 so i only touched her finger. But i overheard the doctor saying to the nurses that they should isolate the patient. Haha... I'm not sure if i have been vaccinated for tuberculosis before..but i read that People with TB infections only pose a risk to others when they are sputum-smear positive (meningitis.org). So should be alright. ><

3. TB meningitis
I helped a nurse to turn this patient for diaper changing and to change the bedsheets. It was my first time assisting in changing diapers. The smell was bearable. Not as bad as the smell of pressure sore. I think this patient is conscious because when i asked her dad from which hand i can take her blood pressure, she raised her left hand up.


4. not sure 
If i'm not mistaken, this patient either has hemiplegia or weakness in right hand. She had tracheastomy so she couldn't speak as well. Before I know she can't feel her right hand, i asked the family which hand do they usually use to take blood pressure, they said left hand, but the patient wanted us to try in the right hand. I didn't really want to do that but we put the cuff around her right hand in the end. 

I also remember one patient with body temperature of only 28 degrees! I forgot to touch her forehead but A told me that the forehead was really cold. I really thought the thermometer was faulty at first!


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