Tonight was my first night of clinicals for the Nursing Assistant program. I had such a hard time enjoying the class that I was having a difficult time looking forward to clinicals. The work was hard. My body is exhausted but I learned a lot and actually enjoyed a lot of it. The residents were great, very nice and personable. The instructor is "interesting". She wasn't as helpful as she could have been but all in all it was a good first night. I think all nights from here on out will only get better. I also got my presentation over with. I really dislike stuff like that so I did mine first to get it out of the way.
Tonight I did a complete bed bath on a resident, transferred her several times using a mechanical lift,emptied and changed a catheter bag, helped feed a resident dinner and various other things. There is no weaning you in slowly with this stuff and they just have you get in there and get to it. I suppose that is how we learn. Things were a little daunting at first but there was no time to think too much about anything. It was all very fast-paced and the 8 1/2 hour shift went by very quickly.
Some of the things that I thought would really be hard ended up being just fine and some of things that I thought would be easy weren't. One thing that is certain is that it took such a long time to do anything. Getting my resident down for bed seemed to take so long by the time I brushed her dentures, transferred her to bed, got her changed, gave her a bed bath, etc.
All in all it was a good night. I'm exhausted and might be sore tomorrow from all the lifting but these six days will likely go by quickly and I'll be that much closer. I am realizing how long this process is with just one class at a time. Someday it will happen.
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