Saturday, October 18, 2008

Adding to the pile of medical blogs

Yes, I know that it's halfway through the semester, but better late than never! Here's the background- I have have returned to school after recieving ONE useless liberal arts degree, heading south into the Mid Atlantic to do a two-year second bachelors program in nursing, since I've loved the past four years as a volunteer EMT in the frozen north woods.

So far I don't really feel much like a nurse- I keep thinking like an EMT. A professor will tell us a hypothetical patient has vital signs of P. 74, R. 15, T. 98.2, BP 155/85, and I'll say "oh, he's fine!" Yes, I am aware that 155/85 means hypertension, but it's probably NOT a hypertensive CRISIS, and since they DIDNT say that the patient was clutching their chest, having runs of V-tach, had a low pulse-ox or anything else like that, I'm used to thinking "oh meh, they've got high blood pressure...just like 2/3 of the people I see. It's PROBABLY not their chief complaint".
Except now it MIGHT be their chief complaint! OH NO! We ARE the people who take care of that sort of thing!

I have decided I DEFINITELY need my NP, or even to go on for a DNP. Because my classes are so FUN!!! I LOVE pharmacology, I LOVED A&P and can't WAIT for Patho. I'm sure the classes at the grad level are even better!

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