Home Health Firsts

Home health, while NOT my favorite part of nursing, nor something in which I would like to make a career HAS given me a few "firsts". On Friday, I did my VERY first non-supervised wound dressing on something other than a fresh suture-job. On THREE pressure wounds on the same guy, who ALSO had a colostomy. And lived in an exceptionally bad neighborhood. In a house that was LITERALLY falling apart (wet carpet you were sinking into, as if the floor was giving out underfoot, ceilings and walls pulling apart, etc.)

I was proud of myself for doing it, but i was TERRIFIED the whole time. My partner and I got assigned to a nurse who works in BAAAAAAD parts of the city, and we, taking a few of her patients by ourselves, were therefore right in the thick of it. I'm a country girl (not in the southern twang sense, in the "oh look, bears and moose" sense) from an area where People Do Not Get Shot, except in the occasional hunting accident, or by shooting themselves. Nor are stabbings common. Carjackings are virtually unheard of. Therefore, even though statistically the likelihood of getting attacked personally is low, its still scary as hell. But I made it, my last day is tomorrow, and I'm following Hospice around, so its not like I can get into any trouble.

My Mistakes: Unfortunately, the VERY first day we had patients, our professor chose US as her group to supervise. I almost forgot to wash my hands (in FRONT of her, I'd purelled the heck out of them about 5 minutes earlier), and I forgot to make the patient sign for the visit, necessitating our driving around the block and coming back. I was SO embarrassed, and not a little annoyed, because I had given my PARTNER all HER cues so SHE wouldn't forget, then she COMPLETELY FAILED TO HELP ME AT ALL. She apologised afterwards, but said "i was just so relieved to be done with MY patient!" Grrr...i sort of think she just wanted to look better than me...which is a terrible thing to say, but there you have it. I didn't know her before this clinical, we were paired randomly. Grmph.