This year has flown by, so I think I need to do a quick review.
I still remember the first day of class, everyone eyeing each other up, trying to figure out who would be a good candidate for friend. I got all hyped up by the speech Sue gave, making me feel like I won some award for the greatest job of all time.
As the year progressed I made some pretty good friends, and I hope I stay friends with them for a really long time actually.
Anatomy can go suck a giant dick, I'm done with you.
I've learned alot though if I really think about it. I think I could make a pretty decent psychiatric nurse actually. I've learned how to really understand people, how to talk to them, and how to ask the right questions. Its weird when I catch myself using these skills in real life.
And of course theres all the medical things I've learned. Who would of thought a year ago that I would now understand what adventitious lung and heart sounds were like and what they could mean? Who knew I'd understand how to help someone based on a brief physical assessment and a couple vital signs?
Blowing my mind actually.
I've moved twice while in regina. The first house being hell on earth, more drama then my own life's combined. The second place stuck, I'll miss my new friend/roomie Erin like crazy. She's been so great at making Regina more like home to me, a place I'll actually miss.
This last clinical experience has come to a close, and I've become more and more confident in the skills I've learned. I'm sad to leave my clients, who asked if they would ever see me again. I know I wont, which is hard, but I guess thats all part of the job.
Kristin, Kayla, Kristine and I went down to North Battleford on friday to check out the hospital we will be working at and our living arrangements. What an experience.
First we stopped in Stoon for lunch. We walked through the downtown for a bit, near the river and I'm glad they got to see just how beautiful stoon is. It made me even more eager to get back to it! Stopped at Hudsons for lunch and sat on the patio, it was so delicious.
Then we drove out to NB. We drive up this narrow road surrounded by trees and all I can think is "oh my god, I;ve seen this movie before" and sure enough we pull up to this three story, huge red brick building, Sask Hospital, our new home. Old as hell, scary as hell with frosted windows that you can see clients walking behind them like creepy shadows.
The ground are beautiful though, all trees and benches overlooking the valley that separates Battleford and NB. Then we go inside, and everything is completely silent, like hear my own heartbeat silent. Until the phone at the front desk rings which I swear they chose just for the creepy ass ringtone. The secretary gets one of the security guards to give us our grand tour.
So Sask Hospital is 100% mental health, nothing else. It is separated into....i think six units. Behaviour, cognitive, rehabilitation, short term, long term and forensics. Each is separated by lock and coded doors. One unit has very few rooms, but they are all tiny, white washed, with only a little twin bed with straps on it. And in the corner of each room is a camera that you can watch from the nuses station in black and white. Creepy stuff.
This place hasnt been renovated until the 60s easily, it looks exactlly like One Flew Over the Kukoos Nest.
And then there is forensics. Its the area of psychiatry I thought I wanted to make a career on, but now I'm not so sure. Its for people who commits crimes anywhere from assault, to rape, to murder, to the worst thing you can think of. They are sent there to undergo psychiatric evaluation to see if they are criminally responsible for their crimes. Its pretty intense, this place has seen everyone you've heard stories about. So we go in to see it and immediately the nurses freak out and yell at us to get behind the nurses station. As we do I turn and notice that the patients have all stopped what they were doing and are just staring at us.Turns out there is a strick dress code on that ward, no makeup, no skin, no nothing that will identify you as female really. SO we felt pretty shitty when we walked on the unit in summer clothes. Ooops.
So we got off that unit pretty quick.
Finished our tour by looking at the house we'll be living in which is pretty excellent, old, but good. Its about a two minute walk from the hospital haha. So some of the girls I was with were pretty uneasy. Not only the hospital, but behind our house was a youth correction center and a prison for men serving less than two years. Good times.
But yeah
I spent all morning packing, and cleaning, and dusting. And now I'm basically ready to go.
Tomorrow is my last exam and then the party to celebrate it all.
And then Saturday I'm coming home!!
xoxoxo
