Study Break or prevention of pressure ulcers

I have been studying all weekend for a test Monday and another one Tuesday. However I did take many breaks.  Yesterday I spent a couple of hours communing with my roses.  They have been quite neglected these last couple of months but they are still producing abundant blooms and making hips like crazy.  I pruned and deadheaded them, got them back into shape.  I got to see how well some of the new bushes we put in last season are really taking off this year, and that there are a couple of bushes that are still looking weak and spindly in spite of the good pruning they got in February.  They may need to go, and make room for some new ones this fall.  One thing about gardening is that you have to be ruthless sometimes, if it doesn't produce and look good with the level of care I can provide, it gets pulled out and replaced.  I do give them a good long time to come around and produce, but I can't wait forever.  I took a nice long study break today to wander around the garden and harvest some flowers to brighten up the inside of the house.  Brian has spent a lot of effort this year to grow some of these from seed for our butterfly patch and cutting garden.  When I spend hours in front of the computer and under two gigantic textbooks (each one is 2000 pages) I need to get up and walk around in the fresh air and breathe in the fragrance of flowers.  I picked a whole basket of asters, cosmos, hydrangeas and others that I don't know the names of and arranged them in vases to set around the house.  I put one on my study table too, so I just need to glance up from my computer screen and see the explosion of color.  

We have a big test tomorrow in Managing Care of Adults.  It covers wound care, diabetes, seizures, eye and ear diseases, problems with immobility, and the nursing process.  It really is a huge amount of material.  As I  read about pressure ulcers and look at the slides of how they look at various stages, I beg

in to squirm in my chair and wonder how long it takes for one to form if I am immobilized in front of my books.  I feel my ischial tuberosity press on the thin little pillow on the chair and I quickly leap up and make sure I don't have any red non-blanching areas forming on my skin!  I also have been so attached to my computer; taking notes, doing online tutorials and quizzes, trading questions and tips with my study group that I dream of having an IV pole with my computer on it to drag around with me wherever I go.  It has become a lifeline feeding me facts, testing my knowledge, and allowing me to reach out to my new friends.  We also have a lab practical on Tuesday; a head to toe assessment in 30 minutes.  I'll practice that after tomorrows test.  

This week we were in the hospital for our clinical rotation taking care of our first patient. My first patient was a very sweet man with cellulitis of the right leg. We spent the first day shadowing the nurse, learning where supplies are, how the medication cart works, what the routine for the day is.  We got our patient and researched all their medications, and their diagnosis.  Then the next day we did the assessment on them, I gave mine a bed bath and changed his bed, gave him his subQ heparin injection, hung some IV's, counted his I & O's and spent lots of time talking to him about his family and history.  I also got to observe the placement of a foley catheter on one patient and do the removal of one on another patient!  Wow, a lot of new things for the first couple of days.  I learned a lot just listening to the nurses and watching them deal with the problems that came up. And there were many. We never stopped, and it was hard to take time for lunch except that I was starving!  I loved the whole process.  The patients were willing to have us students work with them and mine even asked if he could come to my graduation! I can see that this is where the major portion of our learning will take place.  It is exciting to see the things we are learning about in the books, right in front of us.  The whole nursing process is beginning to make sense, constant assessment of the patient and trying to come up with ways to make them comfortable at the same time providing what they need for their healing.  I am going to like this job!

Well, back to the books, a little more review before bed.