Balancing Work, School & Blogging

I have so many experiences I want to share about the patients I encounter on a daily basis. I've been in healthcare, mostly working private practice going on 8 years now. I've done primary care, lots of OB/GYN, surgery, cardiac and now, pain management.

The pain management is so completely different than what I'm used to. Most of the offices I've worked in have been at least in some respect in need of some upgrades. Now, I work in a glossy, massive office in the upper class part of the city.

I work with tons of patients from every walk of life, many of them drug seekers. There is a nurse who spends about 50% of her time monitoring patient drug requests and other aspects of drug care. I went through a very rigorous screening in order to work there, which included full disclosure of each and every medication I take. Unpleasant, but understandable. I had a patient arrested recently for doctor shopping. She had a house full of Fentanyl, Lortab and Soma from two different physicians. But, that's a story for a different entry.

Then, we have the patients who are in real pain. Who endure procedure after procedure, who are patient and honestly listen to the advice of the physician and know my name, know the rules of narcotics and have no desire to be on them but cannot cope any other way. We have those we watch for depression, for suicidal ideation from the amount of pain and especially, how little quality of life they have. It's like the little devil-angel-shoulder ordeal all day long. And, I've been around long enough that I've learned to read people well: the needy, the sneaky, the compensatingly cheerful and the functional addict. I've realized lately how much this job is sharpening that skill to an even finer degree, which is great because:

I am also a student nurse. I know this skill will be pretty high on the list once I'm actually in clinicals and starting a career. It's hard for me to explain how I'm feeling now. I'm on the edge of starry-eyed because I AM excited about what is ahead of me, but I suppose already being somewhat in the know about a lot of things has helped put me in a different awareness. I see a lot of nurses in the office where I work. Most of them have been nurses for 15, 20 years and have all these spinal issues from being on their feet so much. When they learn I'm a student nurse, they'll sit with me for awhile and give me advice on nursing. I always love that. The advice of senior nurses is priceless to me.

And there is more. I could sit here all night, regaling with stories and talking about what I think. I hope I can get to more of it since I really believe this blogging thing will be good at least in a chronicling manner to look back on when I'm done with school.

I start clinicals in about 8 months. It seems so far away, but I know the time will fly by.