Cardiopulmanary

Learning Report
1. My responsibilities included asking questions and listening to stories.
2. I learned the difference between entubation and tracking.
    I learned how you put the entubation tube in.
3. The best thing that happened was that the nurse I followed was extremely willing to teach and was great at telling her stories so I understood.
4. The worst thing that happened this week was that I did not get to interact with any patients or see any procedures done.
5. This week was fair, because it was one of the most interesting units for me, but it was not good becasue I did not see anything.

Experience Report

Technology- I observed their technology of their computers and their charting program. Other than that I was told of the technology of an EKG and an ECMO.

Diagnostic procedures- I was told about an aterial blood gas test that measures the oxygen level in the blood. I was also told about an EKG that would measure and document the heart rhythm.

Therapeutic procedures- I was told about three different resperatory thereputic procedures; entubation, tracking and non-invasive ventilation. I was also told about the importance of oral health while a patient is entubated. CPR would also be one of the therapeutic procedures in this unit.

Diseases- The only disease I observed and was told about was pnemonia.  I was also told about this one condition where there was a mass on the vocal cords which caused complications while entubating, this was not common but one of the nurses had observed it but did not remember the name for it.

Medical Terminology-

• EKG- Electrocadiogram
• ABG- Arteial blood gas
• ECMO- Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation

 Experiance Journal
I. When I walked into the cardiopulmanary unit it was extremely calm and quiet, that was because nothing was going on in this area. One of the nurces walked me up to the meeting area for the resperatiory nurses and in there, there was more noise beacaue of all the nurses on breakfast break that sat in there and talked. This room had bright lightning and smelled like food and coffee. When you walked out of that room you came to the ICU and in there it was quiet and dimmer lightning. It also smelled sterile in there because of all the cleaning they have to do for of all the high infection risks on those patients. 

II. I did not observe any of the staffs skills but from their stories and their ablitlity to explain things for me, I believe they have great medical skills. I talked to them about soft skills and they gave real like examples with the patients they had now, so to them it was important to have those skills. I did observe the dynamic of the staff and it seemed great, it seemed like all of them got along and was able to help each other with all their daily tasks.

III.  I learned that an entubation is when a tube goes down the patients throat into their lungs and forces oxygen into them to help the patient breath. I  also learned that tracking is to help the patient breath, but is a tube that is surgically put into the throat, this means that the patient does not have anything in their mouth. A non-invasive ventilator is yet anithing thing that helps a patient breath but it is in a form of a mask that forces oxygen at a high pressure. I was also told how important oral care is while the patient is entubated, so the nurses do oral care once every shift. I also learned that an ECMO is a bypass machine that takes the blood out of the body and filters in and then give it back to the body, this is to help when the heart and lungs do not function as they should. 

IV. Even though I did not observe anything in this rotation I think I learned the most in it. I think this is the most interesting unit I have been to so far, because this is the unit I believe I want to work at in the future. I also followed the best nurse that I have so far, she actually wanted to teach and that was much appreciated. I had a lot of fun this week in cardiopulmanary.