Med. Surgery 7

Learning report
1. My responsibilities included holding the patient up while changing diaper and linen. 
2. I learned how to give a bed bath.
3. The best thing that happened this week was that the nurse, as well as, the patients I met were really nice and funny.
4. The worst thing that happened was that it got extremely awkward while the nurse was given the bed bath.
5. This week was fair because I did get to see multiple of different things, but it is not what I want to in the future.

Experience report
Technology:
The main technology that I observed was the vital sign machine, this machine takes pulse, BP and temperature, it also documents all this information. The IV and blood transfusion equipment was yet another technology I observed. The computer and the heating/cooling machine for the wipes were also technologies observed.

Diagnostic:
I observed my nurse use the vital sign machine on 14 patients and that is a diagnostic procedure. Taking the BP, pulse and temperature to update the chart and keep all the factors under control.

Therapeutic:
The major factor of therapeutic procedure I observed was when the nurse gave one of the patients a bed bath. She also changed his diaper and his condom catheter as a therapeutic procedure.  The IVs and the blood transfusion of the patients is another procedure.

Disease:
I did not see any specific disease, but I did observed patients with different surgical procedure. There was multiple patients with knee replacements and hip replacements, I also saw a younger guy in my age that had had a respiratory surgery to improve his breathing. The nurse also told me they get patients with surgeries on arms and shoulders, so in conclusion most patient have surgeries on their extremities.

Medical terminology:
There was no medical terminology, this week was more interactive with the nurse, patient and I. The terminology was not there, because all the procedures that she told me about was common sense or i already knew the term.

Experience journal
I. The environment in this unit is very calm and healing for the patients. The lighting is bright in the hallways, but can differ in the patients room; some are dull and some are bright.  This unit smelled like the rest of the hospital, a clean smell. It is barely any noise, there are only some random beeping of the machines when something is disconnected and some talking between nurses.

II. The staff at this unit was really nice, the nurse I followed was extremely nice and wanted me to see and get to do as much as possible. There were a lot of Hispanic nurses so many of them spoke in Spanish, so it was a little confusing when they talked between themselves.  Other than that all the nurses worked well together and covered for each other if needed.

III. The major thing I learned this week was how to give a bed bath; it includes taking hot and cold wipes and basically wipe down the patient. This is used to clean the patient when they can not shower. I also learned what heavy work the nurses have to do, for example lifting and rolling patients to change diapers or linen. Another thing I learned is how the nurses take vital signs and document them on one machine and then have to transfer that information to their chart.

IV. This week was good, I got to be active for the entire hour, that means no sitting down. I also got to see multiple things which all were important things to see. The fact that I had a great nurse and her patients were all funny and nice had a major factor to how well this week went.