The graded nursing exams are over and I passed!!! It is such a huge relief! We took the Med-Surg ATI this morning. It was so stressful and it was a pretty difficult exam. My heart was racing the entire time and I am so glad that it is over. Next week, I have to take the RN predictor exam, and I have to pass that to graduate, then I'm done! I feel like I can breathe again after today’s exam and it is a good feeling!
At clinical this week, I spent Monday at the cardiac cath lab. It was a lot more interesting than I was expecting. I started in the morning with a patient in the waiting area. From there, we went down to the cath lab where they inject dye into the arteries of your heart to evaluate the blood flow and occlusions. Once in the lab, the patient is put on the table and covered with sterile drapes and the doctor and surg techs scrub and get supplies ready. The doctor makes a small incision into the femoral artery (where your leg connects to your trunk) and tunnels a catheter (small straw-like tube) into the heart. S/He injects a dye into the arteries of the heart and the images are filmed using an x-ray. The doctor is able to see if there are any areas where blood flow is limited or completely occluded. If there is an area that is over 80% blocked, the usual course of action is to put in a stent. A stent is a mesh tube that is inserted in the artery on a balloon and once in place the balloon is inflated to push the stent against the walls and keep it open, then the balloon is removed. In the first cath I saw, the patient had a semi-occluded artery and had to get a stent, and in the second one, the patient had a completely occluded artery that the doctor had to try to open then stent. The second patient I saw actually ended up being my patient on Tuesday, and I was able to do the discharge teaching regarding her stent and cardiac health.

This was an intense week!! Glad I made it through it!
until next time =)
bre knapic
knapic