Nursing Home

Today for my clinical, I went to the nursing home for the very first time. That was such a new experience for me. I’ve never been in a nursing home honestly, and I didn’t know what to expect. When I walked in, I was really anxious.

The first few things I saw was this lady rocking back in forth on a couch, another lady gazing out the window as if she was waiting for someone to show up, and a  man in a wheel chair, potentially some kind of pelagic person, waiting by the door to the outside. I did not know how to take all of this in. I knew I was getting myself into a situation that I’ve never been in before, so it really made me wary.

My clinical group went into the conference room and my teacher had talked to us for a bit. She told us what to expect, what our goal was while we were there, and when to meet back. It was basically to go around, meet people, take someone’s blood pressure, and if you could, assess their skin, since those are what we’ve been learning recently.

My group of four went off into one direction, and the others went to the other two halls on the other side of the building. After walking through rooms and rooms of people who lived there, I became more comfortable. I didn’t know how to react to some things I saw, like a lady just helplessly laying in bed staring at the ceiling.

As we walked around, I met this couple. They were absolutely adorable. The man was wearing two watches. A girl in my group asked why, and he said so he knew what time it was in the Eastern and Central time. And I found out that he has these cow socks that he likes to wear! He also asked about us becoming nurses, and then added, “Nurses for puppy dogs?” He was absolutely hilarious. His wife was really sweet too. They were eating lunch together.

Another lady I met, she was kind enough to let me take her blood pressure. She said she liked my name so that made me like her even more :p

There were times though that I felt like I should of gone to help someone. This lady had dropped cake all in her chair. I felt horrible. I helped her pick up her plate and then another nurse came in to help her out.

Nursing homes can be quite depressing… and extremely hot in there. I was sweating my butt off.

We’ll see what’s in store for me next week.