Welcome To The Real World

Today was my first official day of summer break from school. I just finished up my first rotation of clinicals for vascular ultrasound school. 36 hours a week for 15 weeks. It seemed like a long time, but it also went by pretty quick. We kept busy, which made the day go by fast. I just wanted to take the time to remember a few things that I have learned. Maybe reading back on this someday will help me remember my time at the hospital.
Patient care/dealing with difficult patients. Trying to put myself in their shoes and how I would feel in the hospital weeks on end. Showing compassion.
Learning how to drive a cart/wheelchair w/ an IV pole at the same time. Transferring pts from the chair to the bed. Lift with your legs! Ask if they can stand on their own. Ask about their comfort level. Ask as many questions to gain as much info as you can.

Scanning skills and techniques. Compressing into the bone, not the bed. Positioning the pt in the right way. Trying to maintain ergonomics. Optimize the image. Elongated vessels and angle correct. Correct annotation. Scan range and zoom for small calf veins. Pressing in for edema.

There were lots of stinky feet. Scaly skin. Ulcers. Gangrene. Edema. Amputees. I learned to look past all these things and tried to focus on the patient as an individual. Most of the time it worked. Of course, you will always have the difficult, screaming, uncooperative, unruly patient. But the good ones make up for the bad ones. In the end, we are all the same. We really just want some love and acceptance at the end of the day. I try to smile and remember that.

Now I get 3 weeks off before I start this all over again. And my days are busy already. I have something planned for every day off. But all good things since my sister is visiting, and I am going on vacation for a week. I also get to actually work a few days. Being a nanny seems like the easiest thing in the world compared to what I am doing now. It will be a nice change.

In summation, I wouldn't change what I am doing and all that I am learning. It's just a lot different than what I ever expected it to be. No one tells you that you only learn the basics in school. You really can't prepare for all that's waiting for you beyond the lab doors at school. You must experience it for yourself. And what a world of difference it is being out in the real world!!

I know this experience is preparing me to work in the field someday, and I am thankful to have it.

What's Your Superpower?

I feel like it's been forever since I have gotten the chance to sit down and blog. It's been over a month. School has kept me quite busy. I have been sleeping and breathing ultrasound. But that's okay with me. I am really loving all that I am learning.  Clinicals started three weeks ago. I am doing a rotation at a bigger hospital in the area. They are affiliated with a local college which makes them a teaching hospital and an ideal setting to learn in. I have seen so much already! It really is amazing to finally take everything I have only ever seen/read about in a textbook and apply it to real life. Being out in the real world and working with patients has definitely made me more passionate about this career choice. I am so glad I choose vascular sonography, especially over cardiac or general/ob. I think this will be a challenging career for me. It will never be boring. The cool thing is that you never quite know what you will see what you put the transducer down on a patient's skin. We may all have the same vessels, but the way they lie in the body is always slightly different. I am like a detective searching for missing pieces of a puzzle. I can see with sound! What's your superpower? ;)

Here is an ultrasound image, pulled from Google, of a carotid artery bifurcation. Cool!

The Vein Of It All

This week begins week two of my fifteen week semester. Venous anatomy, physiology, hemodynamics and pathology will be the focus of the first half of this semester. Then it will be onto abdmoninal vasculature. Last semester was spent on the arteries and all their parameters. I learn the material in lecture and then apply the knowledge and learn the scanning skills in lab.

That's the idea anyhow. And the only way to become a better scanner is through practice, practice and more practice. I go into open lab on the weekends. I stay after class to practice. I practice in between classes. It's how I learn. Now I need to get into the habit of bringing all kinds of different "patients" into the lab. The more variety of body types I scan, the better. And if there is one thing I have learned, it's that everyone is different. Everyone has different anatomy, different vessel sizes and shapes. There is never a dull moment. This is both exciting, challenging and a bit overwhelming all at once. Especially when it comes to scanning veins, no two people are exactly the same. It's similar to figuring out a puzzle, or finding the missing link in an unsolved case. I feel like a vascular detective sometimes. Just where does that vein lead and what does it connect to? What approach have I not tried yet? It's up to me to figure it out. And I'm definitely up for the challenge!

Is that mickey mouse or just a few arteries?