I DO know something!

Here's a few things I've come to realize that I know in the last week and this knowledge has made me feel a little more grown up, confident in myself, and helped me get through the increasingly hectic schedule.

#1 Using a Hoyer Lift, moving big patients, basically life as a nursing home worker
I keep saying that I want warm weather to come back so the patients will start getting better and going home instead of staying FOREVER. We've had bypass patients that usually stay 4 days staying 3 weeks. Last week we had a huge man who couldn't stand up or move on his own and 6 of us undertook getting him back to bed. The "junior" member of the group, (I've been there two years, but still feel junior on the whole...) I just kinda stood there and listened while they discussed how we were going to get a 240 lb man back from the chair to the bed... all 6 of us. None of them had used a Hoyer lift before, I used to use one all the time in the nursing home. I knew we couldn't use it to get him BACK to bed, it has to already be on the guy. But I did demonstrate how to use the harness, strapping myself up in the hall, which they found highly entertaining. I was aghast that none of them had used one before. Eventually a nurse from downstairs came up and put her arms behind him in a bear hug and quickly moved him from the chair to the bed pretty much by herself. The rest of the nurses were aghast in amazement. But that's the way I moved nursing home patients by myself all the time. If I'd thought we could move a surgery patient like that without the family getting mad I would have gotten them to do it without the other nurse. The trick is you have to move fast so you don't lose the momentum, the patient doesn't get scared, and you injure your back as little as possible. So my lesson for this week was... every specialty of nursing has its own body of knowledge. If you have worked in a particular area (like the nursing home) chances are you know more than other nurses who haven't.

#2 How to play a giant tracker organ... well, more than a few other people...
Sabbath I played the organ for Evensong, the closing the Sabbath program. I think I must get more and more calm and confident as those around me get more nervous. The fact that the other girl who was playing was more nervous than I was and was asking me questions about what stops to pull and what to do when helped to put me at ease. Maybe it's something about feeling like you know what you're doing. That organ is so formidible and there are so many people around here that know what it's supposed to sound like that it's a little scary to play it. Especially when you're on the RADIO and there are 50 people listening in complete silence. It's very nice that your back is to them and it's like they aren't even there. I played Fugue in G and made it through the whole thing without derailing. This is a real accomplishment, it's probably the hardest thing I've learned to play in my life and it's taken me 9 months to learn. Now I have the opening measures going through my head all the time. It was nice to know what to answer when Karissa asked me questions about what stops she should pull and what to do with the hymn. I DO know something about that organ, believe it or not. Next stop: playing for church... grits teeth...

#3 How to diagnose problems in old vehicles (OR something I wish I didn't know OR how to say goodbye to money very quickly)
Having owned two oldish vehicles now, I am beginning to realize that several things WILL break on a vehicle of over say... 70,000 miles. A) airconditiong B) belts C) axles D) brakes E) starters. Thankfully, clutches have not been included in this although that is a general rule of old cars. I attribute my superior stick shift driving to this phenomenon. *cough cough* In the last week I'd noticed (and Carrie pointed it out on Sabbath) that my right front end popped when I cranked my wheel hard backing out of parking spaces. I thought it had something to do with the noise my belt has been making when it's really really cold (something I had fixed this past summer). I took my car to get the oil changed yesterday and found both front axles needed replacing. Should have known better, that's what it felt like when the blue car did this but hey, I was trying to deny it since I still have brakes and rotors to replace. So now, $514 later, my car turns better than it has since I got it.

In other news, clinicals start this week so that extra free time I had is out the window. I don't know which looks worse, going to Moccasin Bend or doing Pap smears... I think I'd like to do neither...