So Far So Good!
Well, it happened,, I’m credentialed! Wahoo!! It’s about time, eh?? When I got the good word on Monday, Tuesday I was officially sent out into the hospital, NP guns a-blazing 😛 Besides the actual “work,” I’m actually quite enjoying this gig (jk)!
Here’s what a snippet of my work day looks like ,,,
- Park/ walk to the office by about 745(ish)
- Turn off my BlackBerry since basement service is non-existant
- Print up my patient list
- Strap on my work cell and pager
- Don the white coat (just call me @BrianaCook_FNP!)
- Head out to do my morning rounds (i.e. see, assess, dictate, and write notes/orders on my patients)
- When I am through, I typically touch base with the docs to see if I can do anything to help make their day easier (that’s what we’re here for, right?)
- I usually take 1-2 ER admissions or consults each day (which includes taking a full history, doing a full physical assessment, writing an admit note, calling my consultants and dictating the H&P (history and physical)). I will eventually increase that number, but for now that’s about all I can handle :-X
- Lunch is usually delivered promptly at noon. We are lucky enough to be pampered by drug reps nearly 4/5 days a week, which can be great,, or horrendous (I loooooove catered food and am usually so hungry I have trouble controlling myself).
- I finish my day somewhere between 430 and 5p
- Un-don the white coat
- Turn on the BlackBerry, delete my 36,000 emails
- Head home!
I suppose I will enjoy this job as long as I don’t do anything wrong,, which is clearly not possible since I, nor anyone (sorry) is perfect. I am thrilled to be learning new things about medicine everyday and I’ve met some cool people so far. So,,,, so far so good!
Just for kicks, here’s a sampling of some of the diagnoses the patients I’ve taken care of this week have had ,,,
- Acute pancreatitis
- Chest Pain, rule out MI (myocardial infarction, aka heart attack)
- Anxiety/ Depression
- Congestive Heart Failure
- End Stage Renal Failure on Hemodialysis
- Recurrent pleural effusions secondary to lung cancer
- Diverticulitis with microperforation/ ileus (paralyzed portion of the intestinal tract)
Ta-da! Jealous 😉
Any other NPs/ PAs/ nurses/ doctors/ mediciney peeps out there?? What do yall do and how do you like it??!
Til next time ,, MwaH!
B, I’m lovvvvvving your blog!!!! yayyy!!!
xo 😉
How exciting go you! I graduated 2 weeks ago and now i’m waiting to take NCLEX!!! AHHH!!!! NERVEEEES! I’m excited! And what a week…. such awesome diagnoses!
It is exciting! And go YOU!!! Good luck on the NCLEX, you’ll rock it’s socks off 🙂
ooh, fun! internal med?
at my job, I watch the cardiac functions and vitals of all kinds of patients: critical care, med-surg, ortho, oncology, etc. at clinicals, we’re currently on an ortho floor for our med-surg rotation. my patient this week suffered mult fractures in a car accident, which was a great learning experience. 🙂
Are you in a heart station or something?? Sounds like you get tons of experience. Yep, I work with a hospitalist group, so we oversee patients who are admitted if their PCP’s don’t come to the hospital. Loving it so far!
PS, I was an ortho nurse for a loooong time and I still love/miss it.