Fall 2011- NSG 221, NSG 222, Cardiac Rehabilitation (Elective), and Disaster Preparedness (Elective)
At this point in the program, we have two classes each quarter. Each course is five weeks long.
1st five weeks- NSG 221 (Psychiatric Nursing)- Interesting but uneventful. I also took Cardiac Rehabilitation because I thought that it would be beneficial for NSG 222... not so much :)
Disaster Preparedness- This was a one day course that lasted seven hours. The instructor for this course, Sharon, is also a Preceptor for the nursing program. About an hour into the lecture, she stated that if you get any kind of chemical in your eye, you only need to flush your eyes for 10-15 seconds. WHAT? Did I just hear that right? I honestly would have let it go if it weren't for the fact that it was on her PowerPoint presentation as well. So of course, I raise my hand:
Me- "Excuse me, but did you mean 10-15 minutes?
Sharon- "No, 10-15 seconds is long enough to flush the eyes."
Me- "Ummm... it's just that every bathroom cleaner that I've ever read has said to flush the eyes for 10-15 minutes and I'd have to assume that your eyes would still be closed for the first 10-15 seconds while they're trying to adjust to the pressure of the water."
Sharon- "Well, it's 10-15 seconds, up to a minute. It depends on the chemical. I'm getting my doctorate in this and if Dayton is ever involved in any kind of disaster, I'm one of the first responders. I've given this presentation to my peers and they all loved it."
WHAT??? If she is one of the first responders, I want to be as far away from Dayton as possible. She's going to kill somebody. I was under the assumption that the eye washing thing was common sense... some sources even say to flush for 20 minutes or longer. I looked at my friend sitting next to me who has a degree in chemistry. He said, "You're right, she's retarded. I'm not even listening". I followed suit. At that point, I didn't believe anything that she had said anyway.
You might not understand why this is such a big deal, so allow me to explain: YOU COULD GO BLIND!!! There's a reason that labs have eyewash stations. Even restaurants have eyewash stations. Almost as bad as the negligent teaching is the fact that she gave this presentation to her peers and no one corrected her. Seriously? Adding insult to injury, there were so many spelling and grammar errors. Her peers must not like her very much. I was under the assumption that this information was common sense, and that surely there had been a time in her life where something got in her eye and she had to stand over the sink until her back couldn't take it anymore. If not, she really dodged a bullet because as soon as your eye stops hurting, your back starts hurting. It's just one vicious cycle.
Unfortunately, this course is very popular. It fills up quickly on registration day because there are questions on the N-CLEX that pertain to the course's subject matter. I don't know how long she's been teaching that course, but if even one student walks away from that class thinking that 10-15 seconds of flushing is adequate technique after an exposure, it's one too many. As a nursing student, I get calls all of the time for medical advice. People get chemicals and debris in their eyes all of the time. It's not a rare occurrence.
Not only is this negligence harmful to the community, it's harmful to the student. If my patient gets a hazardous chemical in their eye and I tell them to only flush for 10-15 seconds, I can't blame my instructor for my patient's resulting blindness. I will lose my license and the remainder of the settlement award that's not covered by my liability insurance will force me into bankruptcy. Thanks, Sharon!
2nd five weeks- NSG 222 (Cardiac)- There were nine students in my class, myself included. Of the remaining eight, there was only two that I'd never met before. The night before registration we had a huge storm that knocked out the power. We were lucky that we were safe and unharmed, because just down the street there were homes and apartment building that had whole roofs blown off. My laptop was dead so my awesome friend/ neighbor let me borrow her laptop so that I could mooch off of McDonalds' wi-fi and register. Low and behold, the rest of the world was there to mooch the wi-fi, too. Fantastic. By the time I actually got to sit down and log on, it was 10:01 AM. That might not seem like a big deal, but it is. One minute is the difference between your first choice and having to rearrange your entire life because you got stuck with night classes. Registration for nursing courses at my school is odd. In order to prevent students that are not in the program from registering for nursing courses, our classes are only open for registration for about three days. We get a letter in the mail detailing times and dates, like it's some covert mission to recover stolen art. Due to this, every student in the program registers at the same time.The whole process makes you want to gouge your eyes out. Long story short (no pun intended!), I had to be manually registered by the secretary of the nursing department. I wasn't happy that I was in this section. Our clinical site was out in the boondocks. It was almost mandatory that you had to take I-75 to get there, or a forty-five minute drive would become an hour and a half road trip- only without any company. For those of you who don't know, I-75 south is under some major construction. Not only does it play host to the world's most terrible drivers, portions of the highway do not have any kind of lighting before dawn. Long portions. One of my idiosyncrasies is that I think that I'm going to die while I'm driving on the highway.Clinical started at 7:30 AM and my kid's daycare didn't open until 6:30 AM, so clinical days were always a nightmare. During the first week of clinical, Sharon (who taught Disaster Preparedness) came into the room that we were in. My instructor, Molly, introduced her to our class and told us that Sharon was a Preceptor and that we have her for NSG 230. One student who lived nearby said that she would like to have Sharon as a Preceptor. I must've had some kind of look on my face because Molly smiled and said, "What's that look for, Susie?" Well, I'm an adult and I'm entitled to my opinion. Had I known that my next statement would be interpreted as a threat, I would have just kept my mouth shut (more on that later!). I said, "It's just hard for me to take her seriously. Not only can she not spell, she thinks that a chemical exposure to the eyes only warrants a 10-15 second flush. I mean, I make spelling and grammar errors all of the time, but I don't have an audience that I'm trying to impress, either. With so many errors, I have to assume that she just doesn't care... that and I don't want to go blind." We all laughed and packed up our stuff to leave. After that, I didn't laugh again for weeks. Life was miserable.
Next post- Five weeks of Hell
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