RN2B...er RN!

Well, I started my peds rotation this past Friday. I am at the Montreal Children's Hospital. Nice place, large though... long halls and I tend to get lost easily, but not as badly as when I was at the Royal Victoria last year. I was really hoping to be at the Shriner's Hospital, but hey, I am finally in peds and that is what I wanted!

The floor we are on is a real mix of cases, a medical floor. We even have one long term patient there, nice kid, lives there as he is on a vent. His room is decked out in posters/desk/computer... He goes to school in the mornings usually then comes back around 12:30-1ish. I've actually known him for nearly 18 months, as we used to take transport at the same time.

We had fun the first day on the ward. We started the day by touring the hospital and then on the ward we went on a "treasure" hunt of sorts. We were each given a scenario and had to then seek out the material and procedure info we needed in order to do it. It's fun riffling through drawers/cabinets. We then got to play with an IV pump and tubing. Everwhere we go the pump are all different so it was nice to be able to learn how to program one and trouble shoot BEFORE you actually encounter the problem on a patient.

My teacher is a doll. I love her, she is cool and fun and nice and very approachable! And she has a neat scottish accent.

My one bad aspect of this first day was that we spent from 7:30AM to 2PM walking/standing with very little break time where I could actually sit, so at the end of our conference I very nearly passed out! I felt my BP drop and I nearly dropped too. Sat down and my teacher stayed with me. I was slightly embarassed and really didn't want my teacher to see that the first day, but it gave us a chance to talk and for her to get to know me and my "needs" (ie: sit down a bit more often!).

All in all it was a good first day, I may even end up working in peds!