Homework 1

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NRS 420 Likes and Dislikes

Likes: As I reflect back on how far we’ve come in the nursing program, I am amazed at the growth I have witnessed both in myself and my fellow soon-to-be-nurses! This semester is exciting for me mainly because I look forward to “putting it all together,” and integrating all the knowledge that I have gained thus far. Last semester, each of us was able to successfully create change through nursing leadership, which we will continue to emphasize with our EBP policy paper. In NRS 420 and the corresponding clinical rotation, there will be an increased focus on case management and further development of the entire nursing role.  In addition, I am excited for this course because critical care is the specialty I am most interested in pursuing, and therefore, I look forward to exploring the characteristics of critical care and learning as much as possible to effectively care for patients affected by complex health conditions.

Dislikes: Unfortunately, I am very resistant to unfamiliar technology, and am not particularly gifted in this area. Therefore, the blog and unique online requirements of the course will be challenging for me. However, with that being said, technology is a necessary part of nursing practice and I also believe that challenge is a necessary and beneficial part of life in order to stimulate growth, and so I appreciate the opportunity to develop new skills. Although I am struggling a little with the blog, I am excited for the Voice Thread digital storytelling assignment; the interactive capabilities of Voice Thread combined with the opportunity to illustrate a patient case study will be fun!

In conclusion, although I start every semester with a little apprehension as I determine how I will find balance between class workloads, personal commitments, and my work schedule, I am so thrilled to be entering the last semester of nursing school and look forward to graduation in May with such an amazing group of people!

Critical Care: My Thoughts So Far

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      Going into this semester, I was really excited to be back in the hospital working with patients. I have prepared myself for a tough semester and so far, I can guarantee that it will be. However, I feel that I am prepared for the work load and the content this semester and as long as I stay on top of things, I should be okay. My biggest challenge, as with every semester, is balancing school, work and other commitments. Nursing school is not only teaching me nursing skills but also the life skills of “balance”.

   I am really looking forward to bringing technology into our learning experience. I think that it is super important for us to be proficient with technology as our profession is becoming more and more driven by it. I have to admit, I am not so savvy when it comes to technology, so I am grateful that I am being pushed. So, here it goes…

 

 

 

Meet CI’s SURFers

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The Student Research Steering Council is pleased to announce the first group of Student Undergraduate Research Fellows, or SURFers.  Supported with funds from the President and the CI Foundation, we are creating an undergraduate Interdisciplinary Research Learning Community. Our process for identifying the inaugural group for Spring 2015 began with faculty nominations from which we would chose 12 SURFers.  The good news is that we received faculty nominations for more than 30 qualified candidates.  The bad news is that we had to winnow that number down to 12, something that we found difficult to say the least. The quality of students nominated by faculty was outstanding.  With some additional financial support from Project ACCESO and Geoff Buhl, and reprioritizing our own finances, we are able to fund 17 SURFers.

Click through the pages below to meet CI’s Surfers. Faculty interested in the IRLC should contact Matt Cook (matthew.cook@csuci.edu), Sean Kelly (sean.kelly@csuci.edu), or Luis Sanchez (luis.sanchez@csuci.edu).

Likes and Dislikes of NRS 420

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Likes: it is kind of hard not to like the fact that I have my own blog where I can personalize a page to my liking. I love the NRS 420 web page because of how convenient and organized everything is. I don’t have to wait for the course syllabus to download, or look for it through my files because it is always one click away. I am not the most tech savvy person but thus far I have found everything pretty simple to access.

Dislikes: if there is one thing I dislike is the fact that it is going to take me a whole lot of time to get creative enough to make my page appealing to people’s eyes. I have seen some of the posts by my classmates and I can already tell they are going to have amazing colorful web pages. Therefore I think I will continue to post pictures that my sister takes because I find them really interesting and beautiful. Another dislike that I have is that this was not developed until our last semester. I believe we would all have embraced it if it was introduced in our first semester. In addition, it would have allowed us to build a digital portfolio from day one.

Scaffolding isn’t just useful in construction

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Last semester I took a risk with by getting “creative” with an assignment technology-wise and… failed.  In my Liberal Studies Capstone Course, I assigned students what I thought was a clearly structured, outcomes-based assignment that would require them to articulate their personal philosophy on leadership in a well-crafted digital story.    I found a great resource on […]

ICU delirium

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The article I chose discussed the topic of the prevalence and risk factors that contribute to post-op delirium in the cardiovascular intensive care units (ICUs). The findings of the article were based on a one year period of ICU patients in a hospital in Taiwan. Based on the research, about 42% of patients experienced delirium, which I thought was astronomical given that delirium should not be happening as often as nearly 1 out of 2 patients. There were four major post-op factors that this study found to be significant in making patients more susceptible to delirium, and they included: cardiogenic shock, hematocrit less than 30%, low albumin, and acute infection. Per the article, delirium was defined as acute confusion manifested by: disorientation, hallucinations, delusions, and speech that does not make sense. The reason I found this article interesting was because according to the article, the statistics show that delirium increases mortality rates by 30%. Furthermore, I also found it interesting that the article mentioned that delirium remains unrecognized in 66-84% of the patients, which implies that there needs to be more training regarding how to recognize symptoms of delirium.

I agree with the article that delirium is a serious issue and that needs to be readily recognizable, because it may lead to death. The next steps that are needed, in order to further this study is to teach and implement protocols that help ICU RNs recognize symptoms of delirium in order to take precautions to provide patient safety. The next immediate step would be to teach nurses to identify signs and symptoms of delirium and identify the postoperative factors that may cause delirium, and treat the patient for these factors. Also, there were other factors that were in common with people that experienced delirium such as: single or divorced individual, atrial fibrillation, diabetes, psychological disorders, stroke, and renal disease among other comorbidities.

Chang, Y., Yung, T., Lin, P., Chen, C., & Liu, C. (2008). Prevalence and risk factors for post-

Operative delirium in a cardiovascular intensive care unit. American Journal of Critical

            Care. (17) 6.

 

http://content.ebscohost.com.summit.csuci.edu:2048/ContentServer.asp?T=P&P=AN&K=2010086470&S=R&D=rzh&EbscoContent=dGJyMMvl7ESeqLQ4yNfsOLCmr02eprNSr6q4TLOWxWXS&ContentCustomer=dGJyMPGqtkm3rq5IuePfgeyx44Dt6fIA

or

http://web.a.ebscohost.com.summit.csuci.edu:2048/ehost/detail/detail?sid=69570fa7-32ad-4b35-9853-8fd18f67344c@sessionmgr4002&vid=13&resultId=2&theDisplayFormat=CitationAndFullText&ReturnUrl=%252fehost%252fresults%252fresultlist%253fsid%253d69570fa7-32ad-4b35-9853-8fd18f67344c%2540sessionmgr4002%2526vid%253d13%2526resultId%253d_resultId_

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