Where will I be in 4 Years?

Throughout the first semester, a question that I always thought about was: what will I specialize in? There are so many different things that a nurse can specialize in, and right now I am undecided. I think that for me to find out what I want to do, I will have to go and experience it, in each setting. Through the years in clinical, I know that I will find a place where I will love to work in. Being able to work with all of the different people, of all ages will help me to decide. There is only four years of school, and those years will fly by so quickly. The clinical setting that I am going to be experiencing will be the first of many, and I am hoping that my decision will become easier as the time goes on.

Clinical is only a Month Away!

This semester has gone by so quickly! There is less than two weeks left and we will be done our first semester in university. I look forward to the next semester that is coming, but the thing that I am most excited/ scared about is clinical. Throughout this whole semester we have preparing for the clinical setting, and in only a month we will be experiencing it. In each of our practicum classes we worked with our partners who pretended to be paralyzed or pretended that they were blind so that we could make each practice session seem as real as possible. In only a month we will be working with patients who could really be paralyzed, or blind, and we will have to use our knowledge to help these patients. Even though I feel like I am prepared to work with these patients, I still have many fears of being in the clinical setting. I think that each of us nursing students have at least one fear in going to clinical, but I know that we will all support each other, and make this a worthwhile experience.

Proper Hand Hygiene

Throughout the first semester of the nursing course, I learned the importance of hand hygiene. The second week of school I learned the proper way of performing hand hygiene, and after washing my hands thoroughly with soap and water, I was able to see the dirt that still was on my hands. By just washing your hands you are reducing the risk of illness and you are helping to prevent the spread of any disease or infection. Hand washing is the single most important infection prevention and control practice. As we prepare ourselves for the clinical setting next month, I thought it would be appropriate to show a video of proper hand hygiene.

Is technology helping or hindering when it comes to overcoming communication barriers in health care?

I personally feel that technology is helping when it comes to overcoming barriers in health care. When a person is admitted to the hospital and they speak a different language, it is hard for the nurses and/or health professionals to communicate with the patient. The use of technology is allowing health professionals and patients to communicate easier by computer translations. This form of technology translates one language to another in moments. This way of communication is easier, and cheaper than having a translator come into the hospital to translate from the patient to the health professional and back. This technology is a very simple and a fast way of communicating with patients who speak different languages.

First Blog

Hello fellow nursing instructors and students, my name is Jade and I am currently a first year nursing student at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology. Being at UOIT has been a big change from high school, and it seems that time flies by so quickly. Before my Info and Com Tech Class, I had never heard of blogging before. It is interesting to see other blogs, learning new things, and finding people who have the same interests. I look forward to making new blog posts, reading your comments, and sharing new information with you about my first year in the nursing program.