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Sunday, April 7, 2013

First 2 weeks on the job

Hello everyone,
    I  have been asked by family members and friends about my new job. So, I wanted to put up an update for everyone out there. I started on March 26th. I thought the best way to do this was post the questions I have gotten and just answer them in a Q/A format. 

     What do I do?  I take care of post-operative orthopedic patients on the inpatient floor of a hospital. Basically, after someone has surgery either a hip replacement or knee replacement etc I take care of them until they are stable enough to go home. 
This means I monitor their pain level, fluids, make sure they are progressing as they should and look out for really bad complications to surgery (ie a blood clot in the lung or leg, pneumonia etc). I also prepare the patient for what is to come in the following months and days with us at the hospital.  This all starts when I see them in the PACU (where patients go to right after surgery). Patients stay in the PACU until we see them and note they are stable enough to go to their rooms on our inpatient floor. I mostly take care of patients on the inpatient floor of the hospital. Each morning the patient care team does rounds (go as a group to see patients) with someone from social services, physical therapy, billing, and the doctor who did the surgery so that the patient can ask us questions. At the end we ask if they are comfortable and if there is anything they need from us to make their stay better.  Usually patients stay with us 3 days unless there are complications. 


     What times do I work? My regular schedule will be thurs, frid, and sunday nights 7p-7a starting in May.  However, right now I am in training so I am doing day shifts for the first 3 weeks so tues-friday 7a-4p. My last week of training I will be on night shift tues-thur 7p-7a. 

     How were my first two weeks? I love it so far. I really like the people I work with. I mostly work with other PAs but the nurses and doctors have been really nice. I am in training so I have been going around with different people on my team seeing patients which is nice because I can see how each person evaluates a patient. The doctors are really nice to the patients and they like to teach us.  During this past 2 weeks I have slowly become more independent.  The last few days I saw and wrote progress notes on a few patients by myself and followed them through out the day. Constantly throughout the day I am asked questions by nurses. So, they would ask me, this patient looks like they are spiking a fever what do you want do and I will put in an order for something.  This was both very nerve wracking and awesome at the same time. On the one hand, I am trusted in the care of this person and I know I am competent to do so. On the other hand, I graduated in July and this is the first time I am working NOT being a student so stepping up and being in charge is a new thing for me.  

     So, all in all a great week. I am becoming more confident each day and getting used to electronic medical records.  All the patients seem to love us which is nice.  This group really does put the patient first.  I could never really see myself in school pursuing orthopedics or inpatient medicine. I always thought I would go into family medicine or pediatrics, but I really love this job so far. I hope that continues as I transition from day shift to night shift over the next few weeks of training.