Schools In for Summer!

12 hour clinical's twice a week

+

4 hour lecture's twice a week

=

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100 new pysch terms to learn

+

60 new psych meds to learn

+

6 cardiac rhythms to learn and identify 

=

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4 weeks in psychiatric nursing

+

6 weeks in Critical Care Nursing

+

98 preceptor hours in the Neurological ICU

means.....

Monday marked the beginning of my last semester of nursing school. I apologize if posts become more sporadic but I spent a total of 16 hours over two days in class learning how to read EKG strips and learning new pysch medications.

With my schedule gearing up you may notice a few less posts here but never fear, I intend to be very active on Facebook so please "Like" us and follow along this new and crazy adventure of mine.

Friday I will roll out a Linky Party for Giveaways. If you have a giveaway that you would like to get the word out about please link up with us on Friday. I will like always feature a number of giveaways, if you have one that you would like me to feature please contact me.

Also!

We are so close to 50 Followers that we will be having another giveaway soon, 

so keep you eyes peeled for the announcement.

My Happy Endings

  Sorry about the layoff dear readers, as I made reference to early in the week life has been...busy. 

  It hit a record 97 degrees today here in Phoenix today and I was out in the heat for most of the morning.  I know you must be thinking I have gone nuts, but I assure you it was all for the best of reasons.

 I make a point of volunteering at least once a semester for some sort of event, today it was Phoenix Children's Hospitals "Spring int Health" event. Today children who are renal or oncology patients at PCH were treated to a fun day full of games, sports and food.

 I give what little time free time I have to these events because when you are up to your neck in homework and stressing over care plans and memorizing lab values, I find it really revitalizing to see what all this stress and studying leads up to in the end, this is my happy ending.

These were all for the kiddos!

  If there are any nursing students reading this, I strongly recommend trying to take one day out of your schedule to do an event like this, it really helps you buckle down and study again when you see what kind of a difference you can make in a persons life. If you are not a nursing student, try it out, you'd be amazed at how great you feel at the end of the day

And heck, you get to play with balloons all day!

Shout Out!

"You can always tell a real friend: when you've made a fool of yourself he doesn't feel you've done a permanent job."
Laurence J. Peter

  Just had to give a quick shout out to my girl Lacy who put together this cute banner for me and has been supporting this habit I've developed, she was the one who got me hooked on this one. Yes, I mean blogging folks and yes Lacy it IS all your fault but I love you anyways!

  Lacy and I met in Microbiology Lab waaaay before I was a nursing student and was just a student finishing up pre-requisites. She was the cute blonde in front of me who could look stylish and fabulous in goggles and a lab coat, I hated her. Then she turned around and asked me if I had a pencil and that was it, I was done, we were friends! And I am so glad you left your pencil at home that day girl!

  For any of you nursing types I want you to read her last five posts, especially if you have any ambitions of being an OB or L&D nurse. Her recent experiences will make you laugh, cry and hopefully be better nurses!

Read her story here 

  Thanks hun, for having the courage to tell your story, the honesty to tell it like it happened and a good enough sense of humor to laugh at it all.  This is why I love you, but I still want that pencil back!!

Not your Mama's Knitting!

  Ok so if you are easily offended or doesn't have a sense of humor avert your eyes or better yet just click the little "x" button in the top right hand corner of your screen, otherwise consider yourself forewarned.

  The reason for the warning will become clear as you read further my friends. Now if you all remember in the last posting I alluded to my OB instructor wishing for a "realistic vagina". Her complaint is that the models we use which I refer to as "the plastic butt's" are pretty useless when learning how to insert a foley catheter correctly. Just to give you an idea most of the "learning equipment" we are given are rigid plastic dummies whose anatomy is kinda sorta there, just not in great detail.

Our "patient"

Learning to suctions our "patient"

 
Speaking to the female genitalia, when you have practiced on a dummy that consists of two holes in plastic, it rather fails to create a complete image and when you get to the real thing you often find yourself scratching your head thinking to yourself; "What the hell is all that? It doesn't look anything like what were practicing on in lab! Now where the heck do I stick this thing?" all while trying to maintain a professional, cool, calm and competent looking exterior that assures your patient that you are indeed competent and not a puzzled and overwhelmed student.
  So in an effort to help my instructor find a anatomically correct vagina with, as she put it, a labia , a clitoris etc. I began to surf the web. Well I was surprised and in some cases a little disturbed with what I found, so of course I felt the need to share with you dear readers!

First I want to say this clever knitter takes yarn art to a science, literally. If you visit  aKNITomy you will find all your high school biology nightmares reworked in yarn. Personally I LOVE this store! This gal is seriously talented, take a look!

Brings back memories!

images property of aKNITomy.etsy.com

Next up, for those of you gals who like the more adult side of Halloween, check out these numbers by Brittany Wilson. She has a blog here at Boho Knitter Chic Spins and you can find the patterns for these hot numbers on Raverly.

Candy Corn Pasties! Perfect for those warmer climates

Spider Web Brassiere

These look way fun!

Anyhow, while this was a ton of fun to find it took way longer to find a yarn vagina, BUT I found one! It was there in all it's glory on Into the Big Bad Unknown. 

  It was not found by searching under anatomically correct names, it was listed as "Crochet Cooter". Huh, it would seem that after all these years of nursing school may have expanded my medical vocabulary, but I seem to have lost some of my "ahem" other vocabulary.

Hardware Shopping

 Mr.C took me to JoAnn's as promised yesterday and we picked up a couple of sets of purse handles. Sadly there were no straps to be found, leather or otherwise. When I checked online for straps I was aghast to see that they averaged about $15.00 a pair! If anyone has any suggestions as to where I can pick up a set that won't break the bank I would love to hear from you. But back to the purse handles!

This is what we picked up.

 On sale for a very thrifty $4.00 a pair. The Head Design Consultant agreed that the bamboo one's are perfect for the Sakura Tote and the black square's will be used on the buttercup yellow mini tote I am working on right now.

So this is a general idea of what the handles should look like on the tote

  I think I will have to make a trip out to the Hobby Lobby to pick up some nice stiff fabric for the lining. That should give the tote a little more structure and shape when it's done.  Not sure when that will be, I started the OB portion of school and that should take up a lot of time and my instructor has been asking if I could find some crochet or knitting patterns for models of female anatomy. I love challenges!

Dressed for Success

  So at the beginning of this semester I noticed something, my stethoscope was really cold when I threw it around my neck. Besides being really unpleasant for me I figured this must be very unpleasant for it too. I mean think about how hard it works all day, then at the end of the day is tossed into a bag cold and lonely.  So I decided to make my little work buddy it's very own sweater.

  Classmates began asking how to make them, one even placed an order (which I am still trying to complete) so it got me thinking. I've never written a pattern before, but I sat down and tried to put what I did down in words.  So here it is, my very first pattern. If you find any errors please let me know and feel free to contact me for any clarification.  This is a great project for getting rid of that yarn stash, I used some Caron's Spa that I had left over from a previous project, it's silky soft and I loved the color. I also worked mine in two colors and my pattern is written for a solid color, I think that you should be able to figure out how to add stripes. If your stethoscope has a long forked section just add a couple more rows on the closure flap to make it fit.  This pattern is very customizable and would make a great gift for your favorite nurse or nursing student.

Stethoscope Sweater

Sport weight yarn 

4mm Crochet hook

Velcro

Snap fastener

SC - single crochet

DC - double crochet

Directions:

Row 1 - Chain 20

Row 2 - SC in the second chain from the hook and continue to SC to the end.

Row 3 - Chain 1 and turn, SC in each stitch to the end

Row 4 - Chain 3 turn and DC in to 14 SC  

Row 5 - Chain 3 (counts as the first DC) turn and DC in to each stitch to the end, slip stitch into the 3rd chain at the beginning of the row to join. 

*This will make a V opening at the bottom so the bell will fit through the bottom of the tube*

Row 6 – Chain 3 DC into first DC. Working in the round DC in each DC, joining each round with a slip stitch into the 3^rd chain of the first DC

Continue Row 6 until the length of your tube reaches from the bell of the stethoscope to the fork of the tubing of stethoscope.

Last Round – 2 DC into the first stitch, DC into the next 6 stitches, 2 DC into the next stitch , DC into the next 6 stitches. Join row with a slip stitch into the 3^rd chain of the 1^st DC. (Total 16 sticthes)

Closure Flap

SC in the next 8 DC’s. Chain 1 and turn

SC in each of the 8 SC’s. Chain 1 and turn. Continue for 5 rows.

Tie off and break thread.

Repeat for the other 8 DC’s

This creates 2 “flaps” that when folded will close over the binurals and hold the sweater on.

Finishing

Single crochet into every stitch along bottom opening of the sweater in a contrasting color.

Single crochet into every stitch along the edge of the two flaps with a contrasting color.

Sew a fastener on the flaps. I used Velcro feel free to try something else because it took forever to get it sewn on. I think next time I may use a cute button and make a button hole.

Sew a snap fastener on the little “tail” at the bottom opening closes snuggly like so. This keeps your V opening from gaping open and getting caught in stuff as your go running by. 



Please feel free to share this pattern, I ask that you link to this pattern not copy and post it. This pattern is for personal use, gifts or charity, please do not sell this pattern or items made from it.

Now my work buddy is snuggly and warm, a secondary benefit to using yarn is that it keeps your neck warm in those chilly hospitals!  Please send me pictures of your version of this pattern, I would love to see them.

Oh Yes I Did!!

  I had a presentation to give to my clinical instructor and classmates about pressure ulcers and how to stage them. So what does this over achieving nerd do? Build a model using nothing more than a slightly damp kitchen sponge, some magic markers and white glue. Not bad if I do say so myself!

What do you think?

Here's the whole thing all assembled with the layers of skin neatly labeled. 

A stage 1 pressure ulcer presents as a red spot on the skin that does not blanch when pressed.

Stage two is looks like a blister or an abrasion of the skin

Stage 3 is a crater that now extends into the fatty tissue

Stage 4 the wound now extends into the muscle tissue and possibly bone

So there! I used my crafting super powers to educate my classmates and you dear reader on a very important nursing topic.  Now what the heck do I do with this sponge?

Knitting with Neko

Hi All,

  I am Neko, for all of you scratching your heads this is the Japanese word for cat.  When we first started dating my husband used to make comments about how much I had in common with my kitty, so he started calling me that and 11 years later still does.  So I thought it was an apt name for me through this blog.

  Let me introduce myself, I am currently in my 3rd semester of nursing school after taking a year off to work as an LPN in Phoenix, AZ. I grew up Toronto, ON Canada and am trying to adjust to the Southwest.  I began to knit only about 6 years ago and recently taught myself to crochet by watching online tutorials.  I have been married for 11 years to a wonderful husband who tolerates my crazy yarn hoarding habits with great patience and humor.

  So what am I up to now?  Well in order to de-stress from the fun life as a nursing student I play with yarn, can you see the cat like tendencies? I mean how can you really have fun at school when your greatest worry is "Are my shoes white enough?" and how many of you can rattle off Piaget's Pyscho-Social Development Stages while trying to keep all your patients medications straight? Yeah didn't think so. So you can see that in the very complex world of nursing school that I turn to a very un-comple hobby, at I think it's uncomplex.  I laugh every time someone sits and stares in fascination at my busy hands coaxing some bit of brightly colored yarn into shapes.  I find yarn crafts uncomplicated, a series of knits and purls or singles and doubles put in the right order to achieve the right shape.

  Ok so I ran a little off course, I do that...ALOT.  Well right now I try to keep my projects small and easily stashed in my bag somewhere between the 1300 pages of Medical Surgical text and my wallet so that I can whip them out when I am riding on the bus or waiting for my professor to show up.  I have also been lured into the beautiful and painful world of knitted wire jewellery, I have a small cuff on the go but my fingers need healing time from the blisters that created. Thank god I can do my own wound care!

  So in other words stay tuned, I will posting some pictures of the projects on the go and handing out some free patterns. In the meantime please browse my resources and enjoy all the free pattern sites I have listed.

Cheers!
Neko