Today is July 15th but this blog post will only include what happened from the 4th through the 10th as I am posting it a few days later than expected. This week we rotated to the HemoDialysis unit (HD) and everything I learned here was new to me. This past year we typically would have the opportunity to go to an HD unit within clinical but, because of covid this day was moved to a virtual assignment. On our first day on the unit, we had a lot of time observing as everything was so new and exciting (and confusing). However, by the end of the day, we gained a good understanding of how the HD machines worked and how to set up and prime the tubing which was way more complicated than normal IV tubing. Throughout the next few days on the unit, we learned more and more about HD from the nurses, our preceptor, and even the patients. Along with learning more knowledge about HD we also learned many new nursing skills such as removing the IV cannula with HD patients which is a similar idea to a normal IV removal but has a lot more blood involved. We also learned how to insert an HD cannula which again was similar to normal IV needles but had a learning curve as the needles ranged from 15-18 gauge (mini swords as Mia called them). Beyond these skills we also learned about troubleshooting the HD machine, starting a patient on HD with an internal jugular hemodialysis catheter, and also the importance of preserving the fistula site and patient teaching that comes along with that. Beyond the hospital, we got to travel to see another nursing major Maddy Schmitt placed at a different internship site which was super stressful navigating the transportation but once we arrived it was an amazing time spending the weekend with her and her coworkers. Overall a great week where we got to learn a lot in regards to nursing and we got to learn a lot about pushing ourselves out of our comfort zones in and out of the hospital.
