BadgeBlooms on Etsy + Giveaway !!

Hey friends,

I am really excited to be able to share with you all my favorite FAVORITE badge reel shop. The shop is called BadgeBlooms and you can find them on Etsy. As well as follow them on Instagram and Facebook.

If you follow my Instagram posts, then you probably already have seen how cute these felties are. I tend to change them with my mood and the holidays. Not only are they fashionable, but they are durable. I still have badge reels that work perfectly even after 3 years. My collection is always continuing to grow thatI am now looking for a creative solution to store them all!

Melissa contacted me to inform me that she was starting a new line of Medical Humor BadgeBlooms. Not only was she willing to send me one to try out, but she was also gracious enough to offer one up for me to giveaway!! Stay tuned for the details. 

The two badge reels Melissa sent me are wonderful! My patient's loved the cute medical humor on the one and it really helped brighten some individuals days. The motto "It's going TIBIA K" is brilliant to keep in mind as I finish my nursing school journey this May. The flower badge holder is such a classic beauty that I can easily switch to when I have to attend a more professional meeting or event. Like all my other reels from here, they all are made with excellent craftsmanship.

I was able to do a quick interview with Melissa to learn more about her. She truly is an amazing nurse, woman, and mother. I loved that her products really come from her heart and her vacation photos. I also adore that a portion of the proceeds are donated to a charity that is very dear to her heart, the Save Abandoned Babies Foundation in Chicago. Here are her responses:

Megan: How did you start/ decide to start making badge reels?

Melissa: The plain badge reel I purchased when starting my career broke within a couple of months. Instead of buying another, I thought it would be fun to make my own decorated badge holders using higher quality materials. I started with a few designs, and colleagues quickly noticed. Soon, I began making them for all my coworkers. I arrived at the name BadgeBlooms, because my initial inspiration came from our previous trips to Maui and the lush floral surroundings. Just as a flower transforms from a bud to an eye-catching bloom. BadgeBlooms have transformed the old boring badge reels. I was familiar with Etsy, and thought I'd offer my creations online. In less than 12hrs, I sold my first piece. Shortly before I became pregnant with my daughter, the business was growing so much that I was able to see my dream of being a SAHWM (Stay At Home Working Mom) come to fruition. Now, we're selling thousands per month and I get to witness and cherish all of my daughter's firsts.

Megan: Tell me a little about yourself.

Melissa: Since graduating nursing school, I've been a mother/baby nurse and miss it a lot. I have plans to return when my daughter starts pre-school, but for now, I'm enjoying watching her grow and learn. She even helps momma "work".  

Megan: Are you looking to branch out and make other nursing accessories?

Melissa: BadgeBlooms is always one step ahead of the trends and we frequently create new and original products. We do have exciting plans for different medical themed items coming in the near future.

Megan: Where do you find your inspiration?

Melissa: Other ways I find inspiration is from listening to customers. They have fantastic ideas and have lead to many of our most popular designs. Currently, I am having a lot of fun with our original medical characters and cheesy humor phrases.  

Megan: What are some of your favorite BadgeBlooms?

Melissa: Because of my experience in OB nursing I always love the maternal/child items and choosing just one favorite BadgeBloom is hard, but at the moment I'm digging these two. The Aqua Glitter Chevron which is a timeless and classy design and, I NEED Vitamin Sea which is made from one of our own vacation photos in Maui.

Megan: What has been surprising about this process thus far?

Melissa: I'm still surprised/shocked at the success BadgeBlooms has achieved. I honestly could not have made it what it has become without the endless help of many friends and family members. 

Megan: What is your favorite part?

Melissa: MY favorite part of the BadgeBlooms business aside from it affording me the opportunity to be with my daughter, is having so much fun thinking of and creating new products. 

I want to thank Melissa again for taking the time to partner with me!! So here is how you can win one of your own BadgeBlooms. We will be giving away one designer ID badge reel of your choice. The winner will be contacted via email and will have 48 hours to acknowledge. There are different ways to enter so lots of chances! The giveaway ends April 8th. 



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Good Luck!

TB Training

Hey friends,

So it seems like a lot of you like hearing about my clinical/hands on experiences. Well today I got TB certified so I thought I would briefly go over what that was like.

So first off, TB is a potentially harmful bacterial infectious disease that mainly targets the lungs. TB is spread through the air, which is why healthcare workers wear a specialized fitted mask (which we were never trained on in nursing school).  According to Mayo Clinic, TB is rare. There are fewer than 200,000 US cases per year.

A tuberculin skin test (Mantoux tuberculin test) is done to see if you have ever been exposed to tuberculin bacteria. The test is done by putting a small wheel (about 6mm) of TB protein under the top layer of your skin (intradermal). Your skin will react with the protein creating a firm bump (looks sort of like a bug bite) at the site within 2 days. Now, there are ways to have a false-positive. If the test comes back positive, then you will be referred for a chest x-ray. 

Now that is sort of the brief run down of TB. For my class today, we learned how to read TB skin tests on a fake arm. There are different specifications for a routine test versus someone who has HIV or been exposed to TB. In California, greater than or equal to 10mm is positive for someone who has been exposed to HIV, had an organ transplant, or has HIV. On the other hand, a routine test is greater than or equal to 15mm. Of course, if you have a positive TB skin test, you must get a chest x-ray. A TB skin is not the only indicator of a direct diagnosis. 

The second part of the class is where we actually learned how to insert the protein. We actually used normal saline for this process and my classmates all said that it stings. I wish I had pictures from the whole process, but you basically pull the skin tightly, after all preparation, about 4 fingers below the bend of your elbow and insert the bevel of the needle under the first layer of skin and inject. The tricky part was staying that thin under the skin. I highly recommend pulling the skin tight. 

The first time I placed one on a classmate, I went too deep and left her with a bruise. She was a trooper though. I was able to successfully place two on another classmate, which was all I needed to pass  my competencies. It always amazed me how little I practice items in nursing school before performing the skill. Luckily, we have a TB clinic coming up where we administer them for the freshman, sophomores, and juniors in the nursing program.

Like anything in nursing, practice makes perfect. And it is okay to not always exceed at everything. You can always tell the patient, "For your safety, I am going to get another nurse to place this test". 

My Experience at ECT

Source

Hey friends,

I am currently in my mental health rotation with the best professor ever!! Like literally she is amazing. Well, since she is so amazing she got our whole clinical group the chance to float to ECT procedures for the day. It was honestly one of my better clinical moments. I am not sure if it was the amazing nurses/techs that made the day wonderful, or if it was how neat the outcomes of ECT are for the patient. 

So for those of you who do not know, ECT stands for electroconvulsive therapy. The procedure is done under general anesthesia and small electric currents are passed through the brain to trigger a small seizure. Doctors and researchers do not completely understand how the process works, but it seems to change some chemistry in the brain that helps with symptoms of certain mental illnesses, mostly depression. There is no "set" regimen of treatment and it solely depends on the patient. There were some individuals that I met who go twice a week, whereas others only went once a week. And the amount of treatments you can receive is almost indefinite. One patient was receiving her one hundredth ECT procedure. 

So the way my clinical day worked was that there was 3 of us students in that wing. One of us would work with the RN and get patients from the waiting room, take them to the room, and start an IV. As we were doing that the other student was working with the tech (not sure of their credentials) hooking the patient up their chest leads, blood pressure cuff, SpO2 monitor, and the specific leads for the electric current. The remaining two people in the room where the anesthesiologist (who was a resident) and that doctor. The last student was in their PACU room. The patients were monitored for 15 minutes before moving to phase 2 where their vital signs were taken after 15 minutes and patients were encouraged to drink something. Overall, it is very fast paced.

I found that the PACU area was way more relaxed than the OR's PACU I have floated in before. The nurses were nice, but I felt like they might have been more concerned with cleaning beds and moving them to the next phase, then really make sure the patient is stable. Of course, nothing bad happened, so maybe they were just really good at multitasking. I'll be there one day. I am sure. 

But I absolutely loved not only working with the tech, but also the RN. Both men were so willing to teach us and the doctors even showed us the brain wave strips and described how you see the seizures. I loved that everyone treated us like this was their first day having a student and was so excited for it. 

Source

I was able to insert one IV. The other patients were hard sticks or had ports. I was also nervous to insert an IV because I get lightheaded when I do it. Not sure why, but it happens. Additionally, the RN let me push almost all the medications, except Succinylcholine. 

When I was working with the tech, I was able to hold the leads on the two temples as an electric current was sent. I could feel the patient tense up right before they had a seizure. And I should mention that these seizures are very subtle. The patient is not flopping around, but rather their toes wiggle. Some patient's arms would wiggle too, but nothing extreme. 

Overall it was a really great experience! I spoke with one patient about her experiences and she said it really helped. She was recently sick and took two weeks off and could notice how much more depressed she was. She did mention to me that the change does not happen rapidly, but rather you have to sort of "build up" the effects. 

What interesting things have you been able to experience in clinical?

Therapeutic Communication

Hey friends,

Have you ever wondered what therapeutic communication really is? Or how you can go about using it? Well, hopefully, this post can help you out. 

In the beginning of my nursing school journey, I was constantly being told to use therapeutic communication with my patients, but I had no idea what that truly meant. Communication is communication, right? Whenever I questioned what this meant, all my professors just kept mentioning to use open-ended questions and employ empathy rather than sympathy. Sounds pretty simple right? Not so much.

It was not until my final semester of nursing school, in my mental health class, that I finally learned what therapeutic communication was all about. My professor had us do a process recording in which we took a verbatim report on what was said during a conversation with a patient and then analyzed what therapeutic techniques were used. We also had to identify what deterrents were used. It was a great exercise that really showed me therapeutic communication came naturally and something we do as nurses without having to think a whole lot about. My professor gave us a long-detailed list of techniques and deterrents for the assignment and I thought I might share the same wisdom with you all as well. 

Therapeutic communication is defined as the face to face process of interacting with a patient that focuses on the physical and emotional well-being of the patient. It is a technique for the nurse to gather helpful information about the patient in order to support them. It is important to remember when talking to a patient that it is about them rather than you sharing your life story. 

Some helpful techniques to help you open the lines of communication include:

• using silence: It allows for the patient to gather their thoughts, to think of a point, or to consider a new topic than the one being discussed. During silence, it is important to remember your own nonverbal communication and to not show loss of interest.
• accepting: Most of this do this action during active listening where we acknowledge that we are following what they are telling us. It does not imply you agree with what is being said.
• offering self: I think this is one of the biggest techniques. So many times I have gotten patients to open up just by stating that I am going to stay with them awhile. Offering presence implies that they are important and that you care for their time. 
• making observations: This technique is really useful when talking with more quiet patients. By offering the phrase "You appear [tense]", the patient is encouraged to describe his emotions or actions.
• Restating: By rephrasing certain statements the patient has said may help the patient relate different aspects of the situation.
• exploring: Showing that you are interested into delving further into a subject or idea. If the patient chooses not to elaborate, then do not push the issue. 

Lastly, empathy rather than simply is a major key in therapeutic communication. My professors have shown my class this clip by Brene Brown about empathy. I really think it is helpful to watch and gets the point across in a way that is easy to remember. 

Hope this helps,

The American Nurse Project

Hey friends,

So I know I am a little late to the game, but have you heard about the documentary The American Nurse. If you have not than you probably live under a rock or are too busy with nursing school like me. Well tonight I was lucky enough that my local chapter for Sigma Theta Tau International was showing the documentary as one of our chapter functions. And let me just say that it was amazing!! It truly was awe inspiring and something I needed to see when I am so close to the finish line, but struggling to find my motivation of why I am going to be a nurse. 

The documentary specifically followed four nurses who truly are inspiring. One of the nurses works in a hospice program at a prison in Louisana. I could not believe how much compassion she has for the inmates. As well as the amazing story of other inmates working sort of as techs to help them. It was really neat to see them work so closely together. I could not help but wish that I was that strong to look past someone's past history, but who knows. I have never been placed in that position before and the nurse did mention that she typically does not read the chart for what their crime was. Great reminder to treat the patients as human beings instead of their disease process or background. 


The other nurse, and my favorite nurse, was a nun working on a farm. Not only did I fall in love with the baby animals she had, but also the amazing elderly population. I really think the grandmas and grandpas are so adorable. (Maybe I will get into geriatric care?) I am unsure if it was a facilitated living facility or a hospice home, but all the residents seemed to really care for one another. Another cool feature was that the nurse also had troubled children from the foster care system helping her with the animals. At one point in the documentary it showed the children brining in a llama to the residents. It brought so much joy to the residents and kids. I wish I could work there! It looked so amazing. 

The American Nurse project is something that I think everyone needs to see. It will open your eyes up to the true compassion that nurses have for individuals as well as the hard work we go through. If you are interested in learning more about the project and how it got started click here. You can rent, digital download, or get a DVD copy here. 


Let me know what your thought were on the documtary if you have seen it,