Random tidbits from Salisbury

Between puffs of a cigarette a patient told me he likes his blood sugar between 200 and 300. I didn’t really know how to respond. He obviously has his own ideas about his health. He has always been very pleasant when I talk to him, but I have heard and read notes suggesting that he is not always so angelic. I don’t think he would be very receptive to education.

I spoke with Laura yesterday, and it made me excited to get back to Chapel Hill and to hear about everyone’s experiences. I think we are all having very different ones. An example of a difference is that there are 4 ICU’s at Laura’s hospital and mine only has 6 ICU beds! I haven’t seen any trauma patients and I do not think that I will. I don’t get the sense that the VA has many. I am spending the next two weeks in long-term care and definitely will not see any there. It was also nice talking with her because she gave me some useful education tips. I am definitely struggling with my patient educations.

Yesterday I worked on my Special Project, which is to help the VA transition to the NCP. I have been assigned the duty of drafting a NCP Note template for them to use for their Comprehensive Assessments. I have been talking with a few other ladies about the project, but yesterday was my first attempt at actually creating the template. We use templates for almost all of our notes, and the VA currently uses the SOAP format for their comprehensive assessments. It was very quiet at the hospital yesterday, but it was nice to be able to work without interruptions.