I survived

[lydy]

So, I survived my first clinical. A clinical is a class that happens in the clinic. What it means in practice for me is that I put real electrodes on real patients, and it has to be done right and there are machines that measure this. Also the preceptor checks my measurements before I put the electrodes on. So I did two patients tonight.

I was very nervous. I am less nervous now. The first patient was a woman with medium length hair. Short hair is much easier. But I got my measurements right on, and even found them again when looking for them. This can be trickier than it sounds. The hair will hide the marks on the scalp. Yes, I make red marks on the scalp with a China marker. I don't know why it's called a China marker. After I get done making marks at required intervals based on measuring the head, then I put on electrodes where I made the marks. I forgot to prep one electrode, but it turned out ok, anyway. I didn't have trouble with the impedences, either. Impedence is what you think it is, the resistance of the electricity. It has to be at 5 ohms or less. They have this fancy box with lights on it. After you apply an electrode, if it is at the maximum impedence or less, the light goes out. So you can check your impedences as you go along. I even got the chins to go on. There are three wires for the chin, and I have a dreadful time getting them to stick on the face, never mind get good impedences.

The second patient was a black man, very pleasant, with very short hair. Unfortunately, it is more difficult to get impedences down with dark skin. And his hair was tightly curly, and it was difficult to get the electrodes against the skin instead of just on the hair. My preceptor had to help me out. We never did get the O2 site impedence down to where it was supposed to be, but it was just a hair high, so we left it. One of the chest wires (which I didn't do, the preceptor does the "lowers", everything below the chin) was bad, and had to be replaced. And one of the chin wires was bad, as well. And the right eye would not come down in impedence, Kris tried over and over.

All of this is unnecessary detail. Sorry. What I meant to say was that it went ok, even the difficult patient. Now I have to do this again tomorrow. Hopefully, that will go smoothly as well. I need to learn how to talk to the patients, I'm distinctly lacking in that skill.

I feel better about maybe being a polysomnographic technician. I was feeling pretty hopeless there for a while.

Comments

[timprov.livejournal.com]

Oh, wonderful. Very glad to see some good news.

[marykaykare.livejournal.com]

Go you!

MKK

[wild-irises.livejournal.com]

Exactly what I was going to say.

Talking with patients is something you will find easier when you're not so concentrated on the technical task.

[laurel]

Excellent!

[jiawen]

Cool! Good work.

Also, in other news: I believe a China marker is called such because it works on china. Porcelain dishes and stuff. Nothing directly to do with China, the country, as I understand it.

[dd-b.livejournal.com]

That's the way I remember it being explained to me.

Tangentially, it also works on photographic paper; it was the standard way of marking selected pictures on contact sheets.

[bibliofile.livejournal.com]

Yes. They're basically wax-based pencils (as opposed to graphite-based).

Excellent going! Yay.

[redbird]

Unnecessary, perhaps, but not boring: it gives me a better feel for what you're doing, on a level more specific than "studying sleep."

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I am so glad to hear this.

[mom23cats.livejournal.com]

hmm,,,just a thought here and I could be wrong. Do you think that maybe it was harder to get the impedences on the skin because black people tend to use oil products on their hair/scalp? I know that when my family does, things don't stick as well. We have cleaned the area with alcohol swab and that has helped but if there is a break inthe skin that would burn.

[lydy.livejournal.com]

It doesn't seem to be an oil problem. The gentleman last night did not look like he'd used any oily products on his hair. And we had a dreadful time with the right eye, which goes on the face, not where you'd expect to see oils. It's just something with dark skin.

[mom23cats.livejournal.com]

oh, and I knew you would do a great job!! never had any doubt about it!

[dd-b.livejournal.com]

Glad it went well. Note that the expert didn't even get perfect setup. I guess this is why there is such a job, and so much training for it; it's not trivial.

[aedifica]

I'm glad to hear you're feeling better about it!

One of my coworkers is having a sleep study in a couple of weeks. It's neat to have this description of some of what happens.

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

I'm really glad that the first time is over and that you did so great! It's all in some exciting direction from here!

K.

[carbonel]

Excellent! I'm so glad it went well.

[pameladean]

I knew you could do it.

I hope it was very reassuring that your preceptor had trouble too, that it's just a tricky process.

As others have said, you'll be able to talk to the patients more when the process is more second nature, just as you can talk while crocheting.

P.

unnecessary detail?

[pir-anha.livejournal.com]

nono! that was interesting! gives a much clearer image of what you were trying to do. it's cool to hear about this from the other side (i've heard about it from people who had sleep studies done).

sounds like you did a good job, especially considering the preceptor also had difficulties.

i'm pretty sure more talking will come once the technical detail doesn't have you concentrating on it so hard. maybe talk a bit before each individual electrode just to tell the patient what you're about to do, and whether it's a particularly fiddly bit.

[careswen.livejournal.com]

Go You!

[sraun]

Congratulations!

[mgs.livejournal.com]

Congratulations, I'm glad it went well. I find using the Beatles "Getting Better" as an ear worm helps with the stress of that sort of situation.