What a week!

Last semester, students from the semester ahead of us warned us that we would feel overwhelmed and confused at the beginning our next semester, but by the third week it would all make sense. Even after being warned about it, I was still thoroughly overwhelmed and confused. Having one class with four parts that all relate to each other makes for a lot of confusion. Not to mention the fact that in every part of that one class they talk about "in clinical you will be doing this" and "in clinical you will be doing that"...well, clinical starts in a week and there is no way I'm going to know all that before I go! On top of the feeling that I have no idea what I am doing, I also have no idea what I am supposed to read or turn in when or who I am supposed to turn things in to. Why? The calendar is broken down by week and assignments that are due are listed on the week, but with no specific date, who you turn things in to depends on which part of the class it is for and what day it is due and readings vary depending on where you look. Confusing! I hope the "more seasoned" students were right and it will all make sense in a few weeks.

Despite feeling lost and overwhelmed, I do feel like I actually accomplished something. Here's what I learned this week:

• When taking a history you actually have to ask, "with what gender do you identify?"
• Having your finger poked to check your blood sugar hurts more than you think it might
• Feeding fellow students pudding is hard to do without laughing
• People actually agree to be filmed receiving enemas so students like us can learn proper technique (I'm not kidding, I saw the video)
• I'm not as good at washing my hands as I thought
  
• Talking to dummies (the inanimate kind) is also hard to do without laughing
• When inserting an NG (naso-gastric) tube into a dummy, it is not ok to stick your finger in their mouth to check whether it has reached the esophagus...you have to use a tongue depressor (something about pretending to be in a clinical setting...)
• It is also not ok to accidentally stab them with a safety pin when attaching the NG tube to their gown
  
• People do not volunteer to be filmed while having an NG tube inserted