Keeping up with dr brown

I haven’t made a post in a little while because my teacher hasn’t made us. However, things are beginning to change in my life. School is wrapping up, I helped my mom buy a house, I’m moving soon, im changing jobs. There are a lot of things going on. I am scared to graduate but also excited. I am scared to start my adult life but I’m excited to see what life has in store for me. 

I finished my clinicals for my cna program, and I can take my CNA test in a couple of weeks and become a CNA. I have a job set up at Decatur Memorial Hospital in either General Medicine, or Surgical Recovery. My mom and I bought a house near the hospital so we won’t have to commute every day, because she also works there. I am not sure if I will continue my job at the nursing home. If I do I would go PRN which would mean I would only work once every 60 days.

I am hoping I can work 12 hour shifts and work 3 days a week so I can still balance work and life. My girlfriend is staying in Lincoln but I’m still gonna come see her at least once a week, but whenever we get ready to move in together we’re gonna find a house in Decatur. 

I’m happy that all of my hard work is paying off and i’m finally able to achieve my dreams. While i’m scared about moving on to something new i’m ready to become a CNA and begin my nursing career. As I continue on with my life I hope all other students that come along and start there blogs can read this and see that no matter where you came from, what you’re going through, what your home life is like you can achieve your dreams and goals. Thank you for keeping up with me throughout my senior year.

This week I started clinical’s for my CNA class.. I was supposed to start on Wednesday but we had a late start so we started on Thursday. I went to Lincoln Memorial hospital, we were supposed to just take a tour but we had extra time so I was able to help in the Emergency room. First I arrived in the lobby and waited for my teacher. After the teacher met us in the lobby we went to the acute care and general med floor. We seen the different types of rooms. We went into the negative pressure room. This is used for people with things like COVID and tuberculosis. Then we went into the bariatric room which is used for obese people. Everything in this room is bigger. The chair could fit about 3 regular sized people and the lift can lift up to 2,000 pounds. After we finished in acute care we went to other parts of the hospital. I saw a CT machine as well as a mammogram machine in radiology. Then we went to the ER and saw a trauma room. A trauma room is a room that is equipped with equipment used in trauma situations. This includes things like a crash cart for resuscitation, a backboard for CPR and a glidescope for intubation. After this I was able to help in the ER. My teacher put me with a tech named Jade. We talked about what I wanted to do as a career. I told her that I wanted to be a trauma nurse and she said that the ER is the perfect place to get experience. We then went to take out an IV. She showed me how to take off the tape that secures the IV with an alcohol wipe. The girl that we were taking out the IV for was only 13. She looked very depressed and looked like she didn’t have any life left. She had scars on her and this made me feel sad because there are kids in junior high going through things like depression and suicidal thoughts. But overall things are going good. I’ve been learning a lot and I feel like everything is beginning to come together.

This week in the nursing home we are quarantine. This is because there are 3 different illnesses going around. There are 5 cases of covid cases, a couple cases of influenza, and 20+ cases of the norovirus (also called the stomach flu). Because we are in quarantine we have to wear full PPE  (personal protective equipment) when going into certain residents rooms, and N-95 masks when we are in the building. I do not like the N-95 masks. This is because you cant breathe and you get overheated. The PPE is even worse but you don’t have to wear it all the time like a mask. The  worst part of the PPE is putting it on. There’s a gown, gloves, face shield, mask, and shoe protectors. It is terrible, it takes about 3 minutes to put on and you have to make sure everything is on right so you are not exposed to any diseases. The residents who are in isolation are not allowed to leave, but the ones who aren’t have to wear a mask when they leave the room. For example, on wednesday, we played bingo. We had about 2 or 3 residents who couldn’t go due to being sick, but the ones who were able to go just had to wear a mask. They only have to wear the blue surgical mask but some of the residents don’t like to wear them and we have to make sure they keep it up. Overall though, things have been going pretty good at the nursing home, I’ve been working a lot which is good because of the money but some days I will only work 2 hours which I don’t like. I start my clinicals for my nursing class next month to get my cna license so Ill be able to do more and learn more.

This month at the nursing home has been weird. We have gotten a lot of knew admissions, which is good, but in order for people to be admitted someone either has to die or go home. Sadly this is how a nursing home works. You get a new resident, you get attached to a resident, the resident leaves in some way. The most recent case of this happening was a guy Ill call TK. TK was a war veteran who was in the nursing home. I quickly grew close with TK as we had a lot of the same interests. We both liked politics, sports, and music. We would talk about these things for hours at a time. I would go in on my days off just to see how TK was doing. Sadly like many people in nursing homes TK had very little family, because of this I was like his family like how I am to many other residents. TK had social anxiety and did not like to leave his room, so we would talk about how I have social anxiety and the things I do to be able to socialize with people. The last couple of weeks I was able to get TK out of his room to do things like bowling, listen to music, or even just talk to other residents. From what I could tell TK was happy and healthy (for someone in a nursing home). Sadly TK had a brain bleed. They don’t know why or how he got the brain bleed. He went to the hospital and he came back on hospice (end of life care). When he came back he acquired double lung pneumonia because his lungs were not properly functioning from the brain bleed. When I went to work last Saturday I was able to see him and he had the death rattle. This meant that he was going to die pretty soon. I was able to meet his niece and nephews who were his only family remaining. They told me how much my visits meant to him. They told me how I helped with his depression and he wanted to stay alive so he could see me again. I realized that I wasn’t just visiting people, I was giving them a reason to live.

This month has showed me how big of an impact I can have on a persons life. I hope that you feel the same and will be an impact on another person.

It is the thing that everyone fears, getting old. In order to understand nursing homes you have to understand aging. Your joints and bones will begin to weaken, your eyes will stop working, your ears will lose hearing, your skin will begin to sag, and your organs will begin to fail on you. 

The average person will begin to decline in health around age 40, but it will not be noticeable until about age 70. (National Institute of Health) The earliest signs of aging begin around the late 30s. They can be seen in things such as weight loss, blood pressure issues, wrinkles in the skin, joint problems, and changing in the pigment of hair (Harvard Health) everyone ages differently, some people will not experience these things until age 50, others will begin to experience them in there 20s. Many things effect how fast you age, such as, stress, environmental factors such as pollution, smoking, drugs. Other factors, are trauma, how active you are, chronic diseases, and how you take care of your body.

Once you begin to age, you wont stop. After you experience the first signs of aging, your cells will become less able to divide, the telomeres (end of a chromosome) begin to shorten, until your cells die. The connective tissue between your cells become stiffer, the walls of the heart become thicker, atherosclerosis (buildup of plaque in the arteries) begins to form throughout the body. Bones begin to thin and joints become stiffer. Peristalsis (the involuntary movement of food throughout the digestive tract) becomes slower. The number of nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord decreases. The retina in the eye becomes thinner, your iris will become thicker, the walls of the earwall get thinner, and the eardrum becomes thicker. (Harvard health) There are many other things that come along with aging, but tthese are the main things. These may seem scary but everyone will experience them one day.

There are many different things that come along with aging that arent necessarily part of it, for example, you will have an increased risk of infection. Your risk for heart attack or hypothermia increase, your height will decrease as your bones and posture weaken and become unstable,(Harvard health)  Your movement will become slower, and you will find going to the bathroom harder because your involuntary muscles aren’t moving as quickly as they should. Your memory can decline, and you can have things such as dementia develop. Dementia is a decline in mental, social, and physical status. “Dementia is the loss of cognitive functioning — thinking, remembering, and reasoning — to such an extent that it interferes with a person’s daily life and activities. Some people with dementia cannot control their emotions, and their personalities may change” (National Institute of Aging) (On a side note. I learned in my nursing class that dementia is now being called type 3 diabetes. This is because as in type 1 or type 2 diabetes where your body is not producing enough insulin for your liver to digest glucose, your brain becomes “insulin resistant” and a build up of sugars and plaque form inside of the brain causing dementia.)

There are many ways to stop the onset of aging, such as working out, being socially active, and decreasing stressors, but everyone will grow old one day. The only thing you can decide is what you will do with your time until then.

Peters R. Ageing and the brain. Postgrad Med J. 2006 Feb;82(964):84-8. doi: 10.1136/pgmj.2005.036665. PMID: 16461469; PMCID: PMC2596698.

“Aging Overview.” Harvard Health, 20 Mar. 2023, www.health.harvard.edu/a_to_z/aging-overview-a-to-z#app. 

Many people think of nursing homes as places where people go to die. While this is often true, not everyone is at a nursing home for this reason. Many people are at nursing homes for rehab, memory care, or they just can’t do their ADLs (activities of daily living) any more. When many people here the word CNA, they think about helping someone go to the shower or go to the bathroom, while this is a job that CNAs are trained to do, they also provide mental health support to the patient and family, help with rehabilitation services, such as, walking, learning how to eat again, or even learning how to brush your teeth again. CNAs have to dress patients or residents who can’t dress themselves, sometimes even having to move their body for them. When a person dies, it is a CNA who cleans, moisturizes, and dresses the body to look presentable for the family. CNAs sit with patients or residents who are scared or don’t want to be alive anymore, and tell them everything is okay and everyone in that building is there for them. When many people hear CNA they think it is an easy job, or a dirty job that is thrown onto the lowest people. This could not be further from the truth. Without a CNA team you can not have a nursing team, without a nursing team you can not have a physician, without a physician you can’t have specialists, without specialists you can’t have a hospital. While CNAs are paid less than 30 dollars an hour at most places, they are arguably the most important team members under the nursing umbrella.

Before we go on this journey together in my nursing career, we have to first go over some key terms. The first term and possibly the most important is HIPAA (The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996) this is a federal law that states that everybody has the right to confidentiality. Therefore, while I talk about my stories, I can not say any actual names, they will be either initials or fake names. Two other big terns are RN and LPN. These are the two main types of nurses. An RN is a registered nurse, an LPN is a licensed practical nurse. The main differences are, an RN can run an IV and an LPN cant, It also takes 2 LPNs to pronounce someone dead, while it only takes 1 RN. Throughout this blog, we will run into other med terms, or names of machines. I will explain these when they come up. I hope you will enjoy this journey throughout the next year as you follow me throughout my blog.

My name is Kegan, I am from a small town in Central Illinois. I work at a nursing home, and have dreams of pursuing a career in nursing, or some other form of medicine. I am interested in nursing because when I was little, my mom worked 4 jobs and the only way I could see her some days was if I went to work with her. During the day, she cleaned peoples houses, and worked as a CNA for home health care. So whenever I would get out of school I would ride the bus to whoever clients house she was at. During the night, she worked at a nursing home. So I would find an empty room and sleep there for the night. Because of these experiences, I very quickly learned I wanted to help people. When I was four, my oldest brother was diagnosed with epilepsy, he would die when I was ten, however I wanted to research why my brother was experiencing this. I quickly learned how interesting the human body was and became obsessed with things such as medication, diseases, disorders, and illnesses.

This blog will follow my journeys at my work. Whether it is something funny that happened, something  sad, a new thing I learned, or just what I did during the week, I will post it on here. Many people think a nursing home is sad and is surrounded by death. However, you will quickly learn that even though you are taking care of dying people, the stories you tell, and memories you will make will last a lifetime. While sometimes it is sad and scary, other times it is happy, joyful, and funny. I hope I can share these feelings with you throughout this blog.