I can't believe that the last time I blogged I was getting ready to leave for APU, and now I'm getting ready to leave for South Africa! These past 2 weeks have absolutely flown by. Let me give you a little update on what has happened since then.
After picking up my best friend and roommate Mandy from Ontario Airport, I arrived to school on Saturday afternoon. We got our keys from campus safety and moved into the lovely on- campus apartments called Bowles. OK they really aren't that lovely; in fact, they were pretty dirty and lacking heated water. Additionally, we had 4 girls in a 1 bed/1 bath and onl
y 3 beds, so we were hurting for space. Unfortunately, we didn't really have time to think about any of that because we had to be at class at 6PM. Our orientation to the course was pretty overwhelming, so by the time we got back to our apartment later that night, we were all a little stressed (to say the least). Since we didn't have hot water, Mandy and I walked over to the dorm that we lived in Freshman year (Trinity) and took showers on one of the girls' floors. The APU girls' soccer team was already staying on the floor, so it was completely open. We got weird looks from the girls, but we didn't really care. We just wanted to get clean! So for the next few days, we walked over to Trinity for our showers. I think the hot water finally got turned on in our apartment on Tuesday.
y 3 beds, so we were hurting for space. Unfortunately, we didn't really have time to think about any of that because we had to be at class at 6PM. Our orientation to the course was pretty overwhelming, so by the time we got back to our apartment later that night, we were all a little stressed (to say the least). Since we didn't have hot water, Mandy and I walked over to the dorm that we lived in Freshman year (Trinity) and took showers on one of the girls' floors. The APU girls' soccer team was already staying on the floor, so it was completely open. We got weird looks from the girls, but we didn't really care. We just wanted to get clean! So for the next few days, we walked over to Trinity for our showers. I think the hot water finally got turned on in our apartment on Tuesday.On Monday, we spent the entire day in APU's School of Nursing skills lab learning all about community health nursing and how to do ear, eye, and scoliosis screenings. Tuesday was our first day of clinicals where I was assigned to school nursing (along with 6 other of my fellow students) in the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD). LAUSD is the closest year-round district to APU; however, it's still an hour away (depending on traffic it could take longer or shorter). Over the next 2 weeks (Monday-Saturday), I went to 8 different elementary, middle, and high schools in the LAUSD. I drove pretty much every day, so I become very well acquainted with the 210, 605, 60, and 710 freeways. Gotta love LA driving! School nursing was fun at some places and a nightmare at others; it really depended on the nurse. My favorite schools were the ones where to nurse let me take over and do everything. "Everything" for school nurses includes everything from bandaging cuts/scrapes from playground falls to icing just about any body pa
rt that "hurts" to taking temperatures to putting calamine lotion on bug bites. Basically, there are very few serious injuries in school nursing; it's a lot about making the kids feel better psychologically (in my opinion). Even if they have nothing wrong with them, you still take their temperature, give them an ice pack, or even just give them words of assurance that everything is going to be OK. Working at the elementary schools was my favorite part because I love little kids so much. I had the feeling that a lot of them didn't get any attention at home, so they came to the nurse to get it. The nurses even had names for the kids like that who came in every day; they were the "frequent fliers" haha.
rt that "hurts" to taking temperatures to putting calamine lotion on bug bites. Basically, there are very few serious injuries in school nursing; it's a lot about making the kids feel better psychologically (in my opinion). Even if they have nothing wrong with them, you still take their temperature, give them an ice pack, or even just give them words of assurance that everything is going to be OK. Working at the elementary schools was my favorite part because I love little kids so much. I had the feeling that a lot of them didn't get any attention at home, so they came to the nurse to get it. The nurses even had names for the kids like that who came in every day; they were the "frequent fliers" haha. Besides working at those 8 schools, we had post-conference and lecture 3 times a week. Additionally, we did two actual c.JPG)
ommunity outreaches where we did our teaching projects. The first one was the Foothill Unity Back to School Fair at the Santa Anita Racetracks. This was a fair for low-income families in Monrovia where various companies came and gave away backpacks, school supplies, uniforms, food, etc. to kids. For my teaching project, Mandy, Kim, and I made a Food Pyramid flannelgraph (remember those from Sunday school?) to teach kids about the importance of nutrition. We also printed out a ton of blank food pyramids that the kids could color and put food stickers in the section that they belong. Much to our surprise, the kids LOVED it (especially playing with the flannelgraph).
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ommunity outreaches where we did our teaching projects. The first one was the Foothill Unity Back to School Fair at the Santa Anita Racetracks. This was a fair for low-income families in Monrovia where various companies came and gave away backpacks, school supplies, uniforms, food, etc. to kids. For my teaching project, Mandy, Kim, and I made a Food Pyramid flannelgraph (remember those from Sunday school?) to teach kids about the importance of nutrition. We also printed out a ton of blank food pyramids that the kids could color and put food stickers in the section that they belong. Much to our surprise, the kids LOVED it (especially playing with the flannelgraph). The second community outreach we did was a block party on Skid Row in downtown LA, 
which they're now attempting to rename "Hope Street." The block party was specifically for homeless families (which actually comprise the majority of homeless people in LA because of the housing shortage and high cost of living). There we did height and weight screenings (which we then charted on growth charts for the parents) and nutrition/vaccination teaching. It was definitely uncomfortable and new It was truly an eye opening experience for me. I had never worked with the homeless in that way before (as a nurse and educator) and felt like this is what Jesus would be doing if he were still on earth today.
which they're now attempting to rename "Hope Street." The block party was specifically for homeless families (which actually comprise the majority of homeless people in LA because of the housing shortage and high cost of living). There we did height and weight screenings (which we then charted on growth charts for the parents) and nutrition/vaccination teaching. It was definitely uncomfortable and new It was truly an eye opening experience for me. I had never worked with the homeless in that way before (as a nurse and educator) and felt like this is what Jesus would be doing if he were still on earth today..JPG)
Oh one more cool thing I got to learn how to do over those 2 crazy weeks was give TB tests. I'm starting to feel more like a "real nurse" everyday, so mastering this skill was one more exciting step toward becoming one. TB is one of the most prevalent opportunistic diseases in South Africa (especially in those afflicted with HIV/AIDS), so hopefully I'll get to practice giving more of these when I'm there. Additionally, we got fitted for TB masks; it was a really long testing process where we had a bitter solution constantly being sprayed into these big yellow bags we wore over our heads. If we ever tasted the bitter, then we knew that the mask didn't fit and had to try on another size. It was a pretty funny process (I felt like Spongebob Squarepants), so I thought I'd include a picture.Anyway, I survived the class (praise the Lord) and made it through pre-orientation with the rest of the South Africa students over the next few days. There are a total of 11 nursing students and 24 other majors. We are leaving on Thursday, 9/28, at 3:30AM for South Africa. I can't believe it's almost here!!!
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1 comment:
nep!!! yay i miss you that was a really good blog and i pretended that you were still here. if only you were :( but i'm glad that you're surviving (kind of) in south africa with the cold weather! i hope that skype can work again because so far it's been pretty...well...for lack of a better word, crappy, but at least we get to see your beautiful face! i miss you and love you and hope to talk to you soon! keep us update with your lovely pictures...sampson sends his licks!
-- Alyssa Joy
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