Nursing School Diaries

Day Two

During our next lab session, every member of the class would watch and perform a bed bath demonstration. As with hand washing, I found this odd and wondered silently why nurse would need to master this skill. In this instance, the bed bath serves as an excellent opportunity for health assessment and therapy for patients. As a patient, you are lying in bed with tubes and apparatuses surrounding your bed. A walk to the bathroom is equivilant to climbing Everest without sherpas.

So a patient may never bath for two to three days and perhaps not change lying positions. After a few days, a patient may feel unclean and emit unpleasant odors. These feelings may impact the patient’s recovery.

Our instructors stated a bed bath may alleviate this and provides ample opportunity to assess a patient’s skin, body and range of motion for potential abnormal ities. Additionally patient has your undivided attention and may open up to other feelings or ailments. After the instructor’s demonstration, each student gathered the required tools and completed a bed bath on a mannequin. I realized it not quite the same thing, but you could see how intimate you become with your patient.

Next week, we learn our clinical assignments and medication administration. I am looking forward to this as we are inching closer to finally entering the hospital and interacting with patients. Injections are included in our medication administration laboratory. We all hated receiving injections as children, in fact today when a nurse injects me I ask for a lollipop for my boo-boo. I just hope that we are not required to inject each other because I do not think lollipops will be available.