Has anyone seen my rose-colored glasses?

Thursday we began a new clinical rotation. We are at a different hospital now, and we have a different clinical instructor. It's funny how a few days before each rotation I learn that I am about to embark on a clinical journey with the new meanest instructor ever. I'm kind of tired of that.

I decided I need a whole new philosophy. If you've read any of my other blogs, you are aware that I can be a big complainer, and you can infer that I've had some rough clinical experiences. (Truth be told, every nursing student incurs battle wounds. That's kind of why I complain about it - not one of us leaves school feeling like we did a great, or even a good, job.) But something happened on Thursday that gave me a different perspective, a perspective which I hope can change the way I feel about clinical.

We were just finishing up with orientation to the floor, and as we passed the office of a nurse specialist, our instructor commented, "This is the lady who will help you do any of the really neat stuff," and went on to talk about how she (our instructor) loves putting meds in a PEG tube. I thought, Wow - clinical skills can fall under the category of neat stuff. It's kind of fun to learn neat stuff. In fact, once I learn how to do something neat, I actually want to do it again. And most times, if I have found something really neat to do, I want to show others how to do it, too, because I want them to have a chance to see how neat this new skill is.

Hey! Clinical can be neat!

I remember when I was learning how to crochet. My "teacher" was sitting next to me, looking over my shoulder, sort of chuckling at my clumsy fingers and commenting on the tightness of my stitches. In fact, she had to take my little project away and do a row for me because my stitches were so tight! Did I feel uncoordinated and goofy? Sure. Was it kind of embarrassing that I was having trouble doing something so simple? Yeah! But it was okay. I wasn't expected to get it right, or even close to perfect, because I was just learning.

Whoa, just learning? Hmm...

So, this was one (among many) life-changing moments where I realized that if I view my life through a different lens, suddenly everything is a different color. I know that's not so profound to read, but it was really kind of cool to think. Don't worry, I am sure that at some point I will again recognize one of the many great injustices of nursing school, and I'll write another grouchy blog. But for now, I'm trying to keep it positive. Hope you don't mind.