In nursing, Geoff has learned many practical nursing skills that will now allow him to serve as a nurses aide in an hospital setting should God open up such an opportunity. Specifically Geoff learned how to take vital signs, wash his hands, make a bed (finally!), give a bed bath (in a safe and dignified manner!), assist patients to walk/ambulate, check for and prevent bed sores, how to check blood sugar levels, how to mix and administer insulin, how to administer tube feedings, how to administer injections, how to offer bowel care and collect specimens, how to administer medications, how to promote a sterile environment (minimize germ exposure), how to teach breathing and coughing, how to bandage, and most importantly learning how to offer Spiritual Care.
Geoff also learned how to give a full head to toe assessment (Leah was often his patient patient) and Abbie and Keely have often been assessed. It often does not fail that Abaigael will ask complete strangers, "would you like my daddy to assess you?" The head to toe assessment is an exam in which the patient is checked from head to toe: including their vital signs, pulses, some lymph nodes, range of motion, joints, the sounds of the heart, chest and abdomen are listened to, and the twelve cranial nerves are tested. If you are ever curious, Geoff always needs practice and he will assess you if you are willing!
Geoff's nursing theory classes focused mostly on the rationale for many of the above skills, but also included introductory lectures on nursing ethics, pharmacology, and several pathophysiological conditions including those affecting breathing, the heart, and the brain. Geoff says... "Starting nursing studies has been like learning a new language! God has made us so incredibly and each part of our bodies seemingly has three names, and each of those names seem to change when something has gone wrong! We spent most of the past semester learning to recognize what normal and healthy looks like, so that in coming semesters, we will recognize what abnormal looks like." Geoff was able to successfully complete his first semester including a day nursing clinic in Mexico, learning beginning pharmacological math, and representing his class in a student nursing club.
Nursing students at Biola immediately begin serving in local hospitals for their "clinical" time, a time in which they begin to apply their practical and theoretical skills in the hospital setting under their nursing faculty's licensure and supervision. Geoff served this past semester on a medical surgical floor at Whittier Presbyterian Intercommunity Hospital. Geoff met a variety of patients, where he was immediately personally challenged by preconceptions and misconceptions, each day learning more and more about seeing people through God's eyes, and offering care regardless of where that person has come from or what they had done, or how they have lived. Geoff had numerous opportunities to sit silently with patients, to pray with them, and to offer smiles. In Geoff's semester end review, his instructor shared that often times he needs to "nudge" students to spend more time with patients, whereas with Geoff, he suggested that perhaps Geoff ought to consider spending a little more time in the coming semester outside of the room, in the charts, working on developing other nursing skills as well as communicating with patients! Geoff says... "I very much enjoyed the opportunity to talk with and pray with patients. I have witnessed the growth of my fellow nursing students, and I know that I can depend on them for help and support in any situation. I have also learned that I prefer changing children's diapers to changing adult briefs! I seem to be a bit more skilled in the former, and a patient once told me so!"
So that is what Geoff has been up to! Sorry we have been strangers, we traveled over Christmas and are now finally back into the swing of things again! More to come!
