Traci and I have both been asked numerous times what it is like to work at the hospital and what it is like in law school. So we came up with the idea to write this section called, “A Day in the Life of the Mellor’s”. Traci will write up what she does from day to day at the hospital generally, and I will write what it is like on a day to day basis at law school. After reading this, if you have more questions, we would love to talk with you about them. We just thought that this would help answer the general questions.
Most people have a general knowledge of how law school works. If you have seen the movie “Legally Blonde” you will have a general basis for how law school classes are conducted. Another movie I recommend if you can find a copy is “The Paper Chase”. It too gives a depiction of law school life. Even before school officially starts, we were required to find the postings of our first day assignments. Each day for class, even the very first day, we have had to read court cases and be prepared to discuss them. If we show up to class unprepared and get called on by the professor to discuss the case, they will be blatantly rude to us and move to the next student. We are then required to talk to the professor after class and apologize for our lack of professionalism in class (we are now considered a part of the legal profession).
The classroom is conducted in a manner called the “Socratic Method”. This is where the professor teaches by asking questions and not by explaining anything. Each professor differs in how strictly they adhere to this method. I personally have professors who span the scale of how much they teach in this manner. The students are suppose to have an understanding of the case they read for the class because they are questioned first about the case, then about how the rule of law from the case can be applied to other circumstances. Some professors ride the same student only for one case, others ride the same student for the entire class period. You rarely leave class with the professor saying, “this is the rule of law you need to know”. They want you to figure this out for yourself.
Each day I show up to school at around 0800 and stay until 1800. This is a mix of classes and studying for the next days classes. Saturdays are also spent in the library preparing for Monday. Depending on what I get accomplished at campus during the day, is if I have to do more work at home after dinner. As the semester wears on, the reading will get quicker, so that should help eliminate the time spent reading, but then some of the major writing assignments will start adding on. Law schools don’t necessarily forbid 1L’s from working, but they STRONGLY encourage us to focus our time on school. It is because it is so time intensive to study the law.
A day in the life of a nurse starts pretty early, or sometimes pretty late, depending on the shift I am working. For a day shift I usually get up around 0515, take a shower, throw my hair back, and hit the road. There is a nice part of the early morning though. I get to wear pajamas to work; aka scrubs. First thing on shift is receiving report from the nurses on the previous shift. We give each other the history and background of each patient and give a brief overview of what happened the previous shift.
The day consists of a lot of the same activities, but because the patients are different, the experience is different from day to day. First, we assess our patients. We look them over head to toe and listen to their heart, lung and belly sounds and get their vital signs. Throughout the day we are giving our patients their medications. We can sometimes give 10 or more meds first thing in the morning then usually every couple of hours we are giving more meds IV and pills both. We monitor the IV site and IV fluids throughout the shift.
My favorite activities for the day is the patient interaction. Depending on the day, you can get some very entertaining individuals in the hospital. Especially on the floor that I work on, it is nice to see the upbeat and humorous patients, when so many medical problems are occurring. I also have a lot of interaction with doctors on day shift. They come in to round on the patients, usually in the morning and we give them an overview of the patients night and address any needs the patient has. We then call doctors on and off throughout the remainder of the shift for orders as needed.
Unfortunately, BryanLGH is a little behind the times. At school and in the IHC system, they use all computer charting for the nurses. BryanLGH is in the process of changing over to the computer system, but it cannot be an immediate change. The floor I work on is still using paper charting. That was one of the most challenging adjustments I have had to make so far. I think I am getting the hang of it, but I still can’t wait until we have computer charting again! It seems to be a little quicker althought paper charting is giving me great experience on how to properly word things.
I know that it was inspired that I was hired on the Renal Floor of the hospital. The nurses I work with are very friendly and accepting of a new graduate to their floor. They have been very supportive and willing to answer any questions that I have. They are a great bunch of nurses. I LOVE being a nurse and being able to finally start my nursing career. I hope to go back to school next year to start working on my Bachelors 