By Syceria Stephens SN

I'm am currently a senior nursing student and this semester I was privileged to have taken care of an 83 year old man in the ICU/CCU who was admitted for respiratory failure. I took care of him for six consecutive weeks every Wednesday and Friday and this experience that Ii had was the best. He helped me learn so much and he doesn't even know it. This is the first time that i really felt like a nurse and things were starting to come to together for me. I learned time management, charting, I.V's, how to work a ventilator, medication administration, and I got the actual feel of how important continuity of care is. This was the most that I have ever done in my first two years of nursing school combined. I was very happy with my rotation The only unfortunate thing was I didn't get a chance to work on my therapeutic communication because he was very lethargic and had a history of dementia and Alzheimer's. So i never spoke to him not even once and I wish I could have even heard what his voice sounded like because spending so much time with him I felt really connected to him. But in the end he was extubated after I left and is doing well as I have heard from my classmate and he was transferred to a step down unit. My instructor was also excellent because he was not hovering over me the whole time and drilling me with question. ICU is the best and I think every nursing student should have a least one experience there because you learn a lot.