I Left My Heart....in Class?

Well, the torturous Cardiac Cath Class is over. Yippee!!! Although I was worried about the test, (previous class said it was HARD!) it was surprisingly tolerable. I can't say it was easy, but not near what I expected. I made a B on the test, for which I am thankful. The test is 50% of my final grade. The other 50% is comprised of class projects (so far 100 on those) and our group effort Concept Board. The Concept Board is used for staff education and orientation of new employees.

During class yesterday, we disected a sheep heart. I was surprised to learn that a sheep heart is anatomically identical to a human heart. We were given the task to find all the chambers of the heart and all of the major vessels.

The heart was vacuum packed. After opening the package, the heart had to be rinsed so that the majority of the perservative (formalin, aka formaldehyde solution) was washed off.

Then we donned gloves and we all became pathologists. My lab partner, Troy, sliced through the right and left ventricles, and exposed the inner chambers of the heart.

Here I am, showing Troy the atriums and ventricles.

I think this is the is the Superior Vena Cava!

Taking the tweezers, Troy probed a vessel to see what chamber it emptied into. I am sure this is the Pulmonary Artery!

OK...now this definitely the Aorta.

We did it. We were able to correctly identify all the chambers and all the major coronary vessels.

After break, we did a quick review and took our test. All of us passed. Thank goodness. None of us wanted to face the humiliation of having to say "Oops, sorry, I am not qualified to take care of that Cath patient."

After many long sighs of relief, we relaxed and took a nice lunch.

After lunch, we began to put together our Cocept Board. We had all worked, at home, on our specific part. My part was "Nursing Assessment Post-Cath." We used a tri-fold board and organized our contributions on it.

It all came together, and this is our finished concept Board, along with 6 very happy RNs.