Am I hearing this correctly?????
Done. Done for the semester. I'm still a bit surprised; it seemed to go by so fast. Rather slow last day though; got to follow a CNA around and do whatever needed to be done. 3 bed baths and 3 sets of vital signs were at the top of the to-do list today, along with other quick tasks. But for some reason, it wasn't a very fulfilling experience, mostly because it took a rather long time before my "playing shadow" took place (there was a patient in isolation that had all these precautions to do and she was in there so it took a while...yeah. Can totally understand that).
Yet again our main patient focus was elderly ladies who were sweet and wonderful and just wanted somebody to talk to. Pretty typical for me. But yet again I was faced with another "well, why do you do it in the first place situation?" Only this time it wasn't with a patient....I'll let your minds wander. All I could do was think...and think...and think: well gee, we work with patients who are sick and need someone to take care of themselves. We are the healthcare providers. It's our responsibility to be advocates for not only our patients but for ourselves as well. I don't know...common sense seems hard to come by these days.
Now that I've got a semester under my belt, or in my pocket, or pick your favorite phrase, I don't feel any..."different." To say I'm "smarter" would be terribly cliche; wiser....maybe a step in the right direction. But to really nail how I've felt these last 8 weeks...it would be fulfilled. Definitely fulfilled. Sure I've learned lots of skills and whatnot, but that's what we're supposed to do. It's how we take the experiences we've seen and practiced and take a step back and say "what can I do with what I've learned?" Interacting with the patients and knowing them as people instead of the label of what they're hospitalized for is much more fulfilling than giving a finger stick...ANY DAY of the week.
That's where this summer comes in! In about 2 months I will be jetting off to Scotland to hopefully study healthcare in Scotland. By what I've learned in these past 8 weeks I hope I can teach to my international peers; and I hope to gain some of what they were taught in their classes. So the next time I'll be reporting I'll be in Europe...in a dorm...by myself! But thanks be to God that I've made it this far; I think I'm going to make it. All I know for sure is this: long-term care, not my calling. Too sad of an environment and a very high demand for physical endurance, which for me=0! Med/Surg in a small community hospital: maybe. We'll see. I still have 5 semesters here at Berea, a summer in Scotland, and 8 more rotations to go! Yow! But like I said...I've got to keep the faith, be an advocate for myself and for my patients, and do what I do best; smile and take it one day at a time.
Yet again our main patient focus was elderly ladies who were sweet and wonderful and just wanted somebody to talk to. Pretty typical for me. But yet again I was faced with another "well, why do you do it in the first place situation?" Only this time it wasn't with a patient....I'll let your minds wander. All I could do was think...and think...and think: well gee, we work with patients who are sick and need someone to take care of themselves. We are the healthcare providers. It's our responsibility to be advocates for not only our patients but for ourselves as well. I don't know...common sense seems hard to come by these days.
Now that I've got a semester under my belt, or in my pocket, or pick your favorite phrase, I don't feel any..."different." To say I'm "smarter" would be terribly cliche; wiser....maybe a step in the right direction. But to really nail how I've felt these last 8 weeks...it would be fulfilled. Definitely fulfilled. Sure I've learned lots of skills and whatnot, but that's what we're supposed to do. It's how we take the experiences we've seen and practiced and take a step back and say "what can I do with what I've learned?" Interacting with the patients and knowing them as people instead of the label of what they're hospitalized for is much more fulfilling than giving a finger stick...ANY DAY of the week.
That's where this summer comes in! In about 2 months I will be jetting off to Scotland to hopefully study healthcare in Scotland. By what I've learned in these past 8 weeks I hope I can teach to my international peers; and I hope to gain some of what they were taught in their classes. So the next time I'll be reporting I'll be in Europe...in a dorm...by myself! But thanks be to God that I've made it this far; I think I'm going to make it. All I know for sure is this: long-term care, not my calling. Too sad of an environment and a very high demand for physical endurance, which for me=0! Med/Surg in a small community hospital: maybe. We'll see. I still have 5 semesters here at Berea, a summer in Scotland, and 8 more rotations to go! Yow! But like I said...I've got to keep the faith, be an advocate for myself and for my patients, and do what I do best; smile and take it one day at a time.
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