Personal Narrative: A Day At The Smiths Falls District Hospital

This was my first shift back from having a few days off and I returned to work on a night shift. Patient A was admitted to the hospice that day. She was admitted for general deterioration and she had tried to maintain her independence up until breaking point. It was handed over she has aphasia.

We know that he had sustained an at home fall. We learn that he has a history of pain and a prescription for oxycodone for back pain. We know that his vital signs on admission appear stable; he was not showing any signs of respiratory distress. As we look at the staff that was listed that day we do get the sense the hospital may have been short staffed. Staffing report shows there was one MD, one RN and one LPN managing at least 4 patients including- one patient was a child. Evidence based research has proven that the nurse to patient ratio is directly related to the patient outcomes (Stanton, 2004). It is important that we consider the staffing level that this rural ED as we know short staffing can be blamed for not being able to take the full amount of time needed to do a proper health history. A detailed health history is an imperative part of the care process; it is used by the staff to accurately assess any acute changes that may take place in the patient throughout their stay.

My second clinical day at Mercy Defiance Hospital, progressive care unit, was overwhelming but rewarding and very educational. Through the 8 hours I was there, I learned a lot. I engaged myself in many self-directing learning practices to futher promote my professional growth. My first time interaccting with my patient,I was joined with my clinical instructor. While in the room, I got to listen to to my patients heart, lungs, and bowel sounds. I was able to see and examine the patients ostomy bag, as well as help them to the bathroom. There were ways that I can improve my professional growth, suchas,having the confidence to not second guess my self about things to do in assessments. For example, I know how to assess the lungs, I should not second guess where to listen for the sounds. One of my goals for next week dealing with professional growth would be to have the confidence to know what I have learned and use it. My second one being to go into the room with a confident attitude and believe in myself.

On 5/21/16 at approximately 2024 hours, Officer Acosta #0044 and I responded to Huntington Memorial Hospital, (HMH), for a report of a battery. The comments of the call stated, “IN ER RM #18, VIC IS 25 YO MALE ASSAULTED WED AT LA PINTO PARK BY UNK SUSP, ADV HE WAS HIT IN HEAD W/BAT AND HAS A PUNCTURE WOUND TO THE LIP. VICTIM IS EDGAR LARA DOB 10-02-90.”

I arrived at clinical 0630 and picked up patient information the morning of. I reviewed all assigned diagnoses, medications, labs, and orders with my assigned students, and we discussed our plan for the day. We both took report from the patient's nurse and then Elizabeth presented at preconference. Kala shadowed the Nurse Lead and I helped Elizabeth with brief changes, pericare, and vital signs. I continued to check on both Elizabeth and Kala throughout the day. Last, lunch and then post-conferance.

A unique experience that I had at Norton Women’s and Children’s Hospital was that we also covered labor and delivery and the mother-baby unit. Most of our programming and interventions on these units involved bereavement and grief support, sibling education/support, and memory/legacy making. From my coursework and volunteer experiences at the University of Charleston, South Carolina, I had a solid foundational background with grief and bereavement through our child life courses, our death and dying course, our experiences with Shannon’s Hope, and our experiences with Rainbows. A family is forever changed when there is a loss of a family member, specifically a child (Pearson, 2005). A parents reaction to the death of a child greatly differs

Dr. Hart allowed me to accompany on a home visit to one of her oldest patients. The patient is not able to move easily and lives outside of the city limits. This was the first and only home visit I have ever shadowed as a student. I know that it very rare for physicians to make home visits, so it was a great opportunity for me to experience this. The visit was a routine checkup where Dr. Hart checked the patient’s vitals and refilled medications. Since she was away form her office and regular tools, she used a portable pulse oximeter, stethoscope, and blood pressure cuff. The patient was very thankful that Dr. Hart took the time to see him and went out of her way to treat

Thank you very much for taking time to take me to Green Mill and meet with me in person on Friday. I enjoyed getting to know Michael, Del, Katrina, and Alejandro! They are a great group of people and I think I could work very well with them.

Another day of my clinical placement 420 in orthopaedic unit began on July 4, 2015. I received my patient and started to research a patient history and medications. At 0700 a shift report started, I received information that my patient had fall at night shift without witnesses. By the policy of Providence Healthcare a patient who had fall without witnesses should be automatically monitored for head injury therefore, a Glasgow Coma Scale was initiated by previous nurse: every 15 minutes, then every hour, every two hours, and every 4 hours. This scale is to check and monitor level of consciousness which possibly may decline after head injury. At this day we had a student as a "nurse in charge", she volunteered to come with me to patient room and to supervise my work. For this particular patient close monitoring of vital signs and neurologic assessment required. I explained to the patient the purpose of frequent health assessment and started to work. Close patient monitoring in addition to all daily routine activities was challenging to me because I never had a patient with this diagnosis. Despite my explanation of the purpose of frequent assessments patient stated that "I am fine, do not feel any discomfort, there is no need for that". While assessing patient she keep asking a lot of questions such as why so many time why do I need to drink more than one mouthful of water with my tablets, what these tablets for, why do I need to wait few minutes after

The clinical assignment for today is in the Rehabilitation unit, where I was able participates in admittance of client from the hospital to the unit as well as a discharge to home health. This found to be very helpful see the full circle of care that these clients receive in this unit. While admittances to be very detail ordinated from the dietary consideration, religion practices, multiple questions the pertained to Tuberculosis, and other questions about who is the do the laundry

During the home health observation day, there were several opportunities to observe a variety of patients with varying levels of functioning ability, different illnesses, and different needs and levels of interaction with the nurse. The first patient seen was a seventy-three year old Caucasian female with an ulcer on her right heel. Several weeks prior, she had scratched her left leg and she also had several small wounds on her left leg. The orders were to clean and redress the ulcer. She has a history of end stage renal disease, pneumonia, weakness, diabetes, dialysis, and right hip fracture. Upon entering the home, the patient was found to be sitting in a wheel chair in the living room watching television with her husband close by her side. She greeted the nurse with a smile and began to update her on her current condition. Her heel was “hurting” and she rated her pain an 8 on a scale of 1 to 10. She also had some “swelling” that she could not “get to go away; because, she could not get up and walk. They need to fix my foot so that I can get up and get around.” She told the nurse that she had been to see the doctor “yesterday” and the doctor had given her a written order that she wanted her to see. The order was written for an evaluation for a soft pressure shoe fitting. The nurse read the order to

These may have impacted the safety of the patient. The hospital policy to transfer patients between rooms as their recovery progresses affects continuous patient care and nursing supervision. After being admitted on June 22nd he was transferred multiple times. Being confused because of his stroke, unfamiliar with his surroundings and poor SA by staff, the fall may have been inevitable. The patient had tried to transfer on his own previously and was unsuccessful. He was overconfident and forgetful. The staff in that case probably should not have left a walker in his vicinity encouraging him to attempt to ambulate to the washroom independently. Also, every floor had their own equipment which was given on loan to the patients who needed it. The nurses and other staff are usually on a very tight schedule and missing the information on the dimensions of the equipment is quite

We all have a moment in our lives where we experience something that changes the course of our lives. Sometimes it is a great thing, like winning the lottery or receiving a promotion. But sometimes it is the terrible things in life that have such profound impacts on our futures. For me, it all happened in the time between seconds.

“Come on Leroy, what is the worst thing that could happen? I mean, isn’t that the whole entire reason we took this gap year? I bet we could get some crazy footage and it would be really cool.”

Hospitals are scary, but especially when all of a sudden you pass out at home and wake up in a hospital surrounded by doctors and some of your close family members not knowing what was happening to you, and all of a sudden you look down to see a big needle stuck in your arm and the doctor standing there speaking to your parents telling them that they have pulled labs on my blood and found out that my kidneys have failed and are on the last stage.