Personal Narrative: A Night At Seattle Children's Hospital

Little by little, children finish their meals and get ready for naptime. The children dump the remainder of their milk in the same sink where they wash their hands. Slowly children go lie down on their own. One of the TSS’s turns off the lights on that side of the room. Kayla puts on a rest time cd and goes to start cleaning up the kitchen. I ask what kind of music is playing but Kayla is not sure. Alyssa gets blankets for any children who need them. Kayla tells her the children only get their blanket if they are settled down. Seeing the children start to fall asleep I get ready to leave. Saying goodbye to Kayla and Alyssa, thanking them for their time.

Katlynn was out of the hospital after about a week and a half. All of us girls cleaned the house spotless upon her arrival. That may not sound like much, but we were young girls that lived on a farm, so being messy was pretty much our thing. Katlynn came home and we all showered her with hugs. The first week she was home we watched her like a hawk, trying not to make it noticeable. Since Kate got out of the hospital she has to take pills every morning and night, and she had to make a trip to Mason city twice a year. Today she only goes once a year because she hasn’t suffered a seizure since. There have been a few scares here and there, though. It’s been seven and a half years since that terrible day, and Kate’s doing great. She is at the age

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.

The Safeguarding Adults Board asked Margaret Flynn to say what should be done to make sure that patients aren’t hurt like this again. She said that the best place to care for people with learning disabilities and autism is in their homes and communities where they are known. When people go into hospitals for assessment and treatment, there are risks: they may get hurt, they may be there for a long time and they may lose touch with people who matter to them. There should be better ways of checking hospitals for adults with learning disabilities and autism to make sure that patients are safe.

I was at ease because I was in the best hands when my father sat me up on a table to wrap my sprained ankle after a reckless fall in gymnastics. He lectured me while handing me crutches and pulling me back onto my feet. “You have to take it easy until it heals,” he said as he continued to demonstrate how to properly apply my own bandages, ice my ankle and safely walk. This occurrence was not something new to me. Growing up, I was often inspired by the struggles my father underwent as an Asian immigrant fighting to open his own primary care clinic in America. However this gave me the freedom to interact directly with patients to educated people on how to promote their health and the steps to take in order to recover and return to their original lifestyles. My father’s influence and tenacious work ethic instilled in me the dedication to provide the best care possible throughout all my experiences and cultivated my desire to become an occupational therapist.

When I turned 11-years-old my whole childhood began to change my life went from being perfect to everything but perfect. One day I came home to hear the news my father, my best friend; my hero was diagnosed with stage 3 colon cancer. Not knowing the struggle my family was about to take on I just began to cry. I had a million things running through my head what’s going to happen? Will everything be okay? Why him? What is going to happen? With all these things rushing through my head all I could do was cry not knowing this was least worse to come.

As I walked into the Petaluma Health Center it dawns on me that it was Halloween. Edwin and I were not informed that everyone would be dressing up for the day. We ran into Amy and were told that we would have an office for the day. This was a pleasant surprise because we have been working in the break area the last couple of weeks. The quiet of this office allowed Edwin and I to work on parts of our presentation. Our main goal for the day was to meet up with Gabb a member of Vet Connect.

Tragic situations come a long way. I’ve heard stories of people dying in car crashes or losing their homes, but there are those stories that you can never let go of and keep thinking of. This was one of them. My house gardner, Jalasio Ambrosio, immigrated to the USA less than a decade ago, when Mexico was in a state of unrest. Jalasio, a man with very little education, was barely able to make a living in a town where house prices exceed one million dollars. Due to his inability to support his family, with just the income of his wife and himself, his son, Tony , was forced to drop out of school to help his parents. After hearing this, I was alarmed at the possible domino effect this could create, such as him not being able to survive in the future and so on. My belief that all children, no matter their circumstances, should receive a standard education led me towards beginning tutoring students of all ages, especially those who were underprivileged. I did not want to see other students end up in this kind of staggering situation.

Maybe I was too little, or maybe I was too short, but either way I did not make the jump. In the second grade I was your average eight year old, who always wore her hair in ponytails, and enjoyed playing tag at recess. One day I saw the fifth graders on the monkey bars at recess doing something I had never seen before, they were jumping to the fourth bar. I waited untill Kids Inc. that day to try the jump, but it was no use I was acting like a scared baby.

Last year with my hockey team, we got together and made blankets for sick children about to have surgery at Children's Hospital in St.Paul. About a week later, we went to the hospital and delivered the blankets to the rooms that the children would be in right before surgery. It was really fun making the blankets, and everyone felt really good afterward knowing that they were supporting the children about to have children. We did this last winter, I am not sure the exact

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

During my time at the drop-in center I had the opportunity to be the key-note speaker for numerous churches at various youth nights and numerous youth retreats. I was also asked to represent the drop-in center at many of the churches in Winkler by giving a mission update/sermon on many of the church’s Sunday morning services throughout my tenure. In 2011, I was asked to give the message at our community’s annual summer festival where all the churches gather for a joint Sunday morning service (unsolicited, someone so was kind to video tape it and provide me with a copy).

It was another day going to Doylestown Hospital. I walked into the gastroenterologist’s waiting room with my mother. It was like any other waiting room, cramped with tired patients, uncomfortable seats, and tattered old Reader’s Digest magazines that just appeared to be there to take up space since no one ever seemed to read them. After a while a friendly looking nurse brought me back the gastroenterologist’s office. I sat in my seat anxiously waiting to see my doctor and hear the results of my liver biopsy, hoping the results would be better than the ones from my upper endoscopy. He then entered the room and took a seat in front of me at his desk, wearing the usual friendly yet at the same time impersonal look on his features.

He thanked all of the nurses and doctors even though half of them did not help him with his problem in the hospital. Eventually, we reached the entrance of the hospital and soon enough his ride had arrived. He pointed out that the man in the car was his only son and he said to me, “In the future, if you ever have a child, cherish every last moment with him or her because you never know when you won’t see them again.” After he said this, he told me to lean over and give him a hug, and I did exactly what he told me. I was completely torn apart about how kind this man was and how wise he is to this day. As I hugged him, he whispered to my ear, “I will see you again another day either on this world or in the world we have not yet experienced yet with the Lord.” Travon, his father, and the elderly man all drove away, and I turned back trying to keep myself from

Some people have definitely had it worse than other but we all share some type of burden that is carried everywhere we go in life. The same little boy in the photo has been through worse aches than I could ever imagine at his age. Having one of your parents go into cardiac arrest on the eve of Christmas is greatly unfavorable, but it happens. It happened to him. When I found out about the incident the next morning I was heart broken. Not only because that was my uncle, but that was my baby cousins father. A father can never be replaced. He was only 7 years old. I am almost 19 years old and I still couldn’t wrap my mind around that happening to my mother or father. I never though I could see this little boy become sullen, yet he was. I never thought I could see this little boy cry so heavily, yet he was. Ever since the event happened he has been extremely compassionate and always shows affection toward his family members. Always saying “I love you’ and giving hugs and kisses whenever possible. Even though what happened was such a sad event, it taught both him and I something