Personal Narrative: A Personal Experience In Ultrasound

Diagnostic medical sonographers prepare the imaging machine for the patients and the procedure when necessary. Once they have the images they review the results with the doctor and then help the patient understand the results and go over the procedure if needed. Obstetric and gynecologic sonographers take images of pregnant women and track how the baby grows. Pediatric sonographers work with infants and small children to gain images to help understand a birth defect they may have. They work closely with the pediatricians and the caregivers. Most people believe sonography is just an ultrasound for a baby but it can be for so much more like imaging blood vessels, the heart, and skeletal diseases.

Therefore, the life of an Ultrasound technician is like a rollercoaster, it has its ups and downs. This job isn’t for everybody you must come prepared mentally and physically. When a client receives devastating news from you, you must know how to act and make wise decisions. Having up to 20 clients a day will cause you back problems and also having to be on your feet all day isn’t going to help. This career isn’t going to be the easiest. You must like this job enough to put up with everything it offers you and enjoy it at the same time because you will have to deal with it on a daily

This past Thursday was the first OB clinical day and I was assigned the post partum unit. I was paired with Nurse Donna, who was full of information. Originally we had three couplets, with one baby in the nursrey. As the day went on and families were discharged, all our patients had gone home so we gained three other patients from two other nurses so they could go home for the day. I was able to give two moms their TDAP (tetanus, diptheria, and pertusis) vaccines and learned a new trick when it comes to giving intramuscular shots. Donna told me to have the patient hang her arm down by her side and wiggle her fingers. This not only had the patient concentrating on something other than the shot they were about to get, but it helped activate the

The career we have in mind as teenagers growing up may not be the same as we adult in life. I grew up playing doctor and nurses with my friends but one particular phase in my life changed that completely. The cool thing about this is, that I've always knew I wanted to wear scrubs for my future career job. Fortunately for me, this type of career was one that matched closely to my interests and personality type. From that phase in my life, I knew this was the perfect career for me.

Last week Thursday on the orthopedic clinic was a slow but eye opening experience. When I got to the clinic at 8AM, after I was introduced to some of the nurses there, I was immediately assigned to a Medical Assistant (MA) that I had shadow for half of the day. The MA shows me around the clinical and explained her role and responsibility in the clinic setting. During the first several hours, and MA and I were quite busy rooming the patient. Because the MA want me to see how to do thoroughly assessment on a new patient, the MA did a thoroughly assessment and examinations on the first patient we saw. During the assessment, the MA also explained some of the medical procedures to the patient. She did a set of vitals on the patient, particular on new patient, such as blood pressure, height, and weight. We had a total of 15 patients during the morning.

After I got the assignment, I met my nurse, introduced myself and took the report of the patient. I went in my patient room and introduced myself. I took patient vitals and documented it. With Professor Zentis I did physical assessment. Her fundus was firm and midline 2 fingers below the umbilicus. The patient had scent lochia rubra. Mrs. M has 6year old daughter and concerned that she is not sure the right positions to feed baby. She also had incision pain

When first beginning my shift, I decided to take vitals on both of my patients. While I was taking the mothers vitals I asked her if she was in any pain and she had verbalized that she was having some pain in her perineum due to her laceration. Therefore, before beginning my assessment I administered Tylenol/codeine along with providing her with some tucks to assist her providing some relief from pain. I also ensured to document my administration of medication and followed up with an evaluation of her pain approximately forty-five minutes later. After evaluation, she had reported a level of pain of 1/10. Furthermore, I also performed ongoing shift-assessments of both the newborn and mother followed by documentation on CPN. One of my main highlights

During my placement at the Liverpool Women’s Hospital for my obstetrics and gynecology, I attended a clinic specifically dealing with multiple pregnancies. One of the patients (Miss X) was referred to the clinic to have a routine ultraound scan. She attended the scan with her partner and parents. Her last scan had identified that the amniotic fluid surrounding each foetus was unequal; a possible indication of twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome (TTTS). The specialist nurse conducting the scan was known to the family since she had delivered the mother herself, thus there was a level of trust and raport between the family and the specialist nurse. The ultrasound scan revealed that the amniotic fluid surrounding the foetuses was still unequal, and

I was at Hamad General Hospital shadowing medical professionals of different specialties to get an overall idea of what the medical career was like, I was at ED (Emergency Department) when suddenly and with no previous warning “Cardiac Arrest !,” yelled the nurse, in moments emergency specialists were standing above the 16 year old male patient head sorting out CPR, AED etc..; first shock was delivered, the second and third followed, but the teenager didn’t even blink, he lay lifelessly, few more attempts and the white blanket was pulled over him; I couldn’t believe my eyes, I had witnessed an in-hospital death for the first time; trembling and shaking, I walked out of Bay-1, with a completely new meaning of medicine.

On Friday October 20th, I went to CDI south to shadow a sonographer. During this time, I got to sit closely to my mentor Tanya, and watch her complete ultrasounds on patients, and learn a lot more about the job. I was not able to do anything job related during this time, for many safety reasons, but I was able to sit right next to Tanya as she completed many different ultrasounds. During this shadowing session, we saw a total of 5 patients. Before every ultrasound, you have to prepare the room for the patient by putting a sheet on the bed, putting a pillow cover on the pillow, and retrieving towels for the patient after the ultrasound is over. The sonographers also have to prep the ultrasound machine, and read over the patient’s report and information to ensure they know the background of the patient before they come in. The sonographer will then go out to the waiting room to grab the patient, and bring them into the room, ask them certain questions about their medical conditions and ultrasound, and then they will give the patient instructions and preform the ultrasound. The first patient was a middle-aged woman, and she came into CDI to receive a pelvic ultrasound to look at her ovaries, kidneys, bladder, and other organs in this area. During this time, I got to see the patient’s ovaries and bladder within the ultrasound. The sonographer will be looking to make sure there isn’t anything unusual within the ultrasound, and make sure the systems are operating properly. We did

So I kindly, asked the nurse if we are supposed to look under the patient to assess for any blood pooling under her. Because of this reminder, the nurse realized she forgotten this step and thanked me. We looked under the patient, and thankfully there was no blood pooled under her. Another example, of having an EVP mind, was when I watched a labor. I noticed that the residents kept putting their fingers in the patient’s vagina. In lecture, we learned that we want to limit the amount of times that we assess the patient’s cervix due to the risk for infection. Because I don’t know about deliveries, and how many times the doctor is supposed to assess the cervix; I didn’t say anything. I also didn’t feel comfortable, as this delivery team, offered for me to watch. I didn’t know these employees or patient from earlier. In the second half of the semester, I plan to speak up, if I see something that doesn’t seem right, regardless, of the employee’s title, and how long I’ve been working with

I was working night shift in a level 3 Neonatal Intensive Care Unit facility and my 10 days orientation was over. It was my first day working without my preceptor. Since I was a new staff, the charge nurse allocated two stable babies for me. One was Baby Zahra, a 33 weeks preemie, on room air, with nasogastric tube, with peripheral intravenous line to keep the vein open and feeding with expressed breast milk every 3 hours. I started my shift with a bit of nervousness knowing that I am on my own and wondering if I can remember everything that my preceptor had taught me during our orientation. I started my assessment and observed Baby Zahra to be pale, her skin was slightly mottled. I checked her vital signs. The cardiac monitor showed that she

Usually in the medical surgical floor, nurses must take care of 4 or 5 patients. That’s where Delegation and prioritization comes handy and becomes their best option. During my clinical rotation, I was assigned two patients each week to care for. Before caring for any patient, we must get a report from previous nurses in the patient’s room. For that reason, I decided to get said report from my buddy nurse to get my shift started. After receiving reports on my two patients, I immediately knew both patients were stable. I then decided to do a two minute assessment on both patients on their vital signs. After my assessment, I realized that one of my patient was in severe pain on a pain scale 8/10, on his neck radiating to lower back, on the scale

When meeting with the family we were in the OBGYN’s patient room 101. The room is on the fourth story of DSN Memorial Hospital with windows looking outside to the east. The room is well lit and has a calming atmosphere to it. There are plenty of maternal magazines and pamphlets for the family and mother to read in regard to the mother, developing fetus, and newborn. The family present at this time was Katy’s husband John. John seemed to be an extremely supportive and loving husband to Katy. Katy was in the patient bed while the John sat in the chair next to the bed reading a magazine. When I introduced myself both Katy and John were extremely attentive and asked plenty of questions. When

It was an unpleasantly early morning in the hospital waiting room. Nurses buzzed around, busy attending to their patients while a faint beeping sound could be heard in the background. I was starting my second shift of the day at the hospital, just finishing working a shift in the dark, grimy morgue. Groggy, I sat down at my desk to begin another four hours of labor. My position was to assure that the paper work was properly completed and that all patients were attended too. While being a supervising nurse was a great responsibility, it left time to day dream.