Personal Narrative: Donna Check-In Patients

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.

For todays clinical, I was located at the office in Pineville. To start the day, Mrs. Faranda went over the computer system and planned out her day based on her goals set for each patient. She planned out which patients she would need to call first. After that, she showed me how to look and see which patients were in the hospital and which were located in the emergency department. Lastly she me different thing in the computer system like the social determinants of health and the medication system. She also went over resources. To end the day, she made a few phone calls and tired to reach out to certain patients. Overall, I enjoyed my day and being able to learn more about Community Care of North Carolina.

This week has been crazy busy. We have had all kinds of animals, with all kinds of issues. We've been so busy that our appointments have been back to back, with little time between. This kind of sucks for the patients since we only have two rooms, and usually one doctor on staff, but we are pretty efficient and everyone gets in and out in a timely manner. Of course with the priority being that everyone gets the treatment they need and their questions answered.

Day 8 was a really slow day in my opinion, although it was super fun. Day 8 was Dr. Williams birthday and he loves to celebrate his birthdays as all the coworkers would say. The first half of the day we had 3 patients and all of them were hygiene so they just got their teeth cleaned and etc. On Dr. Pabst side of the office, in my opinion it was pretty busy. The first patient came in to get fitted for Invisalign. The dental assistant took impressions on him and Dr. Pabst came in to take so nice pictures for his Invisalign profile. The second patient came in because he was experiencing severe pain on tooth # 2. I ended up taking a radiograph on him and found a huge abscess. Dr. Pabst came in and prescribed him so medicine for pain relief until

S: How was your clinical experience this week? This week was an okay week. I spent most of my time trying to get back into the swing of things. I was a little rusty at the beginning of the week but it got better as the week went on.

My fifth day at Agape Hospice, I went in to assist others with in tuck in calls since I became an expert at it. I was excited to be given this opportunity to teach others what I enjoy doing at Agape hospice. I also gave my fellow classmate who volunteer with me at Agape the chance to encourage them to not to worry about anything because all you have to do is read the question to them. For tuck in calls there where a few question that you had ask the patents and the rest you didn't had to ask because all the patient of the patient family would say the same thing.After I was done assisting my fellow classmates, I help Ms. Erica file the patients paper work in orders. I had to file the paper work by where the patient live such as their home or

My second clinic rotation is internal medicine and I’ve had many encounters, both with patients and colleagues, which have made me pause and reflect. One of those encounters, in particular, will still be on my mind long after I finish typing this reflective journal. The patient at the center of it all is a lady I’ll refer to from here on as “Mrs. Flowers.” Mrs. Flowers is an 81 year old female with dementia and diabetes. She arrived on our unit with a diabetic foot infection that had progressed from a simple toe ulcer to wet gangrene. Over the last 2-3 months, gangrenous changes encompassed the distal half of her left foot. During pre-rounds, our medical team unanimously agreed that we would contact surgery for a consult. At time, it was obvious

My current resident assistant was unavailable to interview because he is usually a very busy and had a deadline coming up tomorrow, so instead I interviewed an RA that was working at the Willkie. His name was Vasu and he was super open with me about being an RA. He was really honest too, he said that the process of becoming an RA was and is hard and that it is a very competitive process.

During my freshman year, my Residential Assistant pulled me aside and expressed to me that I have the potential to be a great RA. Before I was told that, I did not really pay much attention to the position and what RAs actually do. The dedication and hard work these individuals put forward to make the college life of many students much simpler and inspire them. Once I was told that I had the potential to help others and meet so many other people, it ignited a change within me. I now wanted to do the same things and simply help others while making relationships along the way. I had a strong relationship with my RA and he was always there to assist me in any situation. He mentored me through difficult situations and helped me grow as an individual.

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

I started my day by attending bed unit meeting. Afterwards I attended a pre-surgery meeting with my site coordinator. The rest of my day was spent filling isolation carts and creating welcome packets.

I guess your biggest question is, “who really is Donna Wilson?” I am a real person. Not just a name on a piece of paper. Not just another applicant. But I have an identity. In fact, I have many. I am a daughter, sister, returned missionary, Native American, prom queen, theater nerd, journalist, pioneer, and Mormon. I am so much more than a label or essay. I am a daughter of God and because of this, I know my purpose and what I want. Life isn’t easy and I’m finding and fighting for my dreams and I won’t give up. This is not the first time I have applied to BYU. I am grateful for the rejection because I learned and grew so much in the process. I had many wonderful experiences that made me discover more about myself impossible in any other setting.

The person who I choose to interview was a close friend of mine named Ashely who is both a homecare aid and medical office assistant. She has been a homecare aid for around two years and just completed the program for becoming a medical office assistant.

This week I found myself in the OR. Lakewood Ranch Medical Center specializes in orthopedics. Specifically hips and knee replacements. This day one hip and three knee revisions were on the list for the day that I was able to witness. The surgeries themselves were something to see but the meat of the day was the nurse I was assigned to. He demonstrated and educated me to the duties of the RN in the OR: Stocking the general supplies needed, assisting in bringing the specific tools and supplies needed for that surgery, documenting everything from orders to supplies to medications, prepping the patient physically- cleaning and draping the patient leaving the surgical site exposed, assisting in the cleanup and turnover of the surgical suite.

Today I had a great day at the clinic. For the morning section, I had Omar Lora as my patient. Last time when he came, I collected all my assessment data. Today I updated his medical history, dental history, vitals, and EIOE, then I completed filling out the gingival assessment, the treatment plan, and the SAOP. Finally, I was ready to have my assessment data checked. It went really well, and I learned ways to helped me be more efficient with my time management, for example, I did not know how to have my radiographs up in the other monitor while I was doing my assessments. It was a little time consuming having to open and minimized the window every time I needed to look at the radiographs. Also, I discovered that having a piece of paper out and taking