Personal Narrative: My Clinical Experiences

Day four of clinicals was really long. The first patient was scheduled from 8 until 1, he was getting fitted for 4 crowns and an implant crown. When the patient came in he had a horrible odor and looked like he hasn’t taken care of himself in months. I seated him down and the dental assistant just glanced at his teeth and looked at me strangely and whispered come here and look. I look in this old man’s mouth and saw nothing but a brown layer of plaque and calculus build up and it disgusted me. How could someone not take care of their selves? Anyways, we ended up sending him to the hygienist's room next to us and they cleaned his teeth extra good. He came back into the room and Dr. Williams came in and quickly did a check up on his teeth and

My first clinical rotation was at Wasatch physical therapy, an outpatient clinic. At first, it was a little difficult to get used to seeing the higher volume of patients. It was also difficult to get used to all the different names for various exercises that different therapists had. For example “Ball belt,” Which seemed like it could mean just about anything. I got the hang of things and became pretty comfortable by the end. It was a really positive environment. Time seemed to go by quickly since I was always busy with patients and documentations. Eventually, I got to the point where I was given a bit of freedom and was able to handle around 50% of a caseload independently. I treated knees, shoulders, ankles, wrists, and spines. However, I also got to treat a cardiac patient and got to observe one torticollis and a few pelvic floor patients.

“How can I be good again? I just lost my wife and son in a car accident. There's nothing in life that can cheer me up. I have become an alcoholic who is now jobless.” I said. My Therapist, Dr. Newman, told me “Trust me, Mr. Smith. Only time can heal your wounds if you allow it to. Well, that's the end of the session, and I want to recall the accident that occurred so we can talk about it tomorrow.”

Week three in clinical was difficult for me, I had a great experience overall but I hated seeing and holding a baby that had passed away at 21 weeks. To know what the family could possibly be going through was heartbreaking. I wouldn’t exactly know what to do if I was with the patient and her family exactly. I do know that I did place her in the room when she was admitted to triage. I do feel good about seeing the scenario play out, while being a student rather than being in the field alone. Other than that I was able to see the beginning stage of labor as well as a C-section. Everyone was so bent out of shape on making sure I eat and that I don’t faint, but it seriously wasn’t bad. As a matter of fact I was too intrigued with the mother rather

“Oh I got my heart right here. Oh I got my scars right here…” With the slow beat of The Weeknd, I took a right onto the highway. Where was I going? I didn’t know. I was just going to drive my thoughts away. Peering down into my windows, the moon shone on my interior, lighting up everything. It was just me, the moon, and my freedom. I turned the radio louder to blast out my thoughts and just think about the song. I do this therapeutically. Driving makes me feel better, especially when I have no certain destination or deadline. My only goal is to chase the moon in an eternal game of tag, but for some reason I’m always “it”.

My Clinical Instructor is Laura Homan at Winter Pediatric Therapy. She works with kid from all ages between infant to adolescent, because this is a pediatric clinic. The types of clients she treats are variety, such as Autism, Down’s syndrome, ADHD, Developmental Delay, Epilepsy, and Gene Mutation. She used a lot of toys from games, puzzles, musical toys, colorful objects, different shapes, and texture blocks to get the attention and participation of her clients. She has been working at this clinic since March of 2016. She has always wanted to work with kid. She wanted to be a teacher at first, but heard about Occupational Therapy in college. So she decided to go for Occupational Therapy program. She fell in love with it when she went for

Today was the second day of my 6-week placement at Ward 3A-Logan Hospital, I have originally been paired with a demand casual pool RN, however, the said RN is not confident enough to handle me as her student nurse at the time. After the scrum at 7am, and the handover on the 4-bed bay + sides, I politely ask her if I could take one patient as it was one of the instructions of my CF during the orientation on day 1, but I was answered with “I’m not really familiar with the area and I’m from the demand casual pool...” Having sighted my CF at the corridors, I excused myself from the RN and discussed the matter to my CF, and she allowed me to be buddied with a very good EN, informing me that “she is an EN” before letting me to the bay and introducing me to my new buddy EN.

Images flashed in black and white across my eyes. I gazed in complete and utter silence with my mouth cracked open. My vision clouded as pools of tears swelled in my eyes like miniature water balloons. I furrowed my eyebrows and shut my eyes briefly as a small stream of salty water traveled down my freckled cheek and onto my paper. I was in my college history class watching a film focusing on the concentration camps during the holocaust. Skeletons of people, smoke stacks wheezing death in the air, and the look of despair ran rampant throughout the camps. It was in these solemn moments of watching the video that I was rocked to my core and heart was touched; I realized that I was going to become a missionary doctor.

Our clinicals at Cadbury at Lewes is quickly approaching an end and we are still learning new things each day. Everyday we do something new and so another skill is checked off. Yesterday, we got numerous things done, it was a very busy day.

Growing up our fears circle around things like monsters under the bed and in the closet, but once we reach the adolescent stage the monsters are a lot less physical. We almost become like superheroes unable to be harmed, indestructible. Situations where we are the ones lying in the hospital bed are few and far apart. I had forgotten I am not invincible, and rather than blowing off the amount of pain I was in I should have done more about it.

Today clinical was a good experience, I go to do couple of things today. In the morning I attended some call lights and helped with breakfast trays. To understand more about the patients, when I brought their breakfast tray to them I chat with them a bit to get to know them. RN Norma asked me to feed Ms. EM and I fed her and maintained caring. I did total patient care for two patients, and one of them was Ms. B. I did her assessment and by interviewing Ms. B, I was able to establish what is important to her and her emotional being. I also saw signs of severe pitting edema, 4 + /8mm on bilateral lower extremities. That was good to see because I have never seen it on an actual patient before, and I kept it professionalism. I assessed Ms. B

For years I struggled with addiction. And even today I still have the continuous gnawing in the back of my mind, attempting to draw me back, I have to continuously remind myself of the destruction it will lead me into. I am constantly tempted with the thought , " You can control it, just a couple drinks and be done it like normal people." However, as painful as it is to admit- out of pride, I am not "normal" in that sense. While I have failed miserably in the past, I have found some wisdom that has allowed me to continue on in the fight for recovery. Liked below are the four things we pursue as human being in an attempt to fill the deep angst in our bones for out of this life. As an addict I can say the failure in these areas led me to greater substance abuse to numb or help ignore that these things were not doing what I taught by society they would do.

I started my clinical preceptorship at Jamaica Hospital as a contractual agreement between Stony Brook and Jamaica Hospital. This clinical preceptorship was for 90 clinical hours for the course HNH 514 as the clinical component of the course. The first day I started the preceptorship was Sept 9, 2017, and the last day of the clinical rotation was December 4, 2017. I have participated in several teaching initiatives with my preceptor on various educational activities to broaden my knowledge. During my preceptorship rotation, I have professionally conducted myself. During the preceptorship, I was told numerous times by my preceptor that she does not know what to do with me which has

“When I fight the ring is my world. Nothing else matters. Not my own safety. Not the reactions of the crowd. That list could go on and on. The point is that when I get caught up in the spirit battle nothing's gonna’ stop me until the other guy goes down or I do.

First day of clinical was very scary and I was very nervous and worried that I would not learn anything out of the experience. It was not until I met my facilitator Jodi Phillips, who gave me hope and courage to give it a go. I also realized that I was not the only one that was so intimidated with administering medications to patients. First day of clinical started with pep talk and introductions and meeting with the team followed by orientation at the site. We met the nurses, health care aids and some patients admitted to the Senior Health and GAM unit 42 at Peter Lougheed Hospital. The environment is hospitable and has a supportive climate. The unit is clean; the noise kept to a minimum, little to completely no bad odor in most parts.