Personal Narrative: My Clinical Rotation

I was never a kid that knew who I would become when I grow up. My interests ranged from wanting to become an interior designer to having a strong desire of becoming a pilot. I was often surrounded by healthcare professionals but I never imagined myself striving to become one. Little did I know that I would end up at a stage in my life where I would be sure about pursuing a career in healthcare. Although I have decided on my career path, I have yet to discover a particular field within healthcare that grabs my interest. The RA Internship will help me learn more about medicine and help me find a right field of study through clinical research experience and monthly lectures offered to me as an intern. Though this opportunity I will be able to

My first APPE rotation was pediatrics in Cleveland Clinic. Before starting the rotation, I was scared but excited to have experience in Cleveland Clinics, since it is one of the biggest hospitals in the country. I was worried because I had no knowledge about pediatrics. Also, the first day of the rotation was a day after the final, so I was in a rush mode.

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

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 OB clinical rotation day at Tri-City Health Center comprised of a slow day at first, then busy day towards the end. I feel lucky to experience my OB rotation at Tri-City Health Center this Tuesday. Tri-City Health Center is a clinic that serves the community by promoting optimal health to patients and provide preventive measures to eliminate diseases. During my rotation at this clinic, I learned that Tri-City serves a wide variety of patients without regard to financial position, ethnicity, and sexual orientation. In my rotation at Tri-City, I spend the day at Suite D which is their OB and women’s health clinic where I met their wonderful staff. Dr. Martinez was the only doctor in the clinic at the time and she was accompanied by two medical assistants (MA).

During my time shadowing physicians, I have realized that physicians need to be expert listeners in order to effectively assess a patient and fully understand their problems. I observed that the more a physician actively listens to their patients, patients trust their physician and can openly express any further troubles. My upbringing has given me the ability to be an effective listener. Raised in a quasi-conservative Indian household, I learned to carefully listen to everything my elders have to say. As a physician, I will take advantage of this skill to be an active listener for my patients and be able to better implement the appropriate treatment plans.

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

The clinic that I am doing my clinical rotation is a small family medical office with one physician assistant and one doctor. It is located in Collier County Naples, Florida. Naples is considered as one of the richest city in Florida with a diverse ethnic group like Caucasian, African America, Asian, Latinos, Haitian, and much more. They see any patients start from 6 years old. Most of the patients who come to the clinic don’t have a medical insurance. They are self-paid. My preceptor is a professor of physician assistant at Nova University in Florida over 20 years.

Getting into the specialty center would mean a lot to me. I love art and want to learn more about how I could improve to become better and better. I have always wanted to become a famous artist or just any regular art teacher when I grow older throughout the years. My favorite art media to use is just using pencil or making objects out of clay. I take art as a way of focusing on what you feel by not physically talking it out like an art therapist. It gives me confidence knowing that what I feel like doing is the best thing for me to do.

I had such a great day at clinical yesterday. I was finally able to see a vaginal delivery and that entire process. When I arrived in the morning, the mom had just received Cytotec, to help induce labor and ripen her cervix. She was forty-one weeks and zero. Around ten thirty in the morning, she asked for her epidural to manage her pain. We bolused her with fifteen hundred milliliters of lactated ringers to prevent hypotension. Shane was the certified registered nurse anesthesiologist (CRNA) who administered the epidural. It was very cool watching him administer all the needed pain relief medication before he administered the epidural to make sure that it would be placed in the epidural space in the spine. Then administered a small test dose, waited till a few blood pressures were taken, then administered the remaining about through an epidural pump. After the epidural was administered, I was able to administer her foley catheter. I was so happy that I was finally able to place one. I learned a few tricks from Maura (my nurse) as well. She taught me that it was easier to take the top off of the lubricant syringe and to place the tip of the foley inside of the syringe, that way it will not wiggle around and become unsterile. She also taught me to grab from the bottom of the labia and pull up, that way it ensures that I will have a clear entrance to

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

The sharp scratch of pencil lead sprinting across thick layers of paper, rapid rustles of flipping pages, and the neurotic tapping of pens on hard wooden desk surfaces are sounds that I grew very accustomed to during my junior year of high school. I was taking a class called Clinical Rotations, which allowed me to rotate through different units at two major San Antonio hospitals. Being constantly surrounded by illness, chaos, and frigid sterility wore heavily on my angst-ridden, seventeen year old self. But despite the stressful surroundings and slightly depressing aura, it was during these rotations that I met someone who truly changed my life.

I sat at the kitchen counter, staring at the green cabinets and bowls of fruit. I wanted to play in tonight’s soccer game, but my mind was still foggy from the drugs I received in the hospital the day before. I didn’t want my teammates to see me like this. My hair was matted from where my head rubbed against the blue hospital pillow, and a wrinkled piece of clear tape secured a nasal feeding tube onto my cheek. I hated what the tube meant: that I was inadequate and that I couldn’t drink by myself. I was someone who insisted on doing everything on my own, and the thin, flexible tube was a physical reminder that I could not. My mom and dad lauded my bravery, but I dismissed them. I didn’t believe bravery was dictated by necessity.

Today in clinical, I offered a male patient to perform a full bed bath. It was my first time performing a full bed bath on a male and the thought of this made me feel a little nervous because I had only practiced this task in the simulation lab and the thought of performing peri-care on the male gender was intimidating. I began to gather my items and throughly think about how I would normally perform a bed bath on a female and the difference of genital areas. As I brought the items into the room, my patient was friendly and helpful in directing his preferences of which areas he wanted to be washed first. His friendly personality made me calm down in a situation where I would normally be on my toes, as I was not thinking about my

My clinical experience today has been a completely different, from any others. Today, Ashley my preceptor was scheduled as the charge nurse. I was surprised by the differences between a floor nurse and a charge nurse with their different responsibility each of them possessed. My first thoughts of a charge nurse were to merely fill in the cracks in the floor, to assist other nurses maintain their patient loads and to cover breaks and lunches, all the same, that is not always the case. This clinical experience has supplied me with a whole new aspect, as well as, a great deal of esteem for the charge nurse. In addition, to the previous mention responsibilities of a charge nurse, in