Personal Narrative: My Work Experience At Monash Children's Hospital

There are many components to a hospital or medical facility. All of them are necessary to have a properly functioning environment. The emergency department of a hospital is a fast paced world. You have to be constantly on your toes and prepared for whatever may come through the doors. There are many people that work in an emergency room to make it run smoothly. Techs, nurses, CNA’s, LVN’s, and doctors all work side by side to help those who are critically injured. Without all these people it would be complete chaos.

By the way of introduction, I am Aleem Punja's cousin and he suggested I reach out to you to explore possible opportunities at the Children's Aid Society of Toronto.

During my shadowing experiences at UAB Hospital, one particular event was prominent in my decision to pursue a career in nursing. While in the emergency department, a suicidal patient, a quadriplegic who lost her limbs due to a spinal cord injury, was brought in for her second visit. This experience caused me to tap into my ability to stay calm and reassuring during an emergent situation, and it reminded me of my father, who lost two of his limbs in a train accident. My father’s accident in itself taught me strength and courage because he, like the patient, occasionally feels forlorn, which leads to suicidal thoughts. Watching the nurses care for my father made me realize that a nurse must be perceptive and knowledgeable about their patient’s

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 have worked in the healthcare field for more than 10 years. I started at the bottom and having worked my way up the clinical ladder am proud to currently lead my staff as an Emergency Department Clinical Manager. I have learned so many things along my professional journey and look forward to facing new challenges and opportunities. I pride myself in being accountable and prepared. As you can imagine, working in the emergency room, I have seen patients and staff at their best and worst, which has helped me

The biggest accomplishment outside of the classroom I am proud of is my volunteering period at Plasp Child Care Services. Through this experience, I was able to make an impact on the lives of the children as they looked forward to meeting me every Monday. As a result of this experience, I was able to improve my valuable skills of leadership as I was required to look after the children and make the most out of their time there. Moreover, this experience has allowed me to create a unique connection with each child that will last for a long

After graduation from New York University in 2013, I decided take time off before applying to medical school. I took this time off in order to gain more experience both in healthcare and life. I felt there was stillroom for me to learn about medicine and more importantly about myself. Firstly, I found a job working in the front office of a newly opened dermatology practice, learning about the business, insurance, and paperwork that goes into running a medical practice. Wanting more exposure to medical procedures and interaction between doctor and patient, I became a medical assistant. This was one of the most valuable experiences of my gap years. I was able to gain first hand experience of the daily life of a doctor and develop my communication

My supervisor, one of the head nurses, hurriedly pulled me to the corner of the bleach white hospital room and directed me to put on gloves, an eye mask, and a face mask. I felt as if I was preparing for war as I put on all of the required gear. The sound of expensive shoes click-clacked down the hallway indicating the arrival of two doctors who rushed into the room and shouted out orders to the staff while pulling the doors to the room shut along with the curtains. Two doctors, eight nurses, an intern, and a dying patient squeezed into the already claustrophobic ten by fifteen-foot room. The machine monitoring the patient’s vital signs continued to beep incessantly as my heart rate accelerated. Throughout my internship, I had never seen a patient in critical condition until that moment. I remembered my teacher’s advice if we were ever in a situation such as this: take a few deep breaths and sit down if you feel like you’re going to pass out. In that

I completed my internship at Saint Agnes Home, Inc (SAH) located in West Hartford Connecticut. I was assigned to single Teenage Mothers. The Saint Agnes is a non-profit program licensed group home run by the State of Connecticut Department of Children and Families for pregnant and/or parenting adolescents and their babies. The mission of the Saint Agnes program is to provide residential care and support services to single pregnant and parenting teen mothers and their babies. The Saint Agnes Home program emphasis values, respects life, and recognizes the unique dignity and optimum potential of each person served. The program is staffed by licensed clinical social workers, registered nurse, and other college prepares professionals.

My foundation jobs and my current role as an Obstetrics and Gynaecology Junior Clinical Fellow has left me confident caring for medical and surgical patients, reviewing patients in clinic and assessing and initiating management for new admissions. I have gained experience on labour ward and have developed my operative skills in both obstetrics and gynaecology. Working in ITU gave me experience managing critically ill patients and identifying those requiring escalation. I have developed time management skills and the ability to prioritise as a result of busy on-call shifts.

“Moral issues greet us in each morning in the newspaper, confront us in the memos on our desks, nag us from our children’s soccer fields, and bid us good night on the evening news” (Velasquez et al 2015). Let me take this time to share one of my student’s testimonies on what she experienced on her recent occupation as a Medical Assistant in a psychiatry clinic. In her short time operating as a Medical Assistant, she saw one prevailing ethical dilemma daily in the clinic she worked in. Most days she experienced an overwhelming and unexplainable joy and excitement knowing that, she was fulfilling her greatest passion in life. Not everyone has the opportunity to work in the field of their studies, but there she was functioning in the capacity,

Working in a hospital has given me a more intimate perception of how a hospital operates. Physicians are not the only professionals that contribute to a hospital; it takes a well-rounded team of dedicated professionals to sustain a health care facility. Working with biomedical technicians, I have gained useful knowledge regarding the safe use of medical equipment and have learned of the dangers of improper equipment usage. The vast amount of detail considered when renovating a room such as the cath lab has given me a far greater appreciation of the tools and resources supplied to physicians. Whether I was testing autonomous controls in the spinal cord injury building or searching for IV pumps needing maintenance, I was surrounded by hospitable,

At 8 am on Monday I went to my first shift at the children’s hospital in Costa Rica. The hospital waiting rooms were overflowing with parents anticipating their doctor’s arrival to diagnose their sick children. It was evident that the number of patients surpassed the amount of doctors available. I was assigned to take care of Josè, a two year old that was yet to be diagnosed with an illness that caused him to be severely underweight. His mother tried to explain to me with broken English that he didn’t eat much and the doctors weren’t able to check on him often. As I picked him up, I instantly felt a connection. He started smiling and playing with my lanyard that all volunteers received. As the days progressed, Josè and I got attached. I fed

My first exposure to the field of medicine was through the role of a patient ambassador. It was my duty to walk to and fro among many hospital buildings and levels to transport patients. I was never alone in these micro journeys. I like to think of it as I was the one always accompanied by patients. These patients were either being transferred to a hospital bed or if in pristine health were being discharged. To save time the nurses would place a transport request fifteen minutes in advance. The flux of people entering and leaving the hospital changes dramatically from morning to evening. Since I volunteered in the evening, I was always early to pick up the patients from their rooms. It was an experience of its own to stand outside a patient’s room and watch them interact with the nurses for the last time. Over the course of six months, I was able to witness a wide variety of emotions during those interactions. Particularly, elder patients, who were living alone with occasional visits from their children, seemed to capture my interest.

Nurses and doctors were rushing, babies were crying, parents were panicking, and I was just standing in the middle of it all and observing it quietly. I 'll never forget the summer of 2014 where I shadowed various departments of a hospital and gained experiences that 'll last a lifetime. In this hospital, I had witnessed two vast extremes: life and death. Both scary in their own unique way. Witnessing such extremes allowed me to develop a new perspective about the amazing doctors and nurses who see it on a day to day basis. This newly found perspective has influenced on what career path I plan to take in the not-so-distant future.