Personal Narrative: Shadowing Medical Professionals

Clinical day started slow, I was a bit anxious about waking my patient up that morning but I knew I had to go in. I woke him slowly and took his vitals and proceeded with my assessment. As I assessed my patient, his wife came in to his room and I introduced myself. During the morning I found out that my patient was being discharged. Before discharge, my patient was going to be fitted for a LifeVest.

Patient interaction, the art of diagnosis, and being able to witness improvement in patients’ conditions helped me to gain hands on experience. I have enjoyed learning from great teachers who taught me to think and who made the process of learning challenging. I particularly remember a 40year old male diabetic patient who suddenly became unconscious in the ward. My initial diagnosis of hypoglycemia was correct and the I.V dextrose given helped the patient recover immediately. The satisfaction one experiences when a patient recovers from a near death to normal state is truly

I stood with a look of wonderment as I watched the beehive of physicians, radiologists, nurses, and paramedics collaboratively save a man’s life. The scene initially appeared chaotic with scrubs flying around and doctors swarming all over, but in actuality the team was extremely single-minded—as if driven by instinct. I was amazed by the speed and conviction with which the attending doctor made his decisions; his training and experience was evident with every move. Seeing the tearful wife thank the doctor highlighted the impact of his work—his actions had saved a husband and a father. I left admiring both the competency of emergency physicians and their ability to touch lives in such a dramatic way. While my enjoyment of high school biology sparked my original inclination towards medicine, my first hand experiences in the hospital deepened my motivation and left me steadfast in my decision to become a doctor.

It is a warm summer evening at Grady Hospital. It is my first day as an emergency room volunteer. I’m nervous and eager, hoping to see something exciting. However, it is surreally quiet. Suddenly, there is word of an ambulance en route. Minutes later the paramedics burst into the trauma slot pushing a man on a stretcher. His head and face are covered with gauze that is soaked through with dark blood. It is a flurry of well-orchestrated movement as the attendings and residents start to resuscitate him. They pull back the bandages to reveal a deep gash that is bleeding profusely. With much effort his vital signs are stabilized and he begins to regain consciousness. Later, after the excitement had passed, I learned what brought him here. He is diabetic and couldn’t afford to properly manage his condition. He had fainted due to hypoglycemia and hit his head. He had almost lost his life because of the unfortunate financial realities of modern healthcare. In that moment, I came to appreciate the very real cost of disease and the incredible role physicians have in ameliorating it. This formative experience was the beginning of my path to medicine.

I am currently enrolled as a full-time student in the medical assisting program at Peninsula College. At the end of fall quarter 2015, I will complete the program and earn my certification as a medical assistant. To achieve my goal, I have concentrated solely on my academic career. This has left little time in my life to resume a full-time position in the workforce. As a mother of three, I know how challenging it can be to go back to school, much less try to live on one income. I hope to use this scholarship to help ease my family's financial burden. A scholarship could help me buy extra supplies, such as scrubs, closed toe leather shoes, a stethoscope and other items that are not covered by financial aid, but are all vital materials needed

This year started with many changes to my and the other paraprofessionals schedules. For the first month or so I didn’t know where I would be assigned for the day. I started out with Ms. Ireland and her crew of sixth graders. I was comfortable with this assignment because I was familiar with the students. Then we had the turnover of several paraprofessional positions. One left to pursue a different career, another didn’t come back after summer break and another just left. So we were down to a crew of five paraprofessionals when we started with eight. It took some adjustment and some new hires but we finally got to a “normal” schedule and we each knew where we were expected to be daily. (Most of the time)

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

On September 28, when we went to Tripler Army Medical Center, I was placed in the Cardiac Ward. At that time, I was able to learn so many diagnosis dealing with the patients. The nurse had briefly explained what was going on with each individual patient and the type of treatments they are doing to help. She had also neatly clarified each medication she was giving them and told me exactly what it was used for. I was able to get an experience of hands on by taking a patient’s temperature. I had shadowed as she did so many things to make the patient feel comfortable and did everything to the best of her ability to make them happy. She had taught me how to record every piece of information about the patients on the computer by showing me what

I’m learning from observations and witnessing it first hand that there are many mishaps in life which seem to be unexplainable and unfair, and have devastating consequences. It takes a special person to work in the medical field, especially the Emergency Room. ER’s see the worst of the worst. You have the gentlest touch and most calming words, whether you are giving a diagnosis of something minor, to advising someone they may have cancer, to breaking it to a mother that her baby is not viable. When I get to that point I want to handle situations just like you do.

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.

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.

The purpose of this journal is to reflect on my experience and skills gained during my clinical placement at Ben Taub Hospital. On my first clinical day, I was excited and nervous at the same time. My first placement was in the PREOP/PACU area. I was assigned to help a patient who had been in the PACU area going on 2 days. Normally, once the patient comes from surgery they are only in the PACU area for a short period of time before they are discharged home or given a bed in another area of the hospital. This particular patient still had not received an assignment for a bed. The physicians would make their rounds to come check on him daily. The patient was a 28-year-old Hispanic male, non-English speaking, he had a hemicolectomy. He had a NG tube, urinary Foley catheter, and a wound vac. My preceptor had just clocked in and she needed to check on the patient’s vitals and notes from the previous nurse. Once she introduced me to the patient and explained while I was there, she then asked me to check his vitals. (Vital signs indicate the body’s ability to regulate body temperature, maintain blood flow, and oxygenate body tissues. Vital signs are important indicators of a client’s overall health status (Hogan, 2014). I froze for a quick second. I have practiced taking vitals numerous of times and I knew I could do it correctly. I started with the temperature first, when I was quickly corrected on a major mistake I had made by my preceptor. I HAD FORGOT TO WASH MY HANDS and PUT

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

The case that I have chosen to reflect on was a patient that was already staying on a ward within the hospital, the patient was rushed to the emergency theatre late at night from the ward with a suspected internal bleed, the cause and exact location of the bleed was unknown, the patient presented a complex case for the theatre staff as the patient 's condition was largely unpredictable along with the amount of blood loss that the patient could lose. My role within the theatre team was on the anaesthetic side, I was supported by my mentor who I feel I have learned a vast amount of

To explore my medical interests, I started volunteering at a local hospital where I worked in the West wing, which encompassed randomized patients, mostly of older age, but with a variety of differing complications. One Saturday, I was told to file and keep a close eye on a new patient, who had been located in the room closest to the front desk. A youthful