Personal Narrative: The Children's Hospital Of Philadelphia

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.

On 5/21/16 at approximately 2024 hours, Officer Acosta #0044 and I responded to Huntington Memorial Hospital, (HMH), for a report of a battery. The comments of the call stated, “IN ER RM #18, VIC IS 25 YO MALE ASSAULTED WED AT LA PINTO PARK BY UNK SUSP, ADV HE WAS HIT IN HEAD W/BAT AND HAS A PUNCTURE WOUND TO THE LIP. VICTIM IS EDGAR LARA DOB 10-02-90.”

The fall of 2014 was the absolute worst few months of my life. It started in the middle of September. My dad suddenly one day had a sharp pain in his side. He said he was fine, but my mom was not having that and got him to go to the hospital. The pain passed but that week they set up all kinds of scans to find out what was wrong. They figured out the pain was just gallstones. They thought they could just remove it, but that did not happen. In the same scan they found a mass in his chest. The doctors did not know what it was, so they came up with a few possibilities. A few weeks later, in the middle of October, they scheduled a surgical biopsy. Dr. Wallace, the surgeon, told us there were a few different outcomes from the surgery. I do not remember it all exactly, but I know there was one bad outcome and three others that were curable and they could fix right then and there. If it was one of the three things they could do a whole nother operation right there that day and remove it. The fourth was cancer.

Maybe I was too little, or maybe I was too short, but either way I did not make the jump. In the second grade I was your average eight year old, who always wore her hair in ponytails, and enjoyed playing tag at recess. One day I saw the fifth graders on the monkey bars at recess doing something I had never seen before, they were jumping to the fourth bar. I waited untill Kids Inc. that day to try the jump, but it was no use I was acting like a scared baby.

Last year with my hockey team, we got together and made blankets for sick children about to have surgery at Children's Hospital in St.Paul. About a week later, we went to the hospital and delivered the blankets to the rooms that the children would be in right before surgery. It was really fun making the blankets, and everyone felt really good afterward knowing that they were supporting the children about to have children. We did this last winter, I am not sure the exact

I further supported my studies in biology and my interest of assisting the needy by volunteering at my hometown’s emergency room. While I did find that working at the emergency room constantly catered to my passion for knowledge about medicine, it was my trustworthy and compassionate nature that allowed me a heightened ability to interact with patients in a reliable and effective manner. I continued my desire by shadowing physicians in the many different departments of the hospital. However, since the marvels of the heart always left me in wonder, I found myself drawn into the life of a cardiologist. While shadowing him in his private practice, I had the chance to appreciate the responsibilities, commitment, and satisfaction of a career in

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

As I was finishing my last shift as a Health Leads advocate at Boston Medical Center I couldn’t help but think back to my first shift three years earlier. I was nineteen years old walking into the Pediatric Unit eager to make a difference. Being located in a poverty-stricken part of Boston many uninsured and low-income families would bring their children to Boston Medical Center. As an advocate, it was our responsibility to make sure they had everything they needed from food to shelter while working hand in hand with their physician. I expected to reaffirm my desire to become a physician by witnessing all the positive work that can be accomplished. What actually happened was something quite different, something that made me wonder, “Do I really want to go into medicine?”

Since March 2015, I volunteer weekly at Memorial Hospital West, where I assist in both patient and nursing staff needs. As a volunteer, I serve as a reception area greeter while giving out general information to visitors and answering phones. I also assist in patient discharge, answering patient call buttons, distribution of meals and water, as well as running errands for the nursing staff which include the pharmacy, lab, and cafeteria. I have also sporadically volunteered at Feeding South Florida, a hunger relief food bank. I assisted in the inspecting, sorting, and organizing of donated can goods which are then distributed to food pantries and shelters. The last two years with the assistance of my mother I have raised money towards the Leukemia

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.

Everyone is exhausted and I know someone will come help”. I reviewed the chart. This patient condition seems eerily familiar; a young lady with Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS). This particular female patient came to our clinic for IV hydration to treat her POTS. POTS is a condition in which a change from the supine position to an upright positin causes an abnormally large increase in heart rate (tachycardia) along with lightheadedness, fainting and a host of other unpleasant symptoms. I’m familiar with this condition because my oldest daughter was diagnosed with this condition at the Mayo Clinic when she was a teenager. This diagnosis was only the beginning of a long journey through the healthcare

I have earned 5 hours for this activity by learning about my career goals and medical schools in general. I recently visited the University of Florida's campus and visited the UF Health Center. They have a very nice facility and they do a lot of research. It is now the goal to get into UF's medical school. We did talk to an admissions counselor, who suggested that as soon as I get into college, I should started doing internships and be a part of a research team. This will be an area of growth I will need to work on since I tend to be shy when it comes to going certain organizations I am new to.

The doctor walked in to a room filled with zoo animals and pastel colors at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital. Already in the room were two parents whose faces were ridden with fear, even though words of encouragement to their child spilled out of their mouths and one terrified fifteen-year-old who sat on the edge of the cold, hard hospital bed. The doctor however was very optimistic, showing no sign of alarm. I remember him shaking our hands, while introducing himself. He was a very kind, soft spoken doctor. However, after he told me what the diagnosis was I do not recall much information. I was in shock and anxious of what the future may bring.

Hospitals are scary, but especially when all of a sudden you pass out at home and wake up in a hospital surrounded by doctors and some of your close family members not knowing what was happening to you, and all of a sudden you look down to see a big needle stuck in your arm and the doctor standing there speaking to your parents telling them that they have pulled labs on my blood and found out that my kidneys have failed and are on the last stage.

My first day at Beverly Hospital was really exciting. My RT told me to explain to a patient how to use a DPI. I asked the patient if he had used this device before, he told me “yes” and before I explain him how to use it, he took the device from my hand and took the medication. The good thing was that he knew perfectly how to use the DPI. During the day, I was able to observe how to do a bronchial hygiene therapy, oxygen therapy, patient assessment, ABG’s sampling and analysis, and ventilator setup. Also, I was able to auscultate the patient’s lungs and take there vital signs. My most significant experience was when I was in the ER trying to relax a patient complaining of shortness of breath and suffocating with the bipap. So the doctor decided