Reflection Paper

I had been instructed to introduce myself to the patients, so I started with the first room and began to work my way down the long and dimly lit hallway. Popping my head into each room, I quickly muttered my name and half of a greeting before rushing over to the next one. Many of the patients in the unit didn’t acknowledge me, and for that, I was grateful. It wasn’t until I had gotten to the last room, in fact, that I was even met with a

This is my ninth clinical shift with my preceptor at Saunders Medical Center in Wahoo, NE, and it was on May 15, 2018 (Wednesday). Today I had the chance to work back in the OR. I had the choice to stay after my shift to place an IV in a treatment room patient, so I did as well. My duties were to place IV’s, gather report, preoperative care, a little bit of postoperative care, and helping clean up the OR after surgery. The patient census included: K. S. a 51-year-old female scheduled for a laparoscopic cholecystectomy with intraoperative cholangiogram; and T. M. a 30-year-old male scheduled for excision sebaceous cysts x2 scalp with full thickness skin graft from left neck donor site. Plus, one IV on a treatment patient, which I don’t have the information for this patient because I was only going in to place the IV. It was an eventful day and I learned how to work under pressure when things can turn for the worse in OR; it was a learning experience and I’m forever grateful! My shift started

I left my car and walked towards the staff entrance, waving at some nurses who were just finishing their shifts. It was a cold and gloomy day, but the welcoming heat from the front corridor made my muscles relax. Momentarily after gathering my belongings—lab coat, name tag and clipboard—I made my way down the long, narrow hallway towards the introductory interview room. I knew my patient would be waiting.

The police bring in a man for possible domestic violence who was positive for opiates, meth and had a BAC of .24. He was still walking, eating, and talking. Dr. Williams called him a pro because looking at him you could barely tell he is so under the influence. We don’t sit for long and Dr. Williams is always on the move to go talk to patients. I follow him everywhere at a very fast pace. I ran track, cross-country, and do Army ROTC but have trouble keeping up with his pace. He is quick to explain and teach me. He has trained PA’s before and I feel that I am learning more in one night than I did in half my experience as an intern in Lebanon’s ER. After seeing the patients, he comes back and documents on his computer. He diagnoses them and figures out a treatment plan. Dr. Williams does not visit every patient but only the ones who are sickliest. I am able to ask him more questions and he gives me the downside of working in the ER. He tells me how it’s the worst when a kid codes or dies. Also, other negative aspects that I pick up on working with him is that it puts a tough strain on any marriage or relationship, makes you tired to have twelve hour shifts (he drinks two red bulls on this shift), and gives one a false sense of a God complex. He says another challenging aspect of his career is that all hospitals do not talk to each other so it’s difficult and takes time to access all health records when a patient who usually goes to a

The first day, my preceptor and I took on four patients (two ALC patients, one pediatrics with psychiatric illness, and one patient with Parkinson's disease). We split the workload so we each had two patients. I had the pediatrics patient and patient with Parkinson's disease. It was nice to start with small patient load to help ease into getting back into the routine of the Medical Surgical floor. On the first day, I got to attempted to insert an IV into a patient’s

Like a perfect automaton, the nurse proceeds to measure vital signs and note her findings with as little human interaction with you as is possible. After the nurse has completed her tasks, you must wait until the doctor pops his head in, nurse's records in hand. The doctor then proceeds to ask you some variation of the stock doctor question: "What seems to be the problem today?"

I woke in the CVICU unable to stand, walk, see correctly, or fully understand language. It was a Friday, in the gentlest terms, but there was no way of telling for sure. An IV was stuck into the crook of my elbow, a pulse oximeter clipped to my index finger, and a ventilator softly blew into my nose. The heart monitor clicked its steady tune with the nurses’ footsteps. Blood pressure cuffs constricted around my bicep and calves.

Two automatic sliding glass doors whoosh open. You walk in, nervous and scared faces surround you. A stale bleach smell fills your lungs. Men and women, young and old dressed in varying shades of blue scrubs file paperwork, pound on a keyboard, or chat with patients families. You are in the Desert Springs emergency room in Las Vegas, Nevada. People say that it takes a special kind of person to work in the emergency room. Someone who can handle the most unsightly wounds, someone who can forget everything they’ve seen as soon as they walk out the door of the hospital, someone who works well under pressure, and someone who can put up a front to handle patients families even in worst case scenarios. But who really are these employees? Is it as easy as they make it seem to forget about a patient who you just witnessed take their last breaths or tell a crying mother that their son may never walk again?

Bright lights, doctors coming in and out of this big open cool feeling room so rapidly, that I can’t keep up with the names with the faces, I smell a faint chlorine smell, almost to where it burns my nose. I am nervous. Sweat is dripping off my forehead, slowly making its way down to my gown. I remember thinking to myself that when I stand up next, it’s going to look like wet myself. Now another thing I have to worry about. “Is this really the day, is this day really happening” I thought to myself. Then again, another doctor comes in the room, so calm, his hands looked like they were floating, but so precise. This guy knows what he’s doing “I said to myself under my breath. I could barley breath. My imagination started to take over with worries,

Today is officially the first day of my nursing career, this is the day I have been looking forward to for years. Recently, I received a position as an emergency room nurse which has been my desire for as long as I can remember. The pace and the unpredictability are the factors that drew me into this field of nursing and finally, I can experience it as a registered nurse. I hear the familiar sounds of the ambulance approaching getting louder with every second, I can feel my heart thumping in my chest and perspiration develops on the palms of my hands. I know this patient will be my first case. I quickly grab a trauma gown and some gloves and head out to meet the ambulance.

There are 7 billion people living on this planet, and I can say that I have something in common with all of them. We have all faced challenges that have made us who we are today. For me, I have dealt with the challenge of my family’s coming to America when I was very young, with no English skills.My family and I come to the US from a refugee camp in Thailand when I was 10. My parents had fled Burma to the camp 14 years before and started their family there. I am the oldest of 6 kids - 4 of whom were born in the camp. As soon as we got on the plane, I could tell that our journey was going to be a challenge. My parents and I could not understand anything that was said, and I was confused by all the new and different food that we were served. When we finally arrived in Charlotte, NC after three days of traveling, nothing was familiar. Even the names of streets were different. I was terrified to start a new school. As it turned out, my first day was harder than I thought. I felt sad and alone and wanted to cry all day because I did not understand what my teachers or peers were saying. Every day I wanted badly to understand what other people were talking about. I spoke only Karen and Karenni at home and English was a very strange, weird, and difficult language to learn. I was placed in an ESL class but it was not very helpful and I was only able to take it for one year. I realized quickly that I would need to work hard outside of school to learn the English that I wanted to

Recently informed that my admission has been rescinded has personally taken a toll on me. I am completely devastated to say the least. I never would have thought something like this would have happened to me. I felt as though everything I ever worked for has been taken away from me. I never imagined something like this would happen, especially so late. Before I started the process of filling out college applications I was completely unaware as to where I wanted to go for school or what exactly I wanted to do. For some reason Channel Islands caught my eye. I saw myself doing great things at CSU Channel Islands because it's a small school that's open to new ideas. I saw myself becoming more involved in the school activities, even starting up a fashion club. I saw myself showing my leadership skills not only to others around me but to my younger siblings in hopes that they too will follow in my footsteps.

The numbing cold air surrounded me as I took my first steps into the operating room, much to my surprise. The aroma of the air fills my nostrils with a smell I have never smelt before. I see everyone has their gowns, mask, gloves, booties, and hair nets

On September 12, 14, and 19, 2017 I had the pleasure of tutoring Haven. Haven is a nine-year-old, who is in fourth grade at Mark Twain Elementary School in Hannibal, MO. In each session, we would work together for 60 minutes. I was able to learn a lot of things while tutoring. First off, going in to tutor Haven and not knowing really anything about her and her learning preferences. It was hard not knowing what strategies helped her the most when reading or which ones made it more difficult for her. But that is going to be with any student(s), you just have to go with the flow. You will learn those things as you get to know the student. That is what happened with Haven and I, within the first tutoring session she let me know her learning preferences and what she liked. Then within the sessions we were together, I knew which strategy helped her while reading and what she struggled with.

It is October and the coldness of outside matches the icy interior of the hospital. I have been in the surgical waiting room for three out of the ten hours, and I already feel antsy. I have sat in every possibly comfortable position I could think of in the cheaply upholstered chairs. So I decided to roam the halls. As I walk down the halls I take it all in. The children pushing each other in their wheel chairs, smiling though their cannulas and IVs, the babies that are cloaked