Our first day in Bethel, AK was quite the experience. We had an early flight with a day full of orientation at the hospital. After a lot of miscommunication and confusion, we got everything figured out and we students were able to go to clinical the following day.
Our first day at clinical was an eye opening experience, to say the least. We all had patients that we were not used to having. I followed a nurse named Kevin and we had three pediatric patients.
The first patient was assaulted in her village. She had scratches and bruises all over her face, hands, back, and stomach. The nurses think she was drug around which caused these scrapes. We treated the scrapes and gave some multivitamins to her. Our main focus was to try to find out what had happened to her. She admitted that there was alcohol involved, but also stated that she had no memory of who had done this to her and what had happened. This specific situation was very shocking to me. I hadn't really seen anything like it in my past clinical experiences. Kevin said that situations like this are fairly common and that alcohol and violence are huge problems in the villages.
The second patient I had was sick with pneumonia. We were treating him with antibiotics and were pushing fluids. The interesting thing with this patient was that he had a history of liver cancer and therefore they put a g tube in. We only used the g tube for medications and supplements, but he was able to eat most foods. He was developmentally delayed and deaf. This was another situation I was unfamiliar with. This patient had such a complex history for such a small age. It was definitely a great learning opportunity. I was able to communicate the with patient and his parent and also provide culturally appropriate care.
The third patient was an adult. She was in the hospital because she was hypernatremic; she wasn't getting enough fluids. This patient was handicap and was taken care of by her parents. We pushed fluids and documented strict I & O's. We also noted that she had scabs on her knees because at home she gets around by crawling. We did dressing changes on her knees twice a day. I learned a lot by communicating with the patients parents. They were very nice and willing to teach me things about their culture. Kevin and I also (attempted) to teach the parents the importance of the patient drinking water and that they needed to document it on the I & O sheet. They understood what we were saying, but I don't think they understood the importance of it, therefore it wasn't being done.
My first day on the unit was the most eye-opening experience I've had in my clinical rotations. Getting to experience other people's culture first hand is very humbling and a great learning opportunity. I saw some really sad things on the unit, and some shocking things as well. It was such a great experience and I'll keep these memories with me for my entire nursing career.
Our first day at clinical was an eye opening experience, to say the least. We all had patients that we were not used to having. I followed a nurse named Kevin and we had three pediatric patients.
The first patient was assaulted in her village. She had scratches and bruises all over her face, hands, back, and stomach. The nurses think she was drug around which caused these scrapes. We treated the scrapes and gave some multivitamins to her. Our main focus was to try to find out what had happened to her. She admitted that there was alcohol involved, but also stated that she had no memory of who had done this to her and what had happened. This specific situation was very shocking to me. I hadn't really seen anything like it in my past clinical experiences. Kevin said that situations like this are fairly common and that alcohol and violence are huge problems in the villages.
The second patient I had was sick with pneumonia. We were treating him with antibiotics and were pushing fluids. The interesting thing with this patient was that he had a history of liver cancer and therefore they put a g tube in. We only used the g tube for medications and supplements, but he was able to eat most foods. He was developmentally delayed and deaf. This was another situation I was unfamiliar with. This patient had such a complex history for such a small age. It was definitely a great learning opportunity. I was able to communicate the with patient and his parent and also provide culturally appropriate care.
The third patient was an adult. She was in the hospital because she was hypernatremic; she wasn't getting enough fluids. This patient was handicap and was taken care of by her parents. We pushed fluids and documented strict I & O's. We also noted that she had scabs on her knees because at home she gets around by crawling. We did dressing changes on her knees twice a day. I learned a lot by communicating with the patients parents. They were very nice and willing to teach me things about their culture. Kevin and I also (attempted) to teach the parents the importance of the patient drinking water and that they needed to document it on the I & O sheet. They understood what we were saying, but I don't think they understood the importance of it, therefore it wasn't being done.
My first day on the unit was the most eye-opening experience I've had in my clinical rotations. Getting to experience other people's culture first hand is very humbling and a great learning opportunity. I saw some really sad things on the unit, and some shocking things as well. It was such a great experience and I'll keep these memories with me for my entire nursing career.