Career Field Experience Final Exam Essay by toreh on Scribd
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This is the final week of working at the medical center. Sadly, our coordinator no longer wants students to intern there because our hours are a bit all over the place (which is understandable). However, this last week I got to work with cardio rehab, infusion, and on the OB service. I got to talk to Alyssa more and she said I can come any time after school and volunteer in their department if I would like to, that's something I'll for sure keep in mind. I loved working with Alyssa and Ms. Shannon because they taught me so much when it came to reading EKGs and taking blood pressures. Ms. Shannon also taught me more about the PA profession and how some of her friends are PAs. I worked on the OB service and was able to see a Mirena IUD insertion which was pretty interesting and awesome! I felt bad for the patient, however, but it was really fascinating to watch. I comforted the patient as well because she was having a hard time going through with the procedure, so it was really nice being able to comfort her and calm her down and also learn about this procedure at the same time. It was an amazing experience and I am excited to have more experiences like this. Infusion had a little pot luck for an early Thanksgiving and it was really nice seeing everyone come together and eat and enjoy their work day. They made the most out of it and I loved that about it. I loved working with everyone from the Medical Assistants to the nurses in infusion and the cardio therapists and nurses in cardio rehab. I hope to get another experience like this again because this was an amazing opportunity. Me and the other students who worked at the center are planning on buying the crew some cookies and flowers as a way to thank them for all they've done and for allowing us the opportunity to work with them. Thank you again! This week I worked back in Infusion with the other nurses and rotated in between and worked in Cardio Rehab with Alyssa and Shannon. I've worked in Infusion multiple times and all I get to do is take vitals and talk to the patients. I sometimes do get a tad bit bored working in Infusion due to the fact that I cannot do much in that department; however, I love talking to the patients there and distracting them from their treatment and the reason they're there. I do learn a bit of information from some nurses there. One nurse broke down the disease Multiple Sclerosis to me and how it affects a person's ability to perform basic motor actions and sometimes affects your vision. I also learned about people that have week immune system which in result causes them to get sicker a lot quicker and easier than the average human being. It's extremely interesting learning about all these diseases and how people with them are treated for them. I enjoy working in Cardio Rehab because Alyssa, a woman who works in that department (not sure what her job title is), teaches me a great deal of information when it comes to reading an EKG (electro cardio gram) test and what is an average person's EKG and what is a person who has had a stroke or heart attack before EKG. I also got to accurately get a person's blood pressure visually rather than taking my stethoscope out and hearing for those thumps and stuff. I felt good about that because that shows that I am improving when it comes to taking blood pressure and may soon become a master in it (hopefully)! This week I got to finally work with the most praised doctor I've heard so many great things about: Dr. Gibson. Dr. Gibson is an Obstetrician/Gynecologist and she is also the President of Michigan Medical Society. I got to work with her and her MA Lashae and they showed me different procedures and allowed me to take blood pressure like usual and also call patients into their room. I got to see a Nexplanon implant procedure which is another type of birth control contraception and I also got to hear the heart beat of a fetus which was really amazing! I really enjoyed working on the OB side because I learned a lot from working with Dr. Gibson. She taught me how to do a Nexplanon impant procedure and what we were looking for when listening to the fetal heartbeat. She told me the range of how many times a heart is suppose to beat which is 50 to 160. I really loved working on the OB side and with Lashae. Dr. Gibson is an inspiration to me because I want to be as caring as she is when it comes to caring for her patients and her staff. I hope I can be as great as she is when I become a physician. This week I was able to work with another MA, one I've never worked with, and her name was Laveatrice. It was exciting working with her because she was extremely nice, super friendly, helpful when I had any questions or needed assistance with anything, and she showed that she cared I was there to learn. It was almost as if she was proud of me for doing something like interning at a clinic and getting my foot into the door. A patient came in and we do our routine where we will take their vitals - blood pressure and temperature -, take their weight and height, and then take their pulse. I was allowed to take the patient blood pressure manually and it turned out a little lower than usual, so Laveatrice stepped in and double checked my numbers to only find out that I was actually correct the first time! I was extremely happy. That was the first successful BP I've ever taken and it felt rewarding that all that practice paid off and I got an accurate, correct reading. After that, I got to measure a baby's head (super cute!) and we sat around waiting for more patients to come in for their appointments. This week was a lot more hands on and a lot more rewarding. Working with Laveatrice was neat and I'd love to work with her again. This week I got to work it's a few of the MA's and I got to practice taking people's blood pressures and pulse. I use to have a difficult time taking people blood pressure because I would always have trouble hearing the thumps and all that to get the systolic number. I either would get the systolic number and not get the diastolic number or the diastolic number but not the systolic. It was always a complication of mine but I practiced it over the week and I'm doing a good job at almost mastering it. I can take BP more confidently now and I don't panic every single time someone tells me to take a patient's vital signs.
I read the 5 minutes early is on time; on time is late article and I can agree with this. I believe being on time doesn't mean you're exactly on time. I like to be early to any events because I have time to get settled in if needed to and I don't have to rush to get there if I'm running behind. At my employment place, our coordinator doesn't really "crack down" on us about being late; however, I wouldn't feel comfortable showing up late there so I try my best to be even a little bit early so I can get my stethoscope out and ready to go straight into work. I also talk to my coordinator a bit earlier than I begin working so it helps having time before I really start working to chat with her about anything. Time management is extremely important, and I know it'll definitely be crucial when it comes to college, medical school, and life in general. I do not have a physical planner, but I do plan to get one later in the year once my financial state is suitable! As of now, I use this planner app to keep track of all my homework and its due dates and any upcoming quizzes/tests. It's been working pretty decently so far, but it's my duty to log the assignments into the planner. I will admit that I do forget sometimes. This week I got to work with the medical assistants again and I got to take a patient's vitals before the MA took them back to their room to wait for the doctor. I worked in Infusion again as well and I got to take vitals and talk to patients and try to make their stay there a little more comfortable. I tried to help them focus on something else besides the treatment they may be getting or any pain they're currently feeling. It works for some which makes me feel good. It makes me feel like I'm doing something helpful at least because I can't do much since I am a minor and not certified in treating patients or practicing medicine. Yet. This week I got to work with a medical assistant by the name of Sam, he's probably my favorite person there because he's funny and super friendly. I got to see babies get check ups and also got to see some of them getting vaccinated. It was a pretty neat experience because I plan to work with children in the future, so being able to see babies and kids and what the MAs do was amazing. I also worked in Infusion again and got to take people's vitals like blood pressure and temperature. I also learned about a process where if a mother is pregnant and she has positive blood and the baby has negative blood, the mother's body will attack the baby and possibly kill it because the body believes it's a foreign object in the mother's body and wants to get rid of it. One of the residents there taught me that and I thought that was fascinating. I also learned of a rare skin disease called dermatomyositis where the skin develops a very extreme rash and can be deadly if the rash develops further into the body and get ahold of the organs. This week I worked with a Medical Assistant by the name of Dale. I got to observe her draw blood from patients before they were leaving the clinic, and I also got to see what veins she was trying to go for and what veins she didn't want to go for. She could tell just by the look of a patient's veins what they use to do in the past and I thought that was rather interesting. She's a surgical MA, so she told me all kinds of surgeries she's been in before and which one was her favorite and which one was her least favorite. She told me that she loved participating in an open heart surgery; however, she couldn't take the surgery that involved a gigantic ball of hair being taken out of someone's abdominal region. I thought it was fascinating, but she didn't think the same. She told me more about the world famous Dr. Gibson and how Dr. Gibson is the best OB she's ever encountered and that just made me want to meet her more! Dr. Gibson is so loved by everyone she works with and that just inspires me because I hope I can be as good of a doctor as her. Dale and I also talked about my future on becoming either an OB/GYN or Pediatric surgeon and she just told me to keep going for it and that I can do it if I put my mind to it. I really enjoyed working with Dale because I can see her passion into career and I love seeing that in people who work in the medical field. It's an intimidating field, so seeing people love doing what they do is comforting. This week I got to deal with patients with the help of Medical Assistants and some Registered Nurses. I got to work with a MA on one day and we helped a patient, but I cannot really discuss any information about the patient due to HIPPA laws. We just did a regular checkup basically. The next day I worked in Radiology; however, the x-ray machine was down, so unfortunately all I did was a little reading and quiz along with that reading and that was about it... The next day I got to work in Transfusion and I got to take blood pressure by myself and manually check people's pulse. I also got to take patient's temperature and watch an RN put in an IV. It was pretty fascinating. The day after that, I got to work in the Cardio Rehab center where I learned about patients who dealt with heart conditions or heart procedures and were ordered to take some kind of physical therapy. I worked with Nicole and another lady there who worked the entire section by themselves. They were really involved in their patients' lives and it was so sweet hearing them talk to them as if they were all family. You could tell how much they cared for their patients and their health. I learned the process of how they take the patient's blood pressure at rest, then while they're exercising, and then when they're done exercising. It was pretty neat. I loved that I got to be able to work with patients this week; that was possibly the highlight of my internship so far. |
Victoria PerryHello, all! I'm Victoria Perry and this blog is going to be about my journey through Career Field Experience and shadowing doctors, nurses, etc. Welcome to my journey! Archives
November 2016
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