My pediatric oncology internship today at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta- Scottish Rite was so overwhelming and intense but I am so glad I did it.
It was kind of confusing at first to find the oncology hall but I asked people who were headed that direction and they took me right where I needed to be. Once I got to the front desk I asked for the nurse I was meeting, Caitlin. Caitlin was really sweet and told me a lot of things that were very informative. There were twenty patients on the hall and they were all cancer patients under the age of eighteen. All of the nurses got together to have a morning "huddle" which is when they all discuss their tasks for the day. The first few hours were very hectic and I don't think my eyes closed once to blink. That is just how intense this experience was. The patients need to get their vitals checked every four hours. That is the heart rate, their temperature, their oxygen levels, and other factors. After we went to each of her three patients rooms we had to document everything she had just done on a computer. Each nurse gets three to four patients per shift. There are about seven nurses per each shift. Before long I realized that it had already been an hour and a half. Nurses were speed walking up and down the hall making sure they got what they needed. Everyone was working incredibly hard to make sure their patients were doing well.
One of the many things that was very sad today was that there was a "DNR" patient on the hall which stands for do not resuscitate. He is only two years old with Leukemia and this means that if he begins to pass away, then they will let him pass away. Two out of three of Caitlin's patients were three year old boys which was really sad. They were so so so cute I just wanted to hug them, but I didn't because I would have gotten in trouble since I am just a shadow. The last of Caitlin's patient was a nine year old little girl who has a tumor in her femur and her family had to make a huge decision. Her decision was for her leg to be amputated or to have other surgeries done that won't be nearly as affective. It was a huge decision that I do not know what they decided on, but I am thinking about her and I hope she recovers.
After doing rounds of checking each patient once again throughout the hallway the little girl needed to take her medicine. This was also heartbreaking because she hated taking pills even if they were crushed up. She thought about how it was going to make her sick so much so that it literally made her even more sick just thinking about the pills. This was probably one of the hardest moments for me during these several hours spent at the hospital. I was just standing there watching her cry and I felt completely helpless.
As sad and mentally draining as this day was I am so glad that I did this experience. I feel that if I were a nurse I could truly save peoples lives. I realized that if I did go into that field I could never anticipate anything, and it would definitely keep me on my toes. Overall I feel that this internship went incredibly well and I think that it prepared me for more sad yet still wonderful experiences Claire and I will face in Belize! I am very much looking forward to helping people and gaining the experience of a lifetime in just a few days :). I took a much needed afternoon off after this internship and then I blogged and logged! Today was another very successful day!
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