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First Pediatrics Clinical!

October 18, 2023 

    As a student experiencing clinical on the second end of the semester, it came with many worries and lots of excitement with what was to come for me as my friends have had these experiences already. For this semester I got lucky enough to have my pediatric clinical placement at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.
    For me personally, the hardest thing the first day was waking up. Waking up at 5 am to ensure I am making the shuttle bus from the parking lot to the hospital to be at the hospital at 6 am has been rough. As a student who majority of the time can barely get in sleep at night from staying up studying, I am hoping this is not a continuous problem having difficulty getting up, and that it gets easier as time goes on throughout this semester. 
    Walking into my first clinical was a scary experience, especially at such a big hospital with all sick or injured children. However, walking into clinical I was amazed by the complexity and the building itself  beauty. My day only continued to get better. I had an amazing preceptor nurse who allowed me to do everything I could and observe everything possible. 
    My nurse allowed me to feed my patient through their feeding tube, watching my patient get a new IV from CHOP's IV team, take my own vitals on the patient and input them into EPIC the patient's EHR and listen in on rounds with her. Though clinical is an 8 hour day, the day flew by so fast because I truly enjoyed every second of being there. 😁

Comments

  1. Shannon ToomeyNovember 9, 2023 at 12:24 PM

    Hi Samantha! I really love your blog and I love how honest and straight forward you are about your experience! I also had my pediatrics clinical at the Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia and I can agree that it is scary walking into such a large hospital for the first time. However, it does get less scary as the weeks go on. Im glad you had a great experience and I cant wait to hear about the rest of your clinical experience.

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