Last Pediatrics Clinical & My Experiences!

     As I originally entered pediatrics clinical, I was more scared than anything due to the fact that I really did not have much experience with kids, let alone taking care of sick kids. To me after the first day of clinical I assumed that I would dread waking up every Wednesday morning, and feel like I was walking around on eggshells, however, after experiencing my last day, I am going to be upset every Wednesday I wake up and do not get to go to CHOP and take care of the children. 

    Though you may assume a student nurse does not get to do much on clinical at a children's hospital (as I also assumed prior) I learned so much from my opportunities at CHOP. Even on the occasional days or hours where I was left to do not much but watch, it was still one of the best experiences I have gotten. I cried in the car on the way home from my last clinical, because I was really so moved how just a simple 6 weeks could change my outlook on nursing and make me potentially think I could do something like this for a living. I would even cry sometimes as silly as it sounds on the weekly because of the kids that really touched me, whose lives I felt like I was making an impact on. A lot of these kids, regardless of their state, made me feel like more than just a nursing student, they made feel important to their care. 

    Throughout my time at CHOP on the Neurology and General Pediatrics floor, I got the privilege of learning from many amazing nurses, and getting to take part in care of the children. In my time there I was able to take vitals and learn to take them with different methods in children. I was able to give medication like oral medications, and IV flushes for medications. I was able to feed children orally through a bottle and push feeds through nasogastric tubes for children. I assisted the IV nurses team in placing a new IV site on my patient when the other IV had infiltrated. I did simple things like changing bed linens, and changing gowns of children. I changed diapers of young children, as well as children who were once toilet trained and unfortunately became incontinent due to altered mental status. I was able to accurately document Is&Os, document vitals signs. Finally I was able to prepare feeds for children, or even run to different floors when ours was out of a type of juice my patient liked. 

    This was truly one of the best experiences I have had so far in nursing school.