This week in Practicum, we went to our first field placement. I was placed in the Emergency Department in the hospital. The ER was not very busy when I arrived or while I was there. I was nervous when I first arrived in the ER, but after a while I became more comfortable and began to ask questions. There were only three patients in ER while I was there. They had minor injuries. One women came in with back problems. She rested and was then gave a prescription for the pain. There was a older man that came in for kidney stones. The nurse told me that it is best to keep patients with kidney stones hydrated. The last patient I saw when I was in the ER, did not seem to no what was wrong with her. The nurses ran a EKG on her to try to discover what was wrong with her.
I learned that if I were to work in the ER I would need to get used to working at a fast pace. Also, I would need to be able to go with the flow because sometimes the ER is very busy and other times it is very slow. I believe that after a while I would be able to adapt to the ER and perform well in it. I learned that the ER is more than just one large room full of patients. There are different departments in the ER ranging from very serious to very minor, such as back pains. I expected the ER to be similar to the way it is depicted on television shows, but it was not like that. The thing I enjoyed the most about the ER is when the nurse would first get a case and she would explain to me how a good nurse is always a step ahead of the game. Mostly I liked when she would tell me the patients symptoms, such as a headache, and then she would have me guess what I should do, such as give the patient medicine, in order to discover what was wrong with them. I liked this because I got a taste of what ER nurses do. I did not like all the down time we had at the ER. Because of it being such a slow day, I feel like I missed out on some interesting things I could have seen and learned.
My mentor at the ER was nurse Jo. She was very informative. She would explain to me what she was doing and why. She would answer any questions I asked thoroughly. She gave me the reality of the ER in a nutshell. At the ER, I noticed that communication, quickness, and consistency are very important traits to have. Fortunately, I have all these traits. I communicated with patients, asking them how they were doing when the nurse told me. I was quick following the nurse around and observing. Lastly I am consistent. Everything that you do in the ER has to be documented for records. I believe a large majority of my personality traits are good for this career because I am very well with talking to others and I am responsible enough to fulfill all the requirements of this job.
This experience helped me grow as a person because it helped me see how important loving your job is. My mentor said that she loved her job and she was good at it too. She inspired me to really find something that I am passionate about and make it my career. After reading over my reflection, I feel that going to the ER was a very good experience for me to have. It gave me an opportunity, for the first time, to actually see a career I am interested in.
