On the 27th of June, I started my clinical placement at Sydney Hospital and Sydney Eye Hospital with Paz, Ali, Rachel, Lauren and Claire, with Julie as our facilitator. Rather than talking about what happened every day, I'll just mention some highlights of my 2 weeks clinical placement.
- I say, waking up at 5:00 AM everyday was a pain but I eventually got used to it. I didn't have any problems sleeping earlier either since working for 8 hours each day, with 2 20-20 minutes long breaks only, and having to look after all those patients can be quite exhausting. But I don't regret it because it was a rewarding experience =).
- The very first patient we talked to was a young NZ man who practically opened his entire emotional, personal and spiritual life to us. I found it quite enlightening and thankful too for this rare opportunity. I never realised how open patients can be towards nurses; really, we are their advocates and I'm quite proud of that =). He said that our encounter was meant to be and I agree - there's no such this as coincidences.
- One of the elderly patients gave me a nickname; he named me Day 1, Day 2, Day 3 depending how many days it has been since I started my clinical placement. I found it quite endearing and appreciative because he bothered to remember how many days I've been at the hospital already =).
- I was following this young registered nurse (RN) one day and she was quite helpful; she gave me advices and criticisms, she really helped me realise all my flaws in my nursing care and technique, and helped me improve on my skills. As thankful and grateful as I was, I also couldn't help but feel incompetent, realising how little I actually knew about nursing care. Even the things that I thought I could do properly was proven to be not enough when providing care to actual patients. I felt disappointed for the rest of the day, but I quickly gained my enthusiasm again =). If I'm down, then it'll be evident in my care, and I don't want to make the patients feel worse than they already are.
- I didn't actually save a life, but I felt like I help prevent it from becoming worse. Paz and I were taking a patient's vital signs when we noticed how low his blood pressure was. We did it twice to make sure it wasn't a mistake. We also checked his observational charts to see if he usually have low blood pressure. His average systolic was around the 100s, so we realised something was definitely wrong. We were going to ask the RN who was in charge of the patient to check it for us, with a manual blood pressure machine, just in case but before we could ask that RN, another RN also noticed the low blood pressure score that we noted down so she went to take the patient's blood pressure manual instead. Thankfully, it was the machine's fault and it wasn't as dangerously low as we got in the first place. If it was genuinely that low, even with the manual blood pressure machine, then we would've activated PACE (which is like the procedure for an emergency in the hospital). I was happy that we did the right thing and managed to 'potentially save a patient's life' xD.
- There was an Aboriginal Appreciation Day of some sort at the hospital one day. We (USYD nursing students and facilitators) went to watch the performance, got a free badge and had free sausage sizzle and salad. We also went to a session to listen about the culture and health of Aboriginal people. It was interesting =).
- We also went to other sessions at the hospital. There was one that taught us how to use the vital signs machine and another taught us about wounds and how to care for it. I learnt quite a lot from those sessions =).
- Paz and I got to watch a cataract operation and wear scrubs. We thought we wouldn't be able to watch it and it was the last day of us working at the hospital, so we were a bit disappointed however; when we got back from our lunch break, the nurses were all saying how they were looking for us and all because we finally got permission to watch an operation. The last patient went up 20 minutes before we came back and we thought we were too late, so we were disappointed and sad, but a nurse brought us up there just to try and see if we can still make it. Lucky for us, the patient was still waiting in the waiting room =D, so we get to watch it. I wished we brought our phones with us so we could take photos of us in scrubs! Though, we did get to keep our disposable eye protectors =). It was disgusting but fascinating at the same time =D. At times, I just wanted to look over their shoulder to see what was really happening, but we just stuck to watching it on the TV screen instead. The screen was pretty clear (HD quality) but apparently, it was much clearer under the microscope O_O! It was actually a strange scene... It was more casual than I thought it would be, maybe a bit too casual... Like seriously! Soft classical/jazz music playing in the background; the anesthetic doctor was just sitting there, playing his sudoku O_O; sometimes, they would even pause and chat a bit =S. It really wasn't what I was expecting. Though, in such serious a situation with lots of pressure, I guess you really would need a bit of mild entertainment to ease the mind a bit.
- The stereotypical separation between nurses and doctors was blown away from my mind. I thought that doctors and nurses will have this definite separation between them due to their jobs, but I was proven wrong when I witness such friendly interactions between the nurses and doctors. The anesthetic doctor was nice and was very willing to answer all our questions and was detailed with his explanations =). Yes, some nurses and doctors do have this tense, inexplicable atmosphere around them sometimes, but most of the time, there was barely any hierarchy between them. Well, maybe Sydney Hospital is just a really friendly place =P.
- Julie, our facilitator, was a wonderful woman =). Her enthusiasm really helped encourage me a lot during the clinical placement, and seeing her as a nurse was quite inspirational. I admit, she really does love to talk and sometimes get so lost in the conversation that she forgets about what her nursing duty was, but it's quite endearing when I watch her talk so cheerfully with the patients; it really does bring a smile to my face =). Now that's what I call aesthetic knowing - the art of nursing. I'm very grateful and thankful that Julie was my very first nursing facilitator for my very first clinical placement. She really helped me a lot by giving encouragements and helpful advices. I wish she would go to USYD and teach us nursing. Even though it's over now, I still have her number, so it's okay xD.
- The very last day of clinical placements was Friday 8th, July. We spent half the day working on our booklets, discussing and talking about nursing related topics (well, most of the topics were related to nursing...) and bidding our farewells to the patients and RNs at the hospital. We gave a card to the RNs, and Ali was considerate enough to buy a card for Julie too. We all wrote in it before giving it to her. We spent our time inside this private room at the library. The room was called History Room (or something along those lines...) and it really did look like an old room, with a mantle, sofas, a wooden table with six chairs and a wall occupied with bookshelves, all of them had books, with no space to spare. After everything was done, we went to Lindt Cafe at the corner of Martin Place, across the Channel 7 building, and had lunch there. It was a bit expensive (especially the desserts), but it was worth it =). After lunch, we took a photo, exchanged emails and bid our farewells. Paz and I joined up with my friends after that, but I'll blog about it on another blog post =).
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