Post-Practicum Reflection 1

Post-Experience Reflection

Brooke Roane

Bon Secours Memorial College of Nursing

Chris-Tenna Perkins, PhD, ANP, CNE

NUR 4116P

November 11, 2018

“I pledge”
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Given the opportunity to attend and serve those in need at RAM-Grundy was a

very humbling experience. Not only was this an opportunity for myself to experience a

nursing role outside of the hospital setting, it provided me with the experience of working

with another population outside of my immediate community that I am more familiar

with. As a student nurse, I was able to utilize my skill set and knowledge, but in addition,

I was able to connect and just be present with the patients I interacted with. All of this

combined enhanced the level of care I was able to provide, leading to a more meaningful

experience for myself.

Most of my time serving with RAM-Grundy was with the triage area. I personally

enjoyed this task because outside of registration, I was given the opportunity to see many

of the patients arriving to be served. With triage, I used my nursing skill set to obtain

vital signs and the patient’s past medical history. Any values that were abnormal gave me

the opportunity to provide patient education, as well as be an advocate for if they needed

further attention from the on site medical team. Some of these patient interactions were

short and I was able to direct them to their next stop for further care. However, some

interactions were longer which allowed the patient and I to interact more and get to know

each other and share our stories. Serving in the people of Grundy, I was able to push

aside any and all biases toward a vulnerable population and approach each of my patients

the same; with a smile and an open heart to serve.

After patients came through triage for vitals and medical history, they were given

the choice of seeing the dental team or the vision team. Due to the time and the amount of

patients being served, unfortunately they were not able to receive both. If any patients

had either elevated blood pressure or blood sugar, they had to be treated for those first
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before they could receive treatment, especially dental work. This meant longer hours of

waiting for treatment, with the potential of not being able to be seen. While waiting, some

of these affected patients talked to me. It was heart breaking to see the scared look on

some of their faces or the desperation in needing the help, as this was their only chance

for help due to no insurance or no other offered services. These encounters helped to keep

me remaining humble knowing how easy it is for myself to take my vision and dental

care for granted due to easy accessibility.

Prior to this experience, I worried there may be a communication barrier that may

be hard to overcome or possibly the barrier of patients being embarrassed on their

situation or why they needed the care RAM offered. Within my first few patient

encounters, I found these were not barriers at all. Most of the patients I directly served

were more than willing to open up about their situation and provide an extensive history

on their life, job, and health. The main barrier I noticed was the incompliance with

medications. Many patients with high blood pressure needed to be treated before their

dental work. They were provided a prescription of a blood pressure medication. Through

interaction, a few patients admitted they do not like the way the mediation makes them

feel so they would take it that day to be able to receive treatment, but would more than

likely not continue when they got home. I tried to provide as much patient education as

possible, but unfortunately that is as far as I am able to go with being a good steward for

these patients.

Overall, serving with RAM-Grundy was a great learning experience, both for

medical skills and knowledge and managing patients from a different community than my

own. As a nursing student, so far I have only been exposed to bedside nursing within the
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hospital. While I encounter many different patients with different backgrounds, the

overall population is close to my own. Getting to serve in the environment of Grundy

opened my mind to a new perspective on how a different community makes a living and

how different and/or difficult access to healthcare can be. I plan to use the skills and

knowledge I learned while serving at RAM-Grundy and use them in the future for both

my remaining nursing education, as well as in my future nursing career.