Stephanie Ciarkowski

Mrs. Coda
Family Health Nursing Practicum
November 22, 2022
Children’s Hospital Reflection

What Went Well

I felt that my experience at Children’s Hospital went well and I enjoyed my experience there.
Most of the staff were very friendly and helpful. Everything is done routinely so once you get into
the routine it is fairly easy to remember when you should be charting or be with a patient. I
learned a lot about different diagnoses such as Superior Mesenteric Artery (SMA) Syndrome
and Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV). Unfortunately RSV occurrence rate has been increasing
a lot since the COVID-19 pandemic and quarantine. RSV is a virus that without frequent
exposure, the body slowly loses its ability to create antibodies against and therefore leading to a
large outbreak such as being seen at children’s. Along with those diagnoses, I also got to learn
from other student’s patients and how different all of them presented. I felt it was a great
learning opportunity and gave me some experience with how to perform nursing skills while
entertaining children.

What Didn’t Go Well

Although I feel this experience went well overall, there were also some negative aspects to it.
For example, the charting is very specific due to the fact that it affects billing for the patient. This
made me nervous to chart in the wrong place, of which I did, but I was able to go in and mark
my charting off as a mistake. Once Mrs. Coda was able to go in and remove the charting for the
RN, I felt more comfortable. The only other example I can think of that didn’t go well during this
experience was that there had been a couple times where I went into a patient’s room for the
first time prepared to do vitals and they did not have the proper equipment in their room (blood
pressure cuff normally) and then I would have to leave and come back. Although I know that I
came as prepared as I could have, it felt as if I should have been prepared for that to happen
also.

What Do I Need to Improve on

For my next experience, I think I need to improve on my organizational skills and coming
prepared. As I mentioned previously, there were one or two instances where I had gone into a
patient's room prepared to do vitals, only to find they didn’t have what I needed in the room.
Then I had to leave, come back, and finally do my vitals. I can improve by always keeping spare
equipment on me. I could go to the clean equipment room and grab the appropriate blood
pressure cuff and pulse ox for my patient. As for organization, I think I will have to use a
notebook of some sort so I do not run out of paper and possibly small sticky notes so I can write
my vitals as I take them. I tried this on a couple patients and felt it made them easier to keep
track of, considering they were mixed in with my report so I had to look for them constantly. I feel
those would help my time management and organization skills for my next clinical experience.

Recall a Patient
One patient I recall having was a 12 year old admitted with infectious mononucleosis (mono).
She also had some unspecified stomach issues. As an early adolescent, I understand the
importance of friends as support and family. Her mother was there and she was frequently on
her phone with a friend. She did not seem to like it when we came into the room and it seemed
to be annoying her. I understand we are frequently checking and reassessing the patient, so it
may seem excessive to them. However, this is how one avoids missing serious accidents or
health issues when in the hospital. I interpreted this as she did not want to hangout with me and
talk even. When I went in I would ask her some things such as her pain, how she felt, if she
needed anything, and I would stay to talk longer depending on how she responded to me. For
example if I asked her how school has been this year and she says ‘fine’, I read it as she may
not want to talk about that. I responded by just trying to keep conversation light, find out what I
needed to, and if she seemed to want to talk I would stay longer.