When I first arrived at the hospital at 7:30 am, Naudia met me in her office, and she discussed the day's surgical schedule with me as well as the add-on patient list that she needed to attend to for the day. Once we reviewed a few patient charts, we headed up to the hospital floors, and we assessed a baby boy that has been admitted to the hospital in order to have a gastrostomy-jejunostomy tube (GJ tube) placed; this tube serves as an alternate way for feeding. Once we observed the patient and Naudia further explained the purpose of the GJ tube to me, we headed to a different floor of the hospital, and we assessed a patient with William's syndrome. This specific syndrome causes patients to have distinct facial characteristics, and upon entering the patient's room, I could tell that the young boy had William's syndrome by his facial appearance. When we entered the room, I noticed that the young boy did not have any family members with him at bedside, and Naudia explained to me that for patients who have extensive stays at the hospital, it is not uncommon for parents to leave their child alone at the hospital for a while because it can be too difficult to take off work or adjust entire routine schedules around the hospital visit. Naudia also was kind enough to let me use her stethoscope to listen to the patient's heart. Because I have never used a real stethoscope before, I found it so fascinating to listen to an actual patient's heartbeat. While I was on the patient floors, I also took a second to notice just how friendly and inviting all the floors are because of the beautiful and creative artwork that decorates each of the specific floors of the hospital. Once we were finished with the few patients on the main floors of the hospital, we took a trip down to Same-Day surgery in order to assess some of the patients waiting there for surgery.
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AuthorMy name is Caroline Rogers, and I am a current rising senior at Hutchison School. This blog is dedicated to my summer internship through Hutchison Leads at Le Bonheur Children's Hospital in Memphis, TN. Because of my passion and interest for all things medicine, I decided to explore the field of nursing with Family Nurse Practitioner Naudia James who works with the Anesthesiology Department at the hospital. I aspire to attend nursing school as a college student, and I am thrilled to begin studying medicine and exploring a topic that interests me greatly. |