Day in the PICU
Today, I had the cool opportunity floating in the Pediatric ICU. I first started off waiting for the charge nurse to assign me to a nurse to follow for the day. I waited outside the room of a patient who was coding. The little boy's mom was outside of the room next to me and the doctor was on the phone with a Spanish translator to explain what was happening. The mother seemed worried and was full of questions speaking into the doctor's cell phone.
Not too long after, the charge nurse brought me over to a nurse. The night shift nurse was giving hand off to the day shift nurse and I stood there and jotted down some notes about the two patients for the day. They were both in for very different reasons, but their tiny bodies looked so tiny and flaccid through the glass.
I went into both rooms throughout the day with the nurse, learning about why they were hospitalized, what the next step was in their treatment, assisted in diaper weighing, and got to observe a lot of nursing skills. My main role was basically to observe throughout the day, but I was able to carry both of them in my arms at some point so their linens can get changed. One patient also had a respiratory illness which was convenient for me since it overlapped with material that I was going to be tested on my exam tomorrow! The other patient had their parents with them there the entire day -- asking questions, pumping breastmilk, staying incredibly active in their child's care. The parents shared with me a line from the Bible (Psalm 30:2) -- "O Lord my God, I cried out to You, and You healed me." The parents were highly religious. They had a lot of faith. It was really inspiring and admirable. I am not very religious myself, but I do have a lot of faith. I believe in miracles. I also believe that things happen for a reason, as the parents mentioned. My only hope is that their precious child fully recovers and lives a long and healthy life.
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At some point in the day, I went with my nurse to check out a pair of twins (which I was PRETTTTYYY EXCITED ABOUT! for reasons I will not share in depth here out in the Internet). Let's just say... their case was PRREEETTTYYY interesting and I am extremely fortunate to have gone into their room to say hello.
Alright... I have a Peds exam tomorrow. What am I doing? TIME TO GET CRACKIN'!! Wish me luck!
Sincerely,
Meagan