MedEx Day 11

Today was my fourth day of shadowing for clinicals, and it was an amazing one! Even though I wasn't able to shadow a physician, I shadowed the nursing staff in adult oncology for the first time! I wanted to be a nurse at one point but decided that I was more passionate about becoming a pathologist rather than a nurse. However, I have an immense amount of respect for the nurses because they do even more work than I originally thought they did! They care for and see the patient seemingly more than a doctor does as I barely saw any physicians in the hallways of adult oncology. I now can see why nurse burnout is such a great problem in healthcare today as nurses give their all and all of their empathy to a patient for sometimes 12 hours straight multiple days a week, and eventually I can see how it would get tiring. There were times that the nurses would come together in the break room and discuss patients in a negative and mocking light, which was hard to hear about. It is true that the charge nurse I followed, Kristina, was seriously harmed by a patient months ago when she attacked her, but I don't think all patients should be talked badly about behind their backs just because their wig is off center. I understand that working as a nurse can be frustrating sometimes, but I would hope that I would treat patients with respect and kindness, even behind their backs.

Overall, I was astounded by the amount of constant care that the nurses provided the ill patients with severe cancer, and many times it was difficult to see as the family members of the patients came to see them and many were bedridden and hurting. Some had intense bowel movements to where they would need to call and wait for the nurses to clean them up. One of the male patients who was about to undergo palliative care had a leg so swollen and large that it was almost three times the size of a normal leg, and he couldn't seem to be comfortable with how it was propped up. This patient also had wounds that needed to be cared for constantly all over his back. It felt good to be able to help him in some way by shifting the pillow under his foot to give him some comfort, and it truly made me want to do more because he was so kind to me despite his circumstance. Truly, I felt as if I had a connection to all of the cancer patients because none of them seemed entitled and they were truly thankful for any care they received. I definitely feel as though I am meant to do something in the healthcare field in the future with cancer to give these patients the best care, as well as the best chance at survival. It was hard to see a young mom in a hospital with poison (essentially) while working on a computer! She is so strong! There were, however, happy moments working on this unit as one of the young patients had finished his last chemotherapy treatment through the hospital and will be moving to an outpatient facility for treatment. It was heartwarming to his genuine enthusiasm for life and gratefulness for still being alive!

I also did not know what a charge nurse was before this clinical rotation, but I quickly learned just how important they were, even though they didn't interact with patients as much as the other nurses. They were truly needed to keep everybody organized, patients happy if something extra is needed, and to keep all of the PPE stocked. Since the regular nurses are seeing at least four patients at the same time, it's hard to make sure that everything else is accounted for, but the charge nurse makes sure of it! The language that the charge nurse used with the patients was inspiring as it seemed to put them at ease immediately. She utilized words such as "sweetie" and "can I help you" to the point where one of the patients felt comfortable to talk about her life story. I can only hope that my voice is as calming and positive for patients as Kristina's was for hers. I also know that if I become a doctor, I will make sure to look at all of the nurses in the eye and try to talk to them. Kristina had mentioned in the beginning that the new doctor had not even looked at her in the hallways, and she seemed pretty upset about it.

The day ended very happily as a young patient in the BMT, or Bone Marrow Transplant unit, requested a service dog to come cheer her up. It was very uplifting to see a cute puppy, Moses, jumping around and bring joy to the young patient who was attached to multiple IV bags. They even let an older patient see the dog! I realized that the nurses on this unit would truly do anything to make their patients happy and comfortable, and I truly enjoyed following them today! Even though one of the new admits to the unit wasn't even a cancer patient and was just struggling from an overuse of marijuana and drugs, they treated him with kindness and grace and were quick to set him up in a room for recovery. Overall, I hope that my future career in medicine will bring me to have some impact in the oncology field!