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The last two weeks working in the hospital have been such a mind-blowing experience. I have been looking back through the pictures and now realize how incredible of an experience it has all been.
The third week rotation, I moved to a different hospital-Arco Iris. WOW. This hospital was way nicer than Hospital del Nino. Just in the fact it was newer and not JUST pediatrics. While at this hospital, I followed a resident of gynecology. It actually helped my last semester at Mayo was partly gyno, so I had a little bit of an idea what to expect. This guy was awesome. We did rounds, entirely on pregnant women. They were all 17 or younger, which was hard for me, but he said these young women WANT their children, and promised it was a good thing. There was one case (a little more complicated) the girl had a low amount of amniotic fluid and with each contraction; the umbilical cord was getting crushed. I watched him do a Doppler and then give an inducer. WHOA-not ready for THAT type of procedure. We then went down to the intensive obstatetric ward and he gave 4 more inducers. I felt a little
out of place with all these women just screaming in so much pain-so my great idea; help them keep an eye on the prize. I questioned the heck out of them about their babies…names, gender, other children. I think it helped-I had some of them laughing!
The next week, I was able to join the consultorios movil. SUCH a cool experience. This “ambulance” loaded up a doctor, dentist, assistant, and me! We drove about an hour outside La Paz. It was like off-roading in Uyuni again, flying through sandy tracks-we even drove through a river! You wouldn’t believe how much punch those ambulances have! We parked at a little plaza and the kids swarmed! I was informed there was no school today, and that is why all the parents sent their kids down. I played the role of crowd control. We swung the sliding door open, and I formed 2 lines, one for the dentist, one for the doctor. The majority of the kids were there to get their teeth pulled. I was able to watch the dentist awhile, and you could actually SEE the huge cavities and rotten teeth. I was sympathetic until I stepped back outside the ambulance
and half the kids had suckers and ice cream.
It was so cute, they just LOVED me taking pictures of them, and wouldn’t you know my luck ran out and camera battery died within the first hour! The rest of the day, playing crowd control, drawing in the sand with the kids, and they had a blast with my stethoscope and listening to my heart. SO adorable.
The next day I headed to oncology. When I first began thinking of nursing as a career, my ultimate dream job was to work at St. Jude with oncology pediatrics. Since then, I have found that might be too hard for me. Well, the idea has re-opened completely. I have met some of the strongest and bravest kids in this unit-literally brightened my day each day! The majority of my stay in oncology was one on one time with the kids, keeping them busy (coloring, puzzles, dolls, and balloons!) Case wise: I saw tumors, leukemia, retinoblastoma, lymphoma, etc. A really neat part was looking at the x-rays with the doctors/residents. Nursing school doesn’t give me the opportunity to see the black and white evidence. I feel like I learned so much on what
to looks for and what each different type of cancer can appear as.
Finally, I got some OR experience!! Scrubbed right in and stood belly up to the operating table. I had a mask on, but my mouth was agape the entire time! I was able to stand in on 3 different surgeries. One, the boy had tissue bulging from his belly button that made his belly button moist all the time. The surgeon went in and burned off that tissue and sewed it back up. Next, watched a little boy who had a cyst in his throat. This was a pretty eventful surgery. There was the surgeon, intern, surgical tech, and 2 students (including me) All of a sudden the intern falls ONTO THE PATIENT, drops her surgical tool, and the doctor freaks out and the nurses rush in and bring her down to the ground. A whole lot of fast-talking Spanish occurred-but they pointed at me to grab her shoulder. We carried this intern out to a stretcher other residents had ran and got. YOIKES. Come back in, fully shaken up, and the surgeon asks me or the other student to take her place and hold the clamp.
I was not sterile, and declined so another surgical tech stepped in. Quite the event.
The last surgery I watched was a little boy who was in a motorcycle accident and had gotten surgery to close the wound on his ankle. They had apparently done it wrong and the skin had become necrotic (dead) the surgeon went in, took out the old stitches, cut off the skin and washed the wound. I gathered they were going to do a skin graft at a later date, so the wound was just bandaged up. This was the messiest surgery-but DEFINITELY the coolest!
Like I said, quite the experiences and lessons learned. This has been such an opportunity and I feel SO lucky.
Shout out to CFHI for an awesome awesome program!!!
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anonymous
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QUE LINDO!!!!!!!!!!!!