First Clinical in Peds

My first time on the floor was pretty good, I was nervous at first because this is my first time working with infants and younger children. My first patient was a 4 month old and I was anxious and thinking he was going to cry but he was chilling, moving around and let me take his temperature; in my head I was like please don’t cry, please don’t cry lol. My nurse helped me through it which eased my nerves and the parents were nice as well which made me a bit more comfortable. My second patient was a two-year-old and I had to perform vitals on her, I was nervous because she was the first patient I did full vitals on. I was more anxious about forgetting to count the correct sec for HR and RR; I worked through it by remaining calm and going to the instructor for assistance along with practicing outside of clinical so I am more comfortable. Also, I had to give this patient bolus feeding through the NG tube which was pretty cool, weighed her pamper for urine output and performed a respiratory assessment.
One thing I learned was that the parents were actually nice and allowed me to provide care despite my basis thinking they would be mean or say no. Also, as previously mentioned learning how to do bolus feeding was a good learning experience applying what I learned in lab to patient care. The respiratory assessment allowed me differentiate normal and abnormal lung sounds and the toddler had substernal retractions which was pretty cool to observe as well and tachypnea. During the upcoming weeks in clinical, I hope to learn more about pediatric care, utilizing proper clinical judgment while providing case and easing my nerves. Also, I would like to see procedures performed if we are allowed like placing a NG tube or chest tube, going to the NICCU and other departments.