Tuesday, July 19, 2005
Children's
As I mentioned during my opening blog, this summer's workday has secreted me away for hours at a time at Arkansas Children's Hospital. I chose to take this job over a lab position with the State Highway Department in order to gain experience in pediatric medicine. I had already worked in an emergency department, a general medical/surgical unit, and a nursing home. These had shown me different faces of modern medicine. I learned several things: while I enjoyed the excitement that the emergency department occasionally offered, I feared I would burn out on it; most hours spent in a hospital are not effulgent or exciting, but rather spent providing care that requires more patience than skill; while in the hospital, patients and family greatly appreciate small things - like smiling faces and cups of ice water. I learned how to get vital signs (blood pressure, heart rate, etc.) on a wide variety of patients. I was taught how to change sheets without taking the patient out of the bed. I also learned that I do not want to go into geriatrics: people who are sent to nursing home all too often release any will to live, spending their remaining months, years, or decades anxiously awaiting death. These people, who may have lost function of body and/or faculty of speech, can still somehow pose this question to you (the one paid to provide the care that keeps their body alive): "Why are you forcing me to live like this? Why can't you just leave me alone and let me pass away?" I greatly respect those who can see this day after day, and still offer compassionate help to our waning elderly; however, this is not for me.
In hopes of experiencing the other extreme, I applied for and was offered a job at Arkansas Children's Hospital as a Patient Care Technician. This is basically a fancy, newer name for a nurse's aid. I have really enjoyed it. These children still have the will to live, and to recover from whatever ailment brought them into my professional life. And they have parents and family to support and encourage them through it all. I could happily make a living helping these kids get back to being kids. The one big thing that I did not expect (though in retrospect seems as though it should have been rather obvious) is the amount of the job that was spent dealing with the parents. Most of the time, the patient was not really that concerned with their own body's malady, but rather much more concerned with playing games, watching a movie, or "no needles." It was normally the parents who were the ones bearing the weight of worry. This worry, when paired with the exhaustion of caring for a sick kid and trying to get sleep, could sometimes make dealing with them less than pleasant. Thankfully, this was actually only rarely the case. Most of the time, the parents just needed the reassurance provided by the numerous medical-looking people who were continuously checking on their child. All in all, working at Children's has been a very good experience for me. I have not really learned much new in the area of medical care, but I have had a chance to see pediatric medicine from behind the nurse's desk. I may have found my professional calling.
In hopes of experiencing the other extreme, I applied for and was offered a job at Arkansas Children's Hospital as a Patient Care Technician. This is basically a fancy, newer name for a nurse's aid. I have really enjoyed it. These children still have the will to live, and to recover from whatever ailment brought them into my professional life. And they have parents and family to support and encourage them through it all. I could happily make a living helping these kids get back to being kids. The one big thing that I did not expect (though in retrospect seems as though it should have been rather obvious) is the amount of the job that was spent dealing with the parents. Most of the time, the patient was not really that concerned with their own body's malady, but rather much more concerned with playing games, watching a movie, or "no needles." It was normally the parents who were the ones bearing the weight of worry. This worry, when paired with the exhaustion of caring for a sick kid and trying to get sleep, could sometimes make dealing with them less than pleasant. Thankfully, this was actually only rarely the case. Most of the time, the parents just needed the reassurance provided by the numerous medical-looking people who were continuously checking on their child. All in all, working at Children's has been a very good experience for me. I have not really learned much new in the area of medical care, but I have had a chance to see pediatric medicine from behind the nurse's desk. I may have found my professional calling.
# posted by Jeffrey @ 6:50 PM 
