Brendan Finnerty

Jefferson Hospital
October 22, 2022
0630-1300
Clinical Week 12
Dr. Malissa Williams, Tara Phillips
Reflective Journal
Paragraph 1:
My overall clinical experience has been a great learning experience with a ton of
opportunities to get hands-on experience. The majority of patients I had were patients in
hospitals for a recent fall who needed surgery. The one patient I had was a 75 year old female.
She was originally diagnosed for generalized weakness and anemia. Then they found out she
developed ogilvie's syndrome( which causes acute dilation of the colon making it obstruct flow
of intestinal contents.) This later led down the line to further complications because she wasn't
able to take her heart rate medicine because they made her NPO. So, she started having
Tachy-cardia and on top of all that her potassium levels were extremely low like 2.7. The doctor
ordered her potassium runs to help get her potassium levels in range.
Paragraph 2:
My clinical day starts as I arrive at the hospital and make my way to the Ortho floor. I
start by unpacking all my stuff and getting prepared in the nurses lounge. Afterward I make my
way to the floor where I meet with Dr. Williams as she posts the assignments for the day. I then
write down my patient's room number and make way to an open computer. Once I get logged in
I start gathering information about my patient. I then look at reasons for admission, medication,
allergies, code status, demographics, safety considerations, lab values, and vitals. Next, I form a
couple questions/ concerns that I ask about my patient to the Nurse during patient handoff. I
then proceed by introducing myself to the patient and start performing the safety awareness
assessment and pain-scale assessment. Afterwards I get vitals and start performing a
Head-to-Toe assessment so I can start charting the information I receive. Following, I make sure
if I am passing medications I understand what medications I am giving. Finally, I complete my
day by checking in on my patient and then reporting-off to the nurse of all the tasks I’ve
completed. I also inform the nurse of the status of my patient. At the end of the day we have a
post meeting conference where we talk to one another about different events that occur. Dr.
Williams will then start addressing the summary of the day and teach us ways how to be a better
nurse. She always is strategizing on how we can go about the care in the best way possible. Also,
she gives us compliments of what she thought we did well on and constructive criticism of how
we could be better. Overall, she wants what is best for us and wants us to exceed so we can be
the version of ourselves.
The nursing functions I perform can depend on the situation the patient is in. I always
perform the head-to-toe assessment, pain scale, and vitals. I’ve had multiple opportunities to
administer medications and give two subcutaneous shots. Also, I help my patient in daily acts of
living like ambulating my patient to the bathroom. Another thing I’ve done was help my nurse
slide a patient from one bed to another. I’ve got to observe a wound dressing, IV injection, and a
blood transfusion. Overall I’ve had a great experience in learning something new everyday. I like
that everytime I leave the hospital I learn something I didn’t know. Some things I could
definitely improve on are confidence and time management. My time management can be fixed
by starting my charting earlier and completing my task.
Paragraph 3
Additional opportunities that I seeked out were observing a blood transfusion. I also
assisted my nurse with ambulating the patient. I've observed multiple times of an IV push and
nasal cannula being put on. I also help set up chair/bed alarms for my nurse and help with vitals.
Another thing I’ve done while my nurse was passing medication was check on her other patients
to make sure they didn’t need anything or her. I’ve also made beds for my nurse and taken care
of food/drinks for her patients. I also learned how to make coffee in the hospital. Finally, I got to
witness how the two step verification for the blood transfusion was completed.
Paragraph 4
In conclusion, I’ve felt that when I have my confidence I perform so much better.
Sometimes me working myself up and letting my nerves get the best of me is my biggest
downfall. This is seen more when passing medication to the patient. Overall, clinical to me has
been great, I love my group, my teacher, and the nurses. They all help me learn, educate, and
inform ways that I can be a successful nurse myself. I also learned that in order to give a blood
transfusion you need two nurses present . I felt I’ve done well on communicating with my nurse
and getting to know my patient. I feel like I can improve on my medication and my time
management skills. Finally, my goal is to do a blood-glucose test on my patient. I really enjoyed
the opportunity