First week @ WakeMed

First week @ WakeMed

I will finish my first rotation by tomorrow! What an amazing week!
First, when I got my rotation schedule from my preceptor a week before my starting day, I was shocked at that time since I will spend most of my summer time @ intensive care units. It is good because it fits my interest very well.

My first rotation is rehab, which uses totally different system from acute sites. There are several unexpected things/good experience:

1. There are a lot elderly patients, I have to learn how to communicate with them—speaks clear, loudly and slowly, make sure they understand what you are saying. I felt awful at first time when I talked to a 91-year-old lady for her food preference, I tried to make myself clearly, loudly, and she still thought I was the person from nursing home. She got pretty upset since she thought she would be kicked off from Hospital. After several tries, we finally worked out and got a good communication. Lessons learned: makes clear points, speaks in short sentence and slowly, and pays attention to what they say as well as their emotions.

2. There will never be the same chart/assessment form with what you learned from classroom. Every hospital has its own format; the best learning way is from your practices. I have already written several charts for initial assessment and done several calorie counts. When I am getting familiar with format and working environment, it is about time I will leave. I have to learn everything when I start my next rotation!

3. I learned how to calculate IBW and EEE for patients with Amputations (AKA, BKA or both, or whole leg) it is more complicated than I ever thought. It is good experience!

4. Culture competency—not easy to do, especially for foods. The hospital diets are very limited for choices. If you are on special diet (diabetic, dysphagia or renal), you wouldn’t have any choice for your menu (even we can enter what you like or dislike)--patients always complained their diets. For patients from different counties, it makes harder to satisfy patients.

That’s all for my first rotation, I expect I will learn more later on …