NursingZen

Evidently, after 3 weeks of not having clinicals and a lot of free time on hand, I lost some momentum for blogging. I really appreciate that some of you are still coming back to read and chat with me.

Starting two weeks ago, everyone in the class got assigned clinicals. Some people go for two days a week, others for one. I go for one day of clinicals each week for 3 weeks. My C.I. is new to the role, and a little frazzled, but my group kept kissing her feet for helping out.

As in Med Surg, we follow a nurse and focus on assessing and giving medications for one of her patients. As I followed my nurse on her morning rounds, my first reaction was shock, then sadness. That day none of her patients’ parents were present, so after just a few minutes assessing each child, we left them lying alone in their bed. It’s bad enough to imagine adults lying around bored and lonely, but children … can you imagine them alone for hours at a time? As the morning bustle died down, the nurse and I were able to revisit the babies to cuddle them; the nurses can even put babies who are not on isolation precautions into a car seat and bring them out to the hallway and nurse’s station for more human interaction.

My patient during this first week was a 10 month-old boy with a GI problem. He was also developmentally delayed; at 10 months he still couldn’t sit up. He had a fairly flat affect, but was adorable. Imagine Stewie from Family Guy. I’ll call this kid Stewie, too. Another of my nurse’s patients was a 4 month-old who had been in the hospital since she was born. Because a part of her intestine is non-motile, she has two ostomy bags to drain digested food. I was told that it’s likely she will never be able to eat food.

Aside from feeling nervous about touching these beings that seem so incredibly fragile, the most challenging part of the day was trying not to feel pissed at Stewie’s mother for not being around. My nurse had told me that his mother rarely comes to see him. My initial reaction was to judge her.

Then I found some time to read Stewie’s social and family history, and everything fell into place. His mother is a teenager. She lives in a town far away from the hospital. She works nights at a low-wage job. She can’t afford to travel to the hospital or stay in a motel near the hospital. The father is a substance abuser and is out of the picture.

At only 10 months old, the child is going to be transferred to a pediatric skilled nursing facility for an indefinite time.

Pediatric nursing seems to see the sickest of the sick, as well as children from broken homes and children who have been neglected and maltreated. Pediatric nurses have to be skilled at not only working with kids, but also with their caregivers, and they have to be even more cautious about boundaries. I had suspected that I’m the type to get too emotionally involved with vulnerable children and unfortunately so far I’ve been right.

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