Day 5 – Clinical rotation at Hospital Ramon Garibay.

Another exciting day in the Operating room!! I thought after seeing my first C-section that watching another one would be exactly the same. I was WRONG!! I think mine and Larissa’s eyes could not have been any larger and our jaws might have been touching the floor when we saw the second one. The pregnant patient had had a couple of back surgeries so the anesthesiologist had decided that it would be in her best interest to go under general anesthetic instead of receiving a regional spinal block. We watched as the anesthesiologist administered the general and intubated the patient. That in itself was so awesome!! CRNA program here I come!! Anyways, after he pushed the next drug, he quickly said to the surgeon, vas (GO). Before we could walk around the curtain, the surgeon had already made the first couple incisions. Within 60 seconds the baby was out!! I think the exact time was 52 seconds!! It was AMAZING!! The baby had to be delivered within two minutes from when the anesthetic was given or else it would have made contact with the baby!! It was another beautiful Girl!!

After we finished watching the C-section we went up to watch the assessment of the newborn ask questions and found out more about the entire procedure. Once we were done we went downstairs to find more opportunities to speak with patients. In the ER area there is a procedure room. A man was having debridement performed on the diabetic ulcer on his shin and ankle. I asked him, Tiene dolor? (Do you have pain) and Como se siente? (How do you feel).  He said that he had pain but he felt good, but I could tell by his face he was in more pain than he was letting on. I decided to perform nonverbal nursing care by holding his hand. I continually told him to relajase (relax), when he would tense up. He was a sweet older gentlemen and he was so thankful to me for being there with him. That’s what nursing is all about.

Friday was our last day at that hospital, I was sad to leave because I really enjoyed listening to the different perspectives of the doctors and interns. They really went out of their way to answer our questions and help us with patient interaction practice. Dr. Lopez, anesthesiologist, is an inspiration to me due to his genuine heart related to patient care. He really went out of his way to teach us about the procedures. I told him that I wanted to be a CRNA and he was so proud!! Next week we will be going to a health clinic so that hopefully we can get more patient interaction. We will also have a Spanish instructor with us to get more help with our sentence structure and grammar.

Dr. Lopez, a few of the us from the program and some of the medical interns

I had so much to say about Friday that I didn’t get a chance to talk about the weekend. I will save that for tomorrow.

One thing that I always have to remember with nursing is – Always listen to your patient and watch for cues.

Favorite Spanish sentence of the day – Que medicamento esta tomando? What medication are you taking?