Grace Flannery - Blog/The whole week

        This week I definitely experienced some things that I have never experienced before within the medical world. Growing up I always knew that I wanted to be a nurse and when I got this opportunity to shadow nurses at Dartmouth I was super excited. There are so many different paths you can take in nursing that I was kind of overwhelmed with my options, but having some exposure to the ICU has made me realize I could possibly want to be an ICU Nurse. 

        Something I wanted to share about my week that isn't really talked about much was how mentally draining it was just being in the ICU. You have to prepare yourself to see anything, but somethings you just can't prepare for like seeing someone who has pass away. Yes this week was draining, but I am also not even in college yet and I think that through my years at college I will be well prepared for long shifts. Again thats another thing to get used too, but so far I have really enjoyed and found the ICU very interesting. 

        Throughout the week I saw patient's come and patients go, but I also saw patient's who never left and patients who have been in the ICU for a bit now. With many different illnesses and medical problems it was so cool seeing and learning about how each individual patient was cared for. The different medications that are given and the different things that each person is hooked up to is crazy, and thats something that confused me throughout the week. It obviously easier for the nurses to stay organized and know what medicine is given to their patients but the added pressure of keeping these patient's alive is crazy to me. I still have a lot to learn but so far my senior project has been super interesting and it will definitely benefit me in my future. 


Comments

  1. Kyle ConnollyMay 16, 2023 at 3:21 PM

    I know we spoke briefly about it, but you can rest assured that you have much more in you than you know to be able to log those marathon 12 hour shifts that are part of the full-time hospital settings like this. If you're brain is engaged in the work then it makes a huge difference. Glad to see that you're really soaking so much of it in.

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