Somewhere I Have Never Travelled, Gladly Beyond by E.E Cummings

Journal #31

My job shadowing experience was a good one I think. First, I did not get the memo though that the floor would be really hot. I got overheated and almost passed out in the 11 o clock hour and was going to have my dad come pick me up. I sat in the break room for about a half hour until I cooled down and then decided I was well enough to go back on the floor with my person. I thought the job shadowing experience put in to perspective how much work that these people do on a daily basis. The girl I worked with was quick because it has taken her years to learn the computer, so she knew how to type everything in really fast and get caught up on her work. I learned that is it is hard not to develop and emotional attachment to the patients. Even in the short time I was there, I felt bad for the 93 year old man that we were taking care of. He was so nice and talkative, and it was hard to put aside feelings for profession. I think that is okay though if I want to study oncology because the patients need that kind of support and comfort while maintaining a professional status. I think that based on the experience I could go into that career, just in a different area. The person I shadowed was the charge nurse so she called all the shots on the floor that day and she only had two patients to look after the whole day. I think I need to get over some things first. Like she watched one of her patients throw up all over himself, but she cleaned it up and came right in the break room and ate her food. Looking back now, there really was a lot of downtime on the job, which I was not expecting. She sat doing paper work and computer work for the majority of the time until one of her patients would ring the buzzer for help. I think that if I were to go in to a nursing career I would want to be a little busier. I did not like just sitting down a lot because I wanted to be up doing other things. I think my experience overall was a good one and I might go back and shadow strictly oncology sometime soon.