Final Blog!

I recently finished up my second internship with Ogallala Commons. This summer I was able to work with the healthcare system in Dimmitt, Texas at Plains Memorial Hospital. My internship began on June 8^th and started out with getting familiar and oriented with the hospital and its staff. I was extremely intimidated and nervous going in to the work environment but the staff quickly helped me get over my nerves. My supervisor’s name is Renee Castillo and she along with all of the other staff at the hospital were great! They were always willing to help me out with anything I needed. I was welcomed with open arms and was guided along the way. When you work in a hospital, there is never a daily routine. On days I would help the Certified Nurses Assistants (CNA’s), our “routine” would be to wake up the patients, take their vital signs and assist them with anything they needed to start their days. Then breakfast would come and after breakfast we would offer to assist with bathing as the desired by the patient. Here is where I learned the basics about patient charting. Working with the CNA’s helped me master many of the skills I had learned in my Nursing Skills class the semester before. Some days I would shadow the Registered Nurses (RN’s). I would watch them perform health assessments which is something I am currently learning in the nursing program at West Texas A&M University. I would observe how they took notes, changed dressings, administered medications and many other things that nurses perform on a daily basis. I enjoyed working at a smaller rural hospital because I feel like I got more out of it had I been working at a larger hospital. At Plains Memorial, I was included in many things and was not treated any differently. I attended a few meetings and presentations held by the hospital staff and got a lot of interesting knowledge from it. During the duration of my internship I also completed my ten hours of community service, five hours at the Amarillo SPCA and five hours at Hart High School helping my mother, the school custodian, finish up some work she still needed to get done. Both projects were equally rewarding to me, I love animals and I love my mama, so it worked out well. I am extremely grateful to have been able to be a part of such a rewarding program as Ogallala Commons. This internship has opened a tremendous amount of doors for me and has opened my eyes to new things I otherwise may have never been exposed to. This internship has changed my life for the better and I hope to one day be able to touch the lives of others in a way Ogallala Commons has helped me.