My internship at Hereford Regional Medical Center has given me once in a lifetime opportunity to experience reality of nursing. I have learned so much over this summer about nursing; it has really boosted my confidence working with patients. I always knew I wanted to go into Neonatal intensive care unit once I am done with nursing school, but it was awesome to experience every department of nursing. At Hereford Regional Medical Center, I got to work in many different departments such as Obstetrics, Nursery, Medical surgical unit, Emergency room, Post anesthesia care unit and Operating room. I knew that once I saw the Obstetrics area that that was going to be my favorite department and it was! I got to see many things ranging from a non-stress test observation to cesarean section. I got to see numerous natural births and cesarean births too. I also got to see the surgeon take out the whole uterus out of the body to sew it back up. That was really interesting to watch. In the medical surgical unit it was nice experience one on one patient care. It really teaches you about being patience. I was not able to experience anything that exciting in medical surgical unit but it was overall a good time being able to care for patients. The emergency room was okay, I think the reason I did not enjoy it the most was because when I was in the emergency room, we barely got patients in and if we did they were mild cases for aches and pains. Post anesthesia care unit was a good experience because you get to see patients that have just woke up from surgery and they say the funniest stuff while being medicated. Also post anesthesia care was interesting because cliff the CRNA would show me everything about anesthesia so it was good to get a stand point from a CRNA. The Operating room was the best experience I have had while being at the hospital. I got to see tubal ligation, hernia repairs, perirectal abs. operation, EGD. From the Esophagogastroduodenoscopy the operating room manager allowed me to do biopsies from the patient stomach that was so cool! I was shaking in my shoes because that was the first I did something and I did not want to mess up! But overall from this experience I will always remember being able to do that. The internship was a challenging because being only one semester in nursing school I did not have the confidence in being so active in the nursing role. The biggest challenge I faced being there was not being familiar with everything at the hospital such as where to get supplies and stuff. Some nurses just expected me to know where I can find certain items and when I was unable to find it, it made me feel bad because their attitude would change about me not knowing. Overall, this internship was a huge success! I greatly appreciate every one of the nurses showing me and allowing me to do new things.
