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Blog 5

Spring semester has been so hectic with all the changes that have been going on and I am thankful for all the staff that has helped maintain things steadily throughout the rest of the semester. My first time stepping into clinical I was so scared and nervous because you are there to help people and I was afraid if I made a mistake. I had direct patient care before clinical but it seemed to be a whole different perspective with all the nurses running around, call buttons being pressed every minute, and everyone making sure the patient is taken care of constantly. I have improved so much from the beginning of clinical till now and I am still improving. Understanding how to communicate with the patient using verbal and nonverbal techniques has allowed me to understand a person as a whole. Being able to take vital signs, complete a head-to-toe assessment, and making sure the patient is taken care of by administrating medications or even responding to any of their requests, I seem to be improving. Not only was I able to learn how to communicate with the patient, but also be able to communicate with the nurses, doctors, and the PCAs on the floor. Making sure I communicate with everyone that is a part of the plan of care helps reduce any medical errors and have better outcomes. A person can always improve throughout their practice because you learn something new every day. I would like to see myself in the future being able to make a change in a patient’s life. I want to be able to help as many people as I can and to see myself doing good for the community. Expanding my resources by meeting new people will allow me to reach my goal in the future by becoming a nurse practitioner. I am glad therapeutic communication is a class that is provided for us because it has helped teach me the other side of patient care that is not related to medical needs. It has shown me how to be there for a patient emotionally, mentally, and physically and allow them to understand that they have a shoulder to lean on.

 

Keep it professional even through virtual clinical!

Blog 4

One of my favorite healthcare tv shows growing up was watching Grey’s Anatomy. Throughout the show there are many great positive and negative provider/patient relationships examples. From a positive perspective we can see that the providers show empathy throughout the patients’ stay in the hospital. They fulfill the patient’s need by listening to them, building a sense of trust, and providing support. Being in the hospital setting can make a patient feel vulnerable so the providers provide comfort to the patient(s) until they regain optimal level of health. In one of the episodes, the whole floor gathered together to show moral support to a patient who was nervous for their surgery. The health care provider can build a sense of trust with the patient to more efficiently treat them. On the other hand this show has many negative issues on provider/patient relationships. One of the episodes that targets this point is when the provider decided to cross the boundary between patient/provider relation and gains more personal feelings for the patient. The patient was on the verge of dying and the provider did anything she could to keep him alive, even if it meant breaking the rules. This affects the professionalism of this provider and can cause emotional and physical harm to the patient. In my opinion, this provider should have taken a step back and throughly thought about the situation. The patient is in harm and the provider could lose their medical license to practice. The first step that should have been taken was to go to a higher authority or anyone on the floor to discuss the situation. There are many ways to prevent this in appropriate relation with a patient through training and education. It is best for any health professional providing care to understand the positive and negative aspects of a patient/provider relationship in order to maintain trust and a professional standpoint.

Bajes Anatomy

Blog 3

Being in a clinical setting has been an amazing journey for me thus far in nursing school. There have been many patients that I have been able to interact with and learn about their different diagnoses. I want to start by discussing more on the positive side of communication during my clinical time. Because I have previous experience working with patients, I can have a straightforward conversation with the patient and his or her family members. Being able to have a conversation allows you to build trust and understand how to meet the needs of your patient. Whenever I tend to have a conversation with someone, my main goal is to find a way to make them smile just so they can live in the moment and not worry about anything that is causing them pain. However, there have been some communication challenges that were difficult for me to interpret. Many different medical terminologies were being used when getting a report for the patient, and it was hard for me to paraphrase what was being said. I tried putting the pieces together to understand what was wrong with the patient, but it was a challenge because of all the words being used. I would say a language barrier was one of the communication challenges I had during my clinical. This effects me in the way of perusing a nursing career. In the future, I need to find ways to better understand what is wrong with my patient. One way to overcome this challenge is to be able to learn about the different terms and not be afraid to ask questions. Speaking to anyone who is in charge is one of the challenges I have that I need to find a way to overcome. Another communication challenge was trying to decipher if my patient’s nonverbal communication was based on them trying to tell me something or if it was a sign or symptom from the medication they were on. The patient seemed to be fidgeting with his feet throughout the whole time I was there. I didn’t know if it was because the medication was causing him discomfort, or if he was uncomfortable in the way he was lying in bed. The nurse walked in and witnessed this too, then the nurse asked him if his feet were causing him pain. This was something I should have asked him.  Luckily the patient didn’t have any pain, he was just in an uncomfortable position and needed to be repositioned. This learning experience contributes to me by not speaking up and asking a simple question to the patient. I need to learn that asking questions will not bother the patient, but will only help them. I just have to make sure I am phrasing my questions correctly.  To overcome this challenge in distinguishing nonverbal communication, I could ask the simple question, “Is there anything that is bothering you?”

 

First Long Day of Clinical

Blog 2

In order to write this blog, I went to the Starbucks located inside of Barnes and Noble. This is my favorite study spot because I tend to get all my work done, and I am still able to enjoy a delicious iced coffee. The different types of communication that can happen among people are verbal, nonverbal, written, and visual communication.  There were many different forms of verbal and nonverbal communication happening among the people inside of Barnes and Noble. First, I will start with the verbal communication. A woman was having a FaceTime call to someone on the phone and was visibly happy because she had just found out she was going to be an aunt. Her voice seemed to amplify the room with happiness from the wonderful news that was presented to her. Another verbal instance that happened was seeing a father reading to his daughter a book from the bookstore. They seemed to be having a great time because they were both engaged in a discussion about the book. The pair were pointing out different pictures and flipping through the pages. While trying to remain unnoticed in my observations, I also saw non-verbal communication. The young girl crossed her arms and had a frown on her face due to her parents not getting one of the desserts that she wanted from the menu. With this observation, I believe that the girl seemed to be frustrated or annoyed due to not getting what she wanted. Her mood changed when her parents decided to get her the dessert she wanted and the reaction she made was interesting. As she was handed the dessert she smiled and went and took a seat while enjoying her delicious pastry. Another non-verbal communication was seeing a woman twirling her hair and fidgeting with her feet while reading a school textbook and taking notes on it. These signs seemed as if she was stressed, had anxiety over the material she was reading and was just overworking herself. Lastly, what was interesting was seeing a conversation being held between two people who appeared to be deaf. They were practicing sign language together and it seemed as the conversation they were saying was interesting to each other. I believe sign-language would be considered a type of verbal communication because the gestures that are being made are substituted for spoken words. Understanding the different forms of communication can help you learn in the medical field what your patient is trying to tell you. Being in the hospital can be a vulnerable state for a person so learning about these types of communication will allow you to have a better relationship with your patient.  Either verbal, nonverbal, written or visual we can depict many things a person is trying to convey in a different type of communication.

A picture of me observing people and trying not to get caught

Blog 1

Hello Professor Newtz,

My name is Mohammad and it was wonderful meeting you for the first time in the seminar today. I am looking forward to learning about different ways I can improve my communication skills in the medical field, and in public. I grew up in a Middle Eastern household where I learned to speak another language. It is a wonderful gift to be able to speak another language because it can help you communicate with patients coming from the same background. Speaking Arabic in primarily English-speaking areas has made me interested in learning other languages. I come from a family of four where being the middle child somewhat has its benefits. School is my first priority no matter what challenging obstacles come my way. Graduating as valedictorian pushed me, even more, to succeed in life to make my family be proud of the son they raised. There are many things I enjoy doing in my free time whenever I am not stressing about school. Traveling is what I love to do mostly because I am able to meet different people, make new relationships, and learn about different religions and cultural practices. I have visited many places throughout my life such as; France, Morocco, Palestine, and Mexico. I hope to visit many more places in the future. These places have an extraordinary landscape and the people you meet along the way, and the stories they share are amazing. Besides traveling, I enjoy going to the movies, spending time with friends, and working out. Horror and romance are my favorite types of movie genres. I enjoy the feeling of being scared once in a while and shedding a tear whenever I can. My friends are my second family and they mean everything to me because they have been there through my tough times, especially during college. I would not have been able to push myself through the barriers I have put myself into without each and every one of them.

Growing up, I had been in and out of the hospitals for medical purposes that led me to open the pathway of pursuing a nursing career. Seeing how passionate the nurses were with their jobs while taking care of me was unbelievable. I was very vulnerable due to my illness but having the support of the nurses each day for months made me forget all about the pain I was in. What I plan to do after I graduate from the college of nursing is to work in a hospital until I am able to become a travel nurse. Being able to travel and meet new people is the goal I am trying to get to. I will further my education and become a nurse practitioner and work in the pediatric field because that was my first time coming in contact with a nurse so it is my turn to give back.

 

Here are some photos of places that I have traveled to around the world.

Paris, France   The Eiffel Tower

 

Rabat, Morocco

Cancun, Mexico