First Experience in a Clinical Setting

[VM3125]

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Hi All! I just started volunteering this past Sunday in the Emergency Department at a local hospital and thought I would share my experience.

Initially when I went in they put me in the Observation area to basically look over the patients who have just come from seeing the doctor and are waiting for their test results, making sure they have what they need such as warm blankets, food/water (if nurse ok's it), etc. Very boring if you ask me! I sat there for the first 20 minutes basically doing nothing hoping it would change soon. Then a young CNA came by me who was very nice and "perky" so to speak and offered to take me on a tour as well as to come see some of the interesting cases going on. So first, I helped her clean up the room where a patient had several stitches to his eye after being hit with a knee in his eye from playing soccer. Then, the ambulance had just brought in a patient who is thought to have had a stroke. I got to watch the doctor question her to see if it really may have been a stroke (i.e. have her lift her left leg, then right leg, arms, etc) -- she couldn't move her right leg which was a sign of a stroke having taken place. After that I helped her get some rooms ready, bring in mobile beds, etc.

All in all, very interesting experience especially for a first day!

Anyone else care to share their experiences?

 

[elbowss]

That sounds like a great experience. I just started last week at the hospital. I'm in surgery preparation. The first day was weird. They showed me how to clean and make the beds and that was it. After I'd taken care of all the dirty ones I asked if there was anything else I should do and no one could think of anything. So, I sat and tried to stay out of the way. I got up and looked around every five minutes or so in order that they realized I wasn't just hiding. At a couple points it got kinda busy and I had some beds to make, but there was a lot of downtime for me (not so much for the staff though).

This drove me crazy the first two days. There was just nothing for me to do and I felt bad just hovering around in the background. The third day I brought a book. Friday I'm going to bring notecards and study in the downtime. Being around the hospital staff and patients is a good experience in the sense that I can get a better picture of what's to come and I appreciate them letting me hang around in such a clinically significant place, despite not having much use for me. It's better than just being in the gift shop even though they might have more work for me there.

 

[NightGod]

My experiences in hospital volunteering are very similar to elbowss'. I rapidly came to the conclusion that the real benefit from these sorts of positions is the chance to actually talk with people are in health care. The patients are an interesting backdrop to the experience, but the chance to talk with someone who's been through what I'm hoping to do is where the real meat and potatoes are. Never pass up a chance to talk with a doctor or nurse who has a few minutes downtime and seems approachable.

 

[LingoLaine]

I had an absolutely fabulous hands-on hospital volunteer position with a lot of autonomy working as a newborn hearing screener in the post-partum ward. Most hospitals use employees for these positions nowadays but there are a few who still use volunteers. If you can land a position like this, I HIGHLY recommend it. I did it weekly for three years and LOVED it!

 

[Citylilac]

It's nice to read stories about first clinical experiences since I'm sure there are many others like me, who are just starting to seek clinical opportunities and can benefit from this thread. I just returned from an orientation for a local free clinic and I'm hyped! I think I might be doing registration related duties like answering calls, assembling charts, schedule appointments, etc.. and I heard that they get to listen to how nurses triage calls which might be a good start.. My other option is to do eligibility screening to determine if the patient is eligible for services, which I don't think offers as much of "clinical" opportunities. I wish I could speak fluent spanish since the free clinic serves a large spanish speaking population. Bummer. So what do you all think that might give me more "clinical" type of exposure? Registration or Eligibilty Screening?

 

[vc7777]

my first hour in the ED (not "ER", btw) in Detroit I saw a man on motorcycle vs. concrete median on a highway going 75 mph. Conscious and sitting up blood, telling me to never ride.

Make yourself available, ask to stay after to just observe and try to schedule busy nights (bad weather nights, heat waves, holiday weekends,etc), watch procedures like LPs, learn the pneumatic tube system when you get a chance and offer to run stat labs for the doctors and nurses during traumas and rescusses. Learn where to stand in the rooms to minimize your footprint. Never say "no" and you will be amazed what they let you do. Be uber nice to the nurses and support staff.

Sent from my phone

 

[vc7777]

Eligibilty screening...for research? Depends on the research.

Sent from my phone

 

[deleted357625]

it'll get even more boring then you'll want to quit, or you'll have some 80 yr old volunteer take your spot when it's not their volunteer hours in the ER....that was me..I would leave and let her get at it

 

[didanawisgi]

Working in a level 1 trauma, I had several stories like that. And a bit of advice - do everything you can to get to know the doctors. Don't be overbearing or anything, but warm up to them and pick their brain. Find out why they became docs, what they think of their job, etc. That kind of info is really enlightening.

 

[Abider]

I can remember one of my first days as an ER tech my trainer got sucked away into doing something and the charge nurse yells to me get an EKG on bed 10. I'm like EKGEKGEKGEKG....(the thing with the wires and alligator clips!). I grab the machine and wheel into the room thinking....how does this go....then I realize my patient is a woman, not an old woman, but a woman woman. Oh crap....I've never.

As a dukes of hazzard type aside I was working construction a few weeks ago while taking and EMT course. Boobs were not a matter of fact part of my workaday repertoire

Luckily I fumble through it, and my nervous banter distracts from my incompetence.

Last semester I had my hand buried in another man's bumhole. Erstwhile he instructed me how locate and palpate his prostate--how's that for a day job.

Steadily these firsts accumulate in medicine. And we begin to make horrible dinner conversationalists and for the foreseeable future it remains far out everyday how bizzarely intimate we get with strangers at a moment's notice.

 

[katiemaude]

I can remember one of my first days as an ER tech my trainer got sucked away into doing something and the charge nurse yells to me get an EKG on bed 10. I'm like EKGEKGEKGEKG....(the thing with the wires and alligator clips!). I grab the machine and wheel into the room thinking....how does this go....then I realize my patient is a woman, not an old woman, but a woman woman. Oh crap....I've never.

As a dukes of hazzard type aside I was working construction a few weeks ago while taking and EMT course. Boobs were not a matter of fact part of my workaday repertoire

Luckily I fumble through it, and my nervous banter distracts from my incompetence.

Last semester I had my hand buried in another man's bumhole. Erstwhile he instructed me how locate and palpate his prostate--how's that for a day job.

Steadily these firsts accumulate in medicine. And we begin to make horrible dinner conversationalists and for the foreseeable future it remains far out everyday how bizzarely intimate we get with strangers at a moment's notice.

LMAO!

I did almost two years as a volunteer in an ED and perhaps that hospital's volunteer program is more organized than most. They relied heavily on volunteers to do what was very boring but very necessary stuff. I fetched wheelchairs, transported patients, moved and made up stretchers, cleaned rooms occasionally, organized the EMTs kitchen, made coffee, ran stat labs when the pneumatic tubes were down, updated the charge nurse on discharges, brought patients back to rooms, held some hands, wiped some tears, got blankets and water (when allowed), made toast, helped patients into gowns, got them dressed again, fetched supplies for nurses, took patients to the bathroom for urine samples, and so on and so on.

All of that ^ technically has nothing to do with being a physician. But I got to see a lot of the hospital, I met a lot of doctors, I observed many exams and traumas, I talked to RNs about their jobs, I observed the triage process, I learned how an ED works, I got comfortable around naked/sick/smelly/old people, I saw a lot of body parts in their many varieties, and I got used to the culture (being yelled at! being ordered around!) and actually began to enjoy it.

That experience helped me get my job as a nursing assistant in a Level One trauma hospital. Despite the many hours I spent in an ED, I was still totally unprepared for getting so up close and personal with sick people, but like everything else, I got used to it. Never in my life did I imagine I would be up to my armits in excrement. Good G-D, the poop. The amount of urine I see in a day. Oh jaysus, the vomit and blood. I used to gag on a regular basis. Now I talk comfortably while I eat dinner about that massive GI bleed I cleaned up 10 minutes ago. I stick EKG leads under boobs and draw blood from veins and put socks on the feet of people with the most disturbing-looking feet. I rub cream on ulcers and wash hair with lice and test blood sugar on the most callused of fingertips. I clean the genitals of unconscious people, as well as those of conscious people (some my age) who cannot do it themselves. I pull out foley catheters and empty bedpans. ..... And I also assist physicians with procedures and exams, and get to see the results of X-rays and echos and CT scans/MRIs of my patients up close and these doctors are more than happy to talk about them with me and explain what I'm looking at. The majority of them love to teach, and once they know you're applying to medical school and you're sharp and eager and know your place, they are ecstatic to take you under their wings.

 

[augeremt]

I had an absolutely fabulous hands-on hospital volunteer position with a lot of autonomy working as a newborn hearing screener in the post-partum ward. Most hospitals use employees for these positions nowadays but there are a few who still use volunteers. If you can land a position like this, I HIGHLY recommend it. I did it weekly for three years and LOVED it!

Did you do this at University Hospital in Denver? I noticed this was advertised on their volunteer page but I never was able to get in to do it.

 

[LingoLaine]

Did you do this at University Hospital in Denver?

No, I volunteered at Poudre Valley Hospital in Fort Collins but you're right that Univ. of Colorado Hospital uses volunteers for hearing screens as well.