A nurse walks in to check on the patient. The heart monitor beeps steadily, showing everything is normal. As the nurse moves about the room, the patient shifts in his chair to get more comfortable. Suddenly, the tube connected to the patients chest is ripped out, resulting in cardiac failure. The nurse’s station is alerted, and the room is filled with nurses and doctors who try their best to bring the patient back to normal. The procedures don’t work, so they wheel the patient to the elevator in efforts to get him to an operating room. While waiting on the elevator door to open, the patient flat lines and dies in the hallway, right in front of clinical rotations students’ eyes.
At 7 a.m., when most students are rolling out of bed and banging on the alarm snooze button, clinical rotations students are wide awake and on duty at the hospital, witnessing the harsh realities of hospital life.
Clinical rotations is a unique program, as it allows students like senior Jodie Smith, who plans on being a pediatric nurse, to go beyond the classroom everyday and gain first hand experience in the hospital environment.
“We go to North East Methodist Hospital. Each student is assigned a nurse that we shadow and observe procedures, ask questions and help out.” Jodie said.
While observing the nurses as they perform their duties, Jodie gets a glimpse of what her future in nursing looks like.
“Participation in this program has confirmed my career path. Being in the hospital everyday lets me know that being a pediatric nurse is really what I want to do,” Smith said.
Other students, like Vanessa Muniz got into clinicals in hopes that it would help her make decisions about her future.
“I joined clinicals to see exactly what career I want in the medical field,” Muniz said. “Joining has really opened my eyes to all the careers there are in the medical field.”
Photo by: Maddie
