I have learned the importance of really listening to the other RD's. At TMH I am able to go and see patients by myself and write up my own assessments notes, no risk notes, and follow up notes. However, I have to have an RD sign off on them which means they have to read and correct any problems with my notes.
The first two weeks the RD's took a while to read through the notes because they each write their notes a certain way and therefore like things written a certain way. I spent many extra hours with the dietitians and got their feed back on the notes.
This third week at TMH, I was on the cardiac floor, as well as diabetes and renal floors. I was mostly doing educations on Diabetes Diet and Heart Healthy Diet. I also attended rounds with an RD twice this week.
I really appreciate the RD's taking extra time to explaining things to me or show me things. This week one of the dietitians showed me the TPN bags and told me why the bag is yellow- due to multivitamins- and then she showed me another patients J-tube.
A hard part about this week was going to patients and having them turn the education down. They didn't even want the handouts I brought them. A few patients were interested in what I had to say. a
Clinical isn't everything I thought it was going to be. I didn't know my days where going to be so long, but they time flies at the hospital, I'm always busy and there is always something to do.
Saturday, November 17, 2012
Monday, November 12, 2012
First and Second Week of Clinical!
My acute care clinical rotation was at Tallahassee Memorial Hospital (TMH). https://www.tmh.org/AboutUs
The first week was orientation where I read the manuals for dietitian clinical work, I had to learn the computer charting system, I had to become familiar with how to screen for patients, and I had to learn my way around the hospital.
The second week of clinical I worked in the Orthopedic wing of the hospital. I saw mostly geriatric patients. For TMH, any patient over the age of 85 years with a surgery has to be seen by a dietitian. Most of the patients I saw were healthy individuals with a good appetite which resulted in me writing up a short 'no risk' form. If they were not eating well, a supplement was offered, such as, Ensure.
A few of the patients I saw during this week were malnourished. There are many types of malnutrition, including Kwashiorker, Marasmus, other sever protein-calorie malnutrition, moderate malnutrition, mild malnutrition, and other protein-calorie malnutrition. Each malnutrition subgroup has criteria to help define the type of malnutrition.
Starting out, I only saw 3-4 patients a day. It was nice to be able to take my time and write up full assessments and then have the RD's check my notes. The RD's are VERY helpful to me and I cannot thank them enough for all of their help!!! As an intern, it is important to take any and all advice from the dietitians your are working with.
I was very lucky and was able to shadowed a wound-care nurse for an day. IT WAS AWESOME! I thought I would not like seeing wounds but I learned valuable information. One thing I learned was how to tell if a patient has a pressure ulcer or not. Pressure ulcers have to have a bone under it.
I saw a couple wound-vac changes. (http://www.kci1.com/KCI1/vactherapy) Wound Vac's are really neat! I think it's a great idea and they speed up the healing process by 80%!
I feel some what confident in seeing patients. It's amazing how much I've learned in two weeks at the hospital and I wish I had more hospital experience as an undergraduate, I would have understood a lot more of my clinical class and what was expected from me in terms of writing my notes.
The first week was orientation where I read the manuals for dietitian clinical work, I had to learn the computer charting system, I had to become familiar with how to screen for patients, and I had to learn my way around the hospital.
The second week of clinical I worked in the Orthopedic wing of the hospital. I saw mostly geriatric patients. For TMH, any patient over the age of 85 years with a surgery has to be seen by a dietitian. Most of the patients I saw were healthy individuals with a good appetite which resulted in me writing up a short 'no risk' form. If they were not eating well, a supplement was offered, such as, Ensure.
A few of the patients I saw during this week were malnourished. There are many types of malnutrition, including Kwashiorker, Marasmus, other sever protein-calorie malnutrition, moderate malnutrition, mild malnutrition, and other protein-calorie malnutrition. Each malnutrition subgroup has criteria to help define the type of malnutrition.
Starting out, I only saw 3-4 patients a day. It was nice to be able to take my time and write up full assessments and then have the RD's check my notes. The RD's are VERY helpful to me and I cannot thank them enough for all of their help!!! As an intern, it is important to take any and all advice from the dietitians your are working with.
I was very lucky and was able to shadowed a wound-care nurse for an day. IT WAS AWESOME! I thought I would not like seeing wounds but I learned valuable information. One thing I learned was how to tell if a patient has a pressure ulcer or not. Pressure ulcers have to have a bone under it.
I saw a couple wound-vac changes. (http://www.kci1.com/KCI1/vactherapy) Wound Vac's are really neat! I think it's a great idea and they speed up the healing process by 80%!
I feel some what confident in seeing patients. It's amazing how much I've learned in two weeks at the hospital and I wish I had more hospital experience as an undergraduate, I would have understood a lot more of my clinical class and what was expected from me in terms of writing my notes.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)