1. The most challenging thing that I had to endure this week was performing all the medical tasks by myself. In medicine 1 I had a PCT who would supervise me while I did my work so when I messed up or needed help I could easily ask my PCT for help. However this time I was left on my own to solve the tasks of the nurses and I felt the whole weight of that situation crashing down on me. While I did have experience in the procedures I was doing I had managed to forget the crucial steps needed for the procedure like scanning the patients wrist bands or jotting down their rate of respirations and because of that I had to muster the courage to tell my nurse I was unable to perform the tasks properly and because of that the only things that were in my mind was embarrassment and the realization that is what residency is going to feel like. 


  1. In terms of personal growth I felt I got humbled immediately. Originally I was confident in my capabilities since I thought my experience in medicine One would have made me qualified for the tasks at hand but after needing continuous assistance and performing continuous trail and error on the vital sign machine to understand how to access the data to type in the rate of respirations I lost all confidence in my abilities and was convinced that I still had a lot to learn and memorize if I want to be able to carry my own weight. However I was able to walk into the shoes of the nurses since I was able to understand their pain since they probably went through this same stuff too when they were in training and probably endured the same awkwardness. 


  1. The experiences from the previous classes was when I once again I had to handle a contact precautions patient thus donning and doffing PPE was required for airborne infection control and since we had learnt that in class I was able to carefully and successfully don and doff the masks, gloves, and gowns without spreading the pathogens. I also performed vital signs for 3 patients and sent the data to the computers.


  1. Since I was doing everything on my own I was acting as polite as possible. I was being considerate of patients’ time talking them through the procedures and thanking them for their patience. Whenever I messed up I would apologize to the patient’s and rethank them for their help and support since that was something I really needed as I was still fairly new to the procedures.
       


  1. Fortunately for me all of my patients were very verbal so there was no sort of non verbal communication minus for some hand motions which helped me since I struggled to even perform vitals let alone understand complicated non verbal communication.


  1. My most favorite experience of the week was being able to perform the procedure without any assistance. While I was unable to perform the tasks successfully it really did show that the nurses did entrust me with fairly risky tasks. This trust was able to boost my confidence and make me feel independent. Additionally the experience was an eye opener for me and made me realize that procedures that are “simple” are actually more complicated than they seem and there is an art to being able to look calm and natural while manipulating a patient’s body to make sure they are happy and healthy.


  1. What I am most grateful for is the trust bestowed on me during my time in the unit. The fact that I was entrusted with this position really means a lot to me. The fact I could get hands-on experience at such a young age would help me in future to build rapport with the patients and staff while also improving my communication and social skills needed to assist the medical knowledge of taking care and assessing patients.