Nursing Diaries: Crank Up the Baby Fever

Today was my very first day at my Maternal/Newborn Clinical practice for nursing school. You don't understand. I've been waiting my whole life for this day! Well maybe not my whole life, but since I decided I wanted to become a nurse which was at around age 7. I started the day shadowing an RN in the Postpartum unit where we'll be the majority of the time. That went okay until two moms declined seeing the nursing students. That was a bummer. After that though, I got to hangout at the nursery for a little bit, watch a cardiac anomaly diagnosis test and then saw a breastfeeding session with a lactation consultant. I learned how to teach mom to do a proper latch so baby can suck more and mom won't get so sore. Then I learned how to do some charting which I'll be doing lots of in the future. By this time, my tummy was growling like a lion so we went to lunch. After lunch, we toured the labor and delivery birthplace. (sighhhh) We then got to see a tour of the NICU and got to meet some beautiful, strong, fighting babies. Some were so tiny! Some born as early as 23 weeks, can you believe that?  I loved the NICU! So much heartbreak, joy, and hope all colliding at the same time to produce this wonderful feeling of helping a tiny vulnerable person to eat and grow and live a normal, healthy life!
All in all, it was a great first day. I'm looking forward to the more hands-on days to come. I'll keep you posted on Tuesdays! 

With Love,

1 comment:

SisterlyLove said...

Wow! So wonderful that you get to serve like that! What a beautiful thing.

Genevieve