Sarah's Site

For my community health partnership I ended changing partnerships to Fresnuis in Biddeford. I ended up spending the day shadowing a nurse on the floor and interacting with patients who were there for their dialysis. Going in, the only knowledge I had was from our renal unit and the guest speaker who came in. I had yet to consider the population and any social determinants that might affect the outpatient care this population needs to receive multiple times a week. While being there I learned more about their transportation needs as well as the cost and what maine care covers. As they go to dialysis 3 times a week for 3-4 hours (not including transportation) many of the population are unable to work. 

I talked with the nursing staff, asking questions to try and better understand the different aspects of care, and needs these dialysis patients need. One of the most meaningful things I learned in how personalized the care is that these patients receive. That dialysis treatment center is able to accommodate about 75 patients Monday-Saturday, so the staff can easily begin to create therapeutic relationships with their patients. As they will see them multiple times a week for months to years. Seeing how the nursing staff and PCT all knew the patients easily by name, asking about weekend activities and making very personal connections was more than I’ve seen happen in the med surg hospital setting. 

One interaction that stood out to me was one patient who was a retired nurse. When I asked how long she’d been getting dialysis she told me it was the 11th year. That took a second to sink in and consider the commitment and patience this patient had to their health and how even after showing up 3x a week for 11 years, you wouldn’t have even been able to guess. It makes you think about how each of these patients still have a whole life outside of this care they receive. Truly a different side of nursing that I have not seen yet. I am very happy that this partnership was able to be accomplished.

I found it interesting how much their experiences differed. It was interesting to hear the bsn vs absn how in the end the process for job application and graduation is very similar. Something that stood out to me was how more often new grads are placed on night shift. It also stood out the time frame for the testing times for the nclex. I still don’t fully understand the process but it was interesting to get started with just some basic information. In addition, it was good to know that we will have a whole class next semester that will set us up for the nclex and for a job post graduation.

For my first nursing job I am really still trying to figure that out. I’m thinking of just a general med surg to get my foot in the door and get some experience under my belt. In addition I need to figure out what state I’ll be practicing in. At this moment in time I’m not very sure where I will be living once my lease is up in May. This has been a fair amount of stress since I need to figure out where I’m living to be able to apply to jobs. 

Listening to the two new grad talks helped in some way to hear how their experiences differed and how they have confidence we will be able to do it. Something I learned from them is the fact that even when I graduate I still won’t know everything and that is okay. It’s reassuring knowing that it’s okay to not know everything and that I will have an onboarding experience that will enhance my clinical skills.