Category: NSG 307

It was my first day on a new floor and I was nervous. My fellow nursing students and I waited patiently in the hall for directions and patient assignments. A fellow nursing student and I were told that we were assigned to a patient that had brain cancer in the form of a tumor. I did not know much about cancer in the brain or much about tumors before being assigned this patient. We made our way to the patient’s room and were surprised by what we saw. We saw a person full of light and happiness and with a big smile on their face. Seeing this can be uncommon when working with patients with complicated diagnoses and it was refreshing to witness this unusual finding.

We carried through our assessment and went through all the normal questions about bodily functions and pain assessments and got to know our patient a little bit. Then physical therapy came in and we got to watch them work their magic and the physical therapist allowed us to shadow them for the day with this patient. While the physical therapist was speaking with our patient and with us, we learned that this patient was previously extremely healthy with no health complications at all before the recent brain tumor diagnosis. Not thinking about it at the moment, I was about to witness how hard it can be emotionally for a patient to learn about a terminal diagnosis with no previous health history at all. No warnings; no easing into anything. Just one instant you are healthy and the next instant there is a terminal illness diagnosis looming over your head. Nobody thinks about how hard this could be for someone because no one wants to think about terminal diagnoses. They are one of the hardest things to discuss and talk about for our society because we like to pretend bad things do not exist until they hit us in the face.

When the patient was asked about their career they began to cry. I assumed the tears were because the patient missed being at their job. I was wrong. They began to cry because right before their diagnosis, they had retired. The patient could not even enjoy being in retirement and celebrate getting through a lifetime of hard work for a full month before the patient received the diagnosis. Realizing that hit me really hard. Life can change so easily in one instant and derail itself from everything someone has planned for themselves. The bubbly patient I saw before me quickly became a person with a full heartbreaking story who was still able to emulate happiness despite that. We followed this patient to the gym to work on physical therapy tasks and the patient quite honestly was the most motivated person I have ever been around in my life. The patient was excited and ready to pass all the physical therapy ambulation tasks to be able to get home to their family as soon as possible. This made the day so fun because we were able to help this patient reach their goals.

I believe that we made a difference with this patient by allowing them a safe space to express their emotions and be vulnerable while talking about their diagnosis and about how their life was so quickly derailed. Once the patient let out the tears, all of us in the room could feel the tension being released like they had been holding it in for much too long. I can only hope that giving the patient that safe space helped them out that day, but I know for a fact that this patient changed my outlook on life. This patient taught me that no matter what path your life gets on, it is okay to have emotions, it is okay to express them, but you must still make the best out of any situation and be motivated to do and be better.

I attended the orientation for Partners for World Health on September 8 and that lasted an hour, and it was on zoom. The primary focus of the orientation was learning about what the company does and their values about why they do it. Partners for World Health is a nonprofit company that collects medical supplies from healthcare facilities, donations, factories and more. They then take the medical supplies and donate it locally, around the country, and even around the world. Partners for World Health helps people in need that do not have access to the supplies that they need to stay healthy and keep communities healthy. By collecting and donating so much medical supplies that would have ended up in dumpsters and landfills this organization is also working towards helping the environment and reducing the amount of waste that this country produces and reduces pollution of air, land, and water.

I volunteered at Partners for World Health for the morning shift from 9-12 on October 12 and November 2 at the Partners for World Health location in Portland. While volunteering I helped remove expiration dates from supplies that are still sterile and usable so that they can be successfully shipped to other countries without being stopped in customs. I also helped repackage items so that they can fit more compactly in a cargo container to be sent to foreign countries. The social determinant of health that this volunteer work falls under is healthcare access and quality because the donation of the medical supplies provides access to healthcare that may not have been available to communities in need without the supplies. Interprofessional teamwork plays a huge role at Partners for World Health as well because in total there has been over 23,000 volunteer hours worked by people of all kinds working together to help out this organization and to help communities around the world.

 I attended the zoom CECE event, “Hidden Youth: Homelessness among adolescents, teens, young adults in rural communities” on October 27 from 12-1 pm. The focus of this event was bringing light to the struggles of adolescents in Maine suffering from homelessness. Many people from all around Maine presented on this topic and discussed things such as healthy communication with these adolescents, teamwork through professional teams providing support to these adolescents and the poor access to healthcare, nutrition, and financial support that these individuals have.

I attended the zoom CECE event, “Prejudiced Patients: Caring for Those who Discriminate Against You” on November 5 from 12-1:30 pm. The focus of this event was to shed light on the hardships that healthcare professionals go through way too often when experiencing prejudice from the patients that are receiving care from them. This even touched upon topics such as cultural humility, teamwork of interprofessional staff to support each other through these hardships and difficult conversations, and healthy communication in response to the prejudice. It can be extremely hard for a healthcare professional to provide their best care when experiencing racism and discrimination.

I attended the zoom CECE event, “Restraints and Seclusion in Maine Schools: We Can Do Better” on November 10 from 6-7:30 pm. In total I did 11 hours of experiential learning in the fall semester of 2021. The focus of this zoom was to discuss how the use of restraints and seclusion in Maine schools is too prevalent and solutions that can be figured out that have more successful outcomes than the harmful ways of restraints and seclusion. The topics that this event touched upon were values and ethics of the professionals implementing these punishments and of the people that came up with these standards for the state of Maine education system and teamwork of interprofessional teams to come up with solutions to help the kids having a hard time behaving in school. The kids that often have a hard time behaving in school may be suffering at home from lack of nutrition, lack of access to healthcare services and much more.