Where have I been...?

Apparently not hanging around here sharing the mundane details of my life. Thank goodness for a little respite, huh? Well, as always, I have been up to my eyeballs in homework and weekly quizzes and/or exams. You know, the usual. I've since finished my pediatrics rotation and the nursing research class (evidence-based practice is your friend. So are librarians, by the way, so make nice with all the librarians in your life) and am now on to critical care. We're not on a critical care unit the whole 5 weeks but will rotate in a few students at a time/day plus hopefully we'll get to spend some time in the ED, OR and some of us will go to the wound care clinic. I'd like to do that but I have a weekend rotation and wound care is only open M-F. Boo. All I can say is that I better see some good stuff because if I get stiffed again like I did in maternity I'm going to be seriously pissed off.

To sum up peds, all in all it was a good rotation. The hospital was great (location was sucky but we can't have everything, now can we?), staff were awesome, clinical instructor was mostly good but sometimes weird and, well, weird, and my group of classmates was pretty solid. Peds is an interesting place because they try to make the floor feel inviting to kids and their families and parents (mostly moms, tho) are pretty much camped out for the duration of their child's stay. Sadly, some kids don't have parents who can or will come and stay with them. Some parents don't have employers who are understanding and will fire them if they don't come back to work, some parents don't have a partner or a spouse to help out and may have other kids and home to take care of and some parents are absent for some other reason. I saw a fair number of kids who were in foster care because of neglect. I had one patient last week whose parents give consent over the phone for procedures but have nothing more to do with their daughter. She has a rare syndrome that causes developmental delays and she requires total care. Her parents put her in a home and have no contact with her. Her only visitors at the hospital have been 2 of the caregivers at the group home where she lives and they come to see her twice a week.

You know, it's hard to keep an open mind sometimes when it comes to other people's behavior. If I've learned nothing else while in nursing school, I've learned that you don't really know what people's lives are like outside of the hospital and you don't know what is going on that may interfere with their care for themselves or a family member. As a result, you can't be too quick to judge. But this girl's situation broke my heart. It is an unfortunate fact that some parents can't deal with a child who is "atypical" and this won't be the last time I encounter a situation like this.

On the other hand, there are some parents who are total rock stars and stay with their child for the duration of the treatment (sometimes for months at a time), who learn all about the diagnosis and treatments, who rally behind their child and support her/him all the while trying to hold their own shit together. It's an amazing thing to see and I think it's what I'll miss most about pediatrics. But for now, it's back to adults and all the challenges that come with treating them. I'm hopeful that this will be a good rotation.