Nursing 492: Transition to Professional Practice Practicum
For my internship, I completed it at Inova Fair Oaks in the Critical Care Float Pool. This means that I “float” or move to different units depending on the need for nurses. I can float to emergency department, surgical, medical-oncology, progressive care unit, intensive care unit, and the clinical decision unit. Also, we can occasionally float to pediatrics. I have a preceptor who I go with everywhere with and her name is Kim Winter. She has been a nurse for 12 years and has experience in the emergency department and the intensive care unit.
During this experience, I was able to learn how exactly a nurse works. I have learned valuable skills that I will need in the future when caring for patients. Kim has really helped me fine tune the skills I have learned and I am able to practice them all the time. I have been able to put in numerous IVs and catheters and I have been able to experience numerous codes. I have developed from taking care of one patients to caring for all of them. I have to assess, give meds, and chart on all of the patients. I have learned how to prioritize and delegate tasks in order to ensure efficiency and providing safe, competent care.
One thing that I will really take away from this experience is knowing that I must get a routine down when I start working as a nurse. Kim has educated and trained me to do the same thing all the time when I come in to work and get report from the nurses. I must always get report and check on the patients with the night nurse and then I need to dig into the charts of the patients. Look at the medications and notes to see what the trend is with the patient and determine the plan. Then also I can plan my day and determine who I am going to see first. If I get a routine once I start working then I will never forget to meet the needs of my patients and I won’t forget medications or to document.
I have thoroughly enjoyed this experience and I am excited to see where life will take me next after I graduate. I think I know more than ever that there are so many different routes you can take with nursing. I plan to explore my options and learn and grow along the way. I will start my career at Inova Fair Oaks in the Surgical Orthopedic unit learning as much as I can.
During my internship, I completed a project about an issue I saw during my internship and looked at implementing change into the environment in order to decrease or prevent harm to patients through this issue.