What I learned today.....

Today was my first Pediatrics Clinical. My class met at 8am for a computer training class to learn the charting system (which was a total snooze) and then at 1pm we went on a tour of the units we will be working on for the next few weeks. It was interesting being at University Medical Center. UMC is the University of Arizona's hospital, so it's weird walking around in my Pima Community College uniform, and on top of that my class is all Carondelet employees. Carondelet is the company that owns a few of the other hospitals in town. UMC is a magnet hospital, it's huge, and it's by far superior to any of the Carondelet hospitals. It might be nice to try and work there after my contract is up.

So anyways, what I learned today is that I can not be a pediatric nurse. Our teacher showed us all the different areas, the playroom, the nurses station, the clinic, the ICU, and all of that was ok. I actually thought, "Oh this will be fun...getting to play with all the kids here." And then she took us into some rooms to see some of the patients. I just couldn't hold back the tears. I was actually surprised by my reaction. Since I've started the Nursing program and working at the hospital, I have seen some very sick people. There have been quite a few times that I have been filled with sadness and compassion, but I haven't cried. It's been pretty easy for me to control myself. For some reason though, it was just too much to see all the little children so sick and hooked up to machines. Anyways, it was kind of a rough day and I'm not looking forward to the next few clinicals.