HDF 417: Leadership Minor Internship/Practicum

NUR 234 Geriatrics Clinical Experience

Name: Brianna Sanford

Major: Nursing

Minor: Leadership Studies

Contact: (609) 709-4667 or brianna_sanford@my.uri.edu

Semester: Spring 2019

Internship location: Westerly Health Care Centers; Westerly Adult Day Care, Westerly Senior

Center, Westerly Health Center, The Elms Assisted Living and Dementia Units

Internship supervisor: Janet Doubrava

Internship supervisor contact: janet_doubrava@uri.edu

Internship job title: Nursing intern with a focus in Geriatrics

Looking back at my initial learning outcomes, which included, “#3, “Student will

demonstrate the ability to manage emotions”, #9, “Student will demonstrate practice of the

personal values statement”, #11, “Student will describe goals and objective statements regarding

personal issues, career issues, and community issues”, and #12, “Student will show evidence of

goals and objectives that were planned and achieved,” I have already seen myself working

through and trying to perfect some of these outcomes. I specifically picked these outcomes

because I knew that they would be challenging for me personally especially in a nursing setting

knowing my personality. I still have some improvement to do to perfect these outcomes, as I am

only halfway through the semester and am still learning.

There is one outcome that I know that I have most definitely mastered thus far, which is

outcome #3. When I first picked to work on outcome #3, my reason for wanting to address this
outcome specifically was, “For outcome #3, this will be the first time caring for actual patients

and being assigned a specific patient for me and only me to care for. Obviously, these older

adults are in care facilities for a reason, and sometimes those reasons can be sad or

overwhelming. Through this experience, I hope to gain the ability to manage my emotions and

remain professional in these settings in order to ensure I am giving the patient the best care they

can receive.” Now that I have begun my clinical internship, I have really been able to work on

managing my emotions with the older adults. When I first started, I was constantly overwhelmed

by what a different lifestyle they had to live. I couldn’t imagine having trouble walking, using

the bathroom, or being extremely lonely. After getting comfortable in the facility I was able to

really focus on suppressing my emotions in order to give the best patient care. When having my

own patients, something clicked in my head that these patients needed me to have a mindset on

helping them feel better and achieve their daily tasks rather than have me feeling bad or upset for

them when they weren’t even upset themselves. For example, one of my patients the other day

was having trouble standing and walking on her own. She expressed that she was very tired that

day and just wanted to relax, however it was in her care plan that she had to get up and walk and

to not remain dormant for an entire day. Originally, I wanted to be upset for her because

something as simple as standing up out of a chair was painful and exhausting. However, I

realized that I had the ability to not make the simple task so painful and exhausting and realized

how much better she would feel if she would stand and walk, even if it was only for a few steps.

Where I originally would have been very upset and emotional at this situation, I have now been

able to train my brain to look at the flipside of things, which overall has helped me manage my

emotions in the workplace.

 So far, my most significant learning experience to date has been the fact that, while most

things can be taught in a classroom, there are a lot of things that cannot and that you will only get

from doing field work. For example, upon beginning this internship, I am seeing that there are

constantly variables to things that I have learned in the classroom. These are no longer

mannequins or videos, but real-life people that you have to be gentle with and the situations

differ from patient to patient. The patients are not as still nor as light and easily moved as the

SIM mannequins in lab were, and you really have to get comfortable in the situation you are in.

A challenge for me has been holding the position of a student nurse rather than just a

nurse. There are multiple situations where I want to be able to step up and be the actual nurse and

be there for my patient, however there have been a few times where I have had to step down to

let the actual nurse step in and help the patient. Only having a certain degree of help to offer

sometimes makes you feel like there is more you need to be doing but cannot, which gets

frustrating. When this happens, I remind myself that the actual nurse can better help the patient

than I can right now, and that the patient’s needs are my main focus. I remind myself that I am

still learning and I have another two years of information to learn to make sure that whatever I

am doing is in the patient’s best health and interest, and that I need to be taking this time to learn

rather than to know.

I have really been using two of my strengths specifically, being communication and

empathy. Communication gets specifically used among health care providers, for things like

double checking patient information, communicating with health care providers, and making

sure that everyone is up to date on patient changes or happenings. Empathy gets used among my

patients, as I’m finding that their mental health is just as significant and plays a huge role in their

physical health. Listening to patients concerns and being able to emotionally assist them has
played a role in getting them back healthy or helping them help themselves. It is super important

to always be using my strengths in the workplace, as I know that this is the way I’m going to be

able to best help my patients, my coworkers, and myself.