My Clinical Experience: Meeting The Patient As A Person

Meeting the Patient as a Person Prior to meeting a patient, their medical diagnosis, medication list, and lab values were provided. When studying the patient’s information, sometimes it is difficult to connect the information to an actual person, especially before meeting the patient. Also, I was still learning what the information that was given meant, especially in terms of the patient. Thirdly, my own personality and where my focus was assisted in preventing me from seeing the patient as a person in the beginning. Throughout my clinical experiences, my knowledge and background has expanded as I learn how to see a patient as a person by looking beyond their diagnosis or injury. During the clinical experiences, I witnessed how care does

I am the type of person that when given a task I want to get it done, so that I can check it off my list. This was a difficult barrier that I needed to find a way to get past because it resulted in me not seeing a patient as a person. Instead of focusing on the patient, I worried about completing the task. Additionally, at my clinical experiences in the beginning, I was extremely nervous because I did not have any prior experience in the medical field, like working with patients. This inexperience caused me to be nervous, so I stayed completely focused on each task. For example, when transferring a patient for the first time, I focused on making sure I was using the gait belt and transferring the patient correctly. I did not interact with the patient as a person, but more as a task. I failed to consider their feelings besides assessing for pain. I did not take the time to really sit down and talk to them and learn about them as a

It occurred while I was observing the patient’s dressing wound change. This time was different because the nurse was going to begin debriding the patient’s wound. The patient already experienced some pain with the wound change, so the patient was apprehensive to the debridement. The nurse explained what debridement was and that it could be painful for the patient. The patient then stated, that if they were to start crying, they wanted me and the other nursing students to leave the room because they did not want anyone that was not necessary to see them cry. That was a defining moment because the patient was not only in pain, but they were embarrassed. During this time, the patient expressed his vulnerability. Also, I could relate to the patient’s feelings because when I cry, I hate when people are able to see me cry and I hate it even more if someone acknowledges it or makes it into a big deal. The other nursing students respected the patient’s wishes and I told them that we would leave if they started crying. While the nurse started debridement, we helped to distract the patient by talking with them, having them tell us some stories and jokes, which kept them from focusing on the pain. I think the laughing and conversation relieved some of the patient’s pain because they were not focused on how much this was hurting. Also, the conversation allowed for the patient’s focus to be on