Narrative: My First Clinical Experience As A Diagnostic Medical Sonographer Student

My first clinical experience as a Diagnostic Medical Sonographer student was at North Shore Medical Center. I was very nervous my first day, because I didn't quite know what to expect, and how much I was going to be doing as an intern in this course. Even though we were given all the information by our instructors at school it is a completely different experience to actually be at the hospital and try to help and perform with a team of professionals and their patients.
I was assigned a second shift which would last from the afternoon till late evening hours which gave me the opportunity to be exposed to different situations and a variety of cases involving Emergency Room patients and Labor and Delivery patients and some ICU and CCU patients. I had the opportunity to work with different Clinical Instructor professionals who gave me the opportunity to build confidence and gain experience in observing their work during a shift from start to finish. Each one of them showed me a different technique of scanning and different approach

Everyone on the staff from NSMC were very supportive and treated me like a professional. During breaks and in-between patients, I was allowed to join the DMS staff and listen to their stories of what goes on in a typical day and discussions in regards to different cases. I was able to gather a great deal of information just by listening to their conversations about their experiences-not only with patients but with doctors as well. Everyone in the DMS department were very generous with their knowledge and gave me incite on how to handle different situations that they encounter on a regular basis. I feel very fortunate to have been taught by the NSMC Sonographers team. I was able to interact with patients with a vast array of personalities. Some were very sweet and easy to talk to, while others were extremely irritable and hard to