Free My Externship Experience Essay Sample

I undertook my externship in (name the hospital in full). The first day was very exciting as I went through a quick orientation from one of the resident nurses. She was quick and thorough in her explanations. First, she gave be detailed precautions on how to handle patients with little exposure on myself. She emphasized that medical practitioners fear being infected with diseases from the patients. I thought that I was “guest” on the first day and that I would be exempt from duties as I took time to learner, but after thirty minutes, I was given a desk and instructed to carry on. As it turned out to be, been an extern offers one a unique experience in what entails being a medical assistant.
Medical assistants are faced by many situations within and at times outside the hospital. One must learn how to perform many duties concurrently since there are many tasks that one must accomplish within a limited time. Due to this, I managed to gain a lot of experience in multi-tasking and doing things, not only diligently, but also very fast. One thing I noted is that in as much as one attempts to do all the things, one must find some time and relax even for five minutes so as to gain stamina to keep going. One must be careful not to exert oneself as that would affect the performance rate.
Most of the duties in the hospital involved taking the blood pressure of the patients, and other vital signs. In this case, I would do EKG’s most of the time from morning to evening. At first, I was experiencing some difficulties in adapting to the hospital environment where I was placed under a heavy responsibility of taking and noting down all the vital signs. Placing the instrument in different directions to make the perfect reading was difficult in first few days. Later, I learned the best positions to keep the instruments to make perfect readings.
The thinking that I must be accurate and reliable in my work made me anxious since the doctors waiting to see the patients were very efficient. Therefore, I had to work very fast to keep in pace with them. I later adapted and it became normal procedures as my speed improved as I gained more and more experience in the hospital. In the process, I carried out mammograms and colonoscopy.
In addition to taking vital sings, I would advise patients on various matters such as the insurance policies and how to keep in track of the same. I also got a chance to do more than just carrying out EKG. I administered vaccines for both pneumonia and influenza. I also scheduled appointment and referred others for further testing depending on their concerns.
The other nurses were very nice to me. They helped me to learn the things that were challenging and offered to explain details as I helped them carry out their duties. The doctors remained professional throughout. They appreciated very much the help that the other nurses, staff and I did to help them in their daily routine. In the times of emergency, the frantic efforts to save lives were very overwhelming especially if the patients survived. I cannot fail to mention the bad feeling when we as team could not save lives. Although it happened occasionally, I realized nobody can ever get used to that as the doctors and nurses usually felt bad about seen one lose life.
I gained a lot of experience that shall be of great help to me in future. I learned how to work as part of team and focusing on specific goals. The experience remains memorable and I look forward to working in such an environment in future.