Personal Narrative: My Shadowing Experience

For my assignment, I shadowed the emergency room on a weekend. I shadowed two nurses whom had different patients. As soon as I got there, patients already began to flood in. I wouldn’t say it was hectic, but my nurses definitely kept me busy observing them. The first patient to come in was an older female. She was screaming of stomach pains and had vomited that morning. Her family brought her in themselves. The nurse first observed her body by feeling her stomach. She had a slight hernia, which was supposedly fix once before. As the nurse asked her continually what hurt, she said her entire body. The patient claimed that she was also constipated. After addresses her with questions, the nurses together, proceeded in taking her vitals, doing …show more content…
I learned and observed so many things. I only had one other task for the day besides observing. I was supposed to fetch warm towels for every patient who needed one. The first patient thanked me so much. It made me feel so good when giving her that blanket, such a small task, comforted her so much. Shadowing made me very excited to get through school and start my career. What could be better than spending days helping people like that? By shadowing, it just reassured my major choice. My nurse also brought to my attention that when I become a nurse, remember to always be kind to everyone no matter who they are, because you never know when you will need help or who will be taking care of you one day. I have shadowed in a small town clinic before, and it was so much different than being in the emergency room ((ER) in an actual hospital. I think for a career pathway, I will choose more the hospital setting. I really enjoyed the pace and business of the ER compared to the clinic. I really like the concept of doing something different every day and not being so routine. I think that’s what this experience has meant to me. It was very helpful. If I had to shadow again somewhere, I would really like to shadow a scrub nurse and all that entails. I am very fascinated by the body parts and how they all function together and am good with blood and guts, so I think that by being a scrub nurse in surgery, I would get to see many great procedures and learn a lot about the human body. I find shadowing very important. This was a very meaningful piece to the puzzle of my