Rotation 3 Wrap-Up

Posted by Jenna at Tuesday, October 25, 2011

I was dreading this past week. Why? Because it was the last week of the most amazing rotation with the best preceptor ever. I absolutely loved this rotation - most of my patients were in the NICU (ranging in age from premature newborns to my 9 month old sweetheart of a boyfriend!) and a few were in the PICU. I loved the team - they were so easy to get along with and it was truly a fun group of people working together. It was really nice to hear how the team relies on Allison - one of the head pediatric surgeons who worked last weekend kept saying "Let's wait until Monday so Allison can tell us what to do." If that isn't full confidence in the pharmacist, I don't know what is! For the head doctors of the department, with 20+ years of experience to have such complete confidence & reliance on Allison is so admirable. I can only hope I experience something similar one day!


I learned so much from this rotation - to name just a few things:

• Common pediatric surgical issues, including gastroschisis, omphalocele, short bowel syndrome, TEF (tracheoesophageal fistula), various atresias, etc.
• Neonate/Pediatric FEN (fluids, electrolytes, & nutrition)
• Caloric & fluid needs
• PN basics
• Enteral nutrition advancement
• Tapering pain/sedation medications as well as steroid tapers

I think my passion for pediatrics really showed and the fact that peds is my future was again reinforced. I would visit my patients several times a day to check on them (& just to smile at their cuteness). There was one patient in the NICU that kind of received preferential treatment, though! He was the most adorable, chubby 9 month old and I would come see him a couple times a day to make him smile. I began to be known as his girlfriend and I just loved making him laugh by making silly faces at him/tickling him. 

I also had some new experiences on this rotation. I was able to watch 4 abdominal washouts on one of my older patients. This was definitely a very interesting experience that then led to the opportunity to go to the OR to watch the patient get his abdomen closed. I was a little nervous about the OR but I ended up standing right next to the junior peds surgery fellow who performed the surgery. I felt completely fine throughout, which is good to know since I wasn't sure I'd be able to handle it! I'm also leaving this rotation with the opportunity to continue to develop my scientific writing skills as I work on  a case report, an alternative therapy article, and possibly more. 

I am incredibly sad that this rotation is over, I'd do anything to just stay here the rest of the year! Allison joked that she could fail me so that I'd have to repeat her rotation. :-) It's going to be incredibly hard for another rotation to live up to this one but I'll have to go into each subsequent rotation with a positive attitude and an open mind. I already miss my babies and my team but if there's one thing you can be sure of, it's that I'll be back to visit as soon as I can! :-)