This was posted by another friend of mine on Facebook. It exemplifies the main thing I learned during our first clinicals. Of course, I might logically understand this to be true, but I will probably still struggle with nervousness. I had a great time during clinicals and thought that it was a positive first experience. I was able to take the vital signs of the resident I was assigned to and really enjoyed hearing the stories.
I was also really excited to learn how to auscultate respiration and I was interested to hear the different abnormal breath sounds that can be heard. I have heard wheezing before because of my daughter's asthma. It was very easy to hear when she was small and her asthma was acute. Then wheezing was audible from across the room sometimes. Since she has gotten older though, the wheezing is much less noticeable. The asthma is more evident because of her skin color and energy level and sometimes an intermittent cough, plus she will feel tightness in her chest. I am saying all this to say that today when she got home from school(she rides her bike -uphill- to get here), I thought she was wheezing due to her skin color, etc.. and I was able, for the first time, to listen to her breathe through the stethoscope and hear her wheeze. I know this may not sound like such a good thing, but I can't tell you how many times I've taken her to the doctor for asthma, after medicating her, and the wheeze was gone. I have sometimes wondered if I was imagining it because I expect her to have the problem since she's had asthma for almost her whole life. And now I can check it out for myself. YAY!!
That's awesome. I know as a mom myself that it's super rewarding when you can actually feel like you can do something for your child and not feel like you're overreacting at something!
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