End of clinical posting

My first medical posting just ended last Friday (22/12/06). What a posting! It was filled with much emotions, much clinical skills and knowledge to learn and many lessons which God has taught me. God spoke so much to me during this few months of posting, especially the past 2 full weeks of posting... Realise that if I don't reflect about it, I would just forget the important lessons that I know God is using to mould me to become a good clinician in the future!

Still remembered my first few days of posting... I was filled with much excitement and anticipation, yet with much doubts, fears, and worry. Things that happened made me ponder deeply about the health care system in S'pore, about life, about being a nurse, about what it means to be a Christian student and nurse. It was a time of searching, a time of listening, a time of waiting upon the Lord, a time of just giving thanks for God's provision and grace. Looking back, I realised how much I have learnt and become. From the really blur greenie in the beginning in which I followed my preceptor around like a little baby with absolutely no idea of how a hospital works, its structure, talking to and examining patients, conditions of the patients, to the point now whereby I'm able to function independently together with the healthcare team in some skills, history taking and examination techniques, learning to read doctor’s handwriting (which is notoriously illegible), learning the hospital jargons, learning to read and pick out important clinical data from case notes, mastering communication skills with the patients, finding my own style of talking and examining patients and building up personal and working relationships with the rest of the team. More importantly, I learnt how to listen to God in the wards itself, following the prompting of the holy spirit and to act upon it.

Remembered being afraid of talking to patients and concentrating too much on mastering basic nursing skills when I was learning them in the beginning. There was like a battle in me, knowing well that its wrong to just focus on the skill, but yet I knew that I had to learn the skill well. I found it so hard to talk to the patients and yet being able to focus on learning the skills too. Maybe at that time, my preceptor was also guiding me along every step which I did and so, found it real tough to talk to the patient at the same time. But now, the skills are like at the back of my hands and not talking to patients seem to be pretty weird if I ever try not to. Heh...

Too much learning to be concised into this short entry. Really treasure the time I spent in clinicals (even though sometimes I was so tired that I din't feel like going back into the wards. But that was temporarily. Juz needed a good 8 hrs sleep and I'd b all ready to go back again). Thanks Lord, for blessing me with this opportunity to be in the wards and to learn on the job :) Looking forward to my next clinical posting!