PICU

While last week I was in the PCTU, for the next two weeks, I'll be in the PICU. Yep, take a second look, they're two different things! The PICU stands for the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit. Unlike last week where I was working mainly with kids with congenital heart problems and other cardio throacic issues, the PICU is more of a catch-all for general intensive care. For example, a lot of the kids with bad rashes, infections, surgeries, etc. My daily tasks will include medical rounds for 4 hours in the morning (yikes!), followed by taking care of consults, assessments, reassessments, and length of stays. A "length of stay" is when a patient doesn't have a nutrition consult in and isn't at high risk, but it's still good to check in with them about their diet/intake/appetite within 3-5 days or so.

Along with the PICU, for the next two weeks I'll also be working with birthing women. Unlike most of the patients in the hospital, these patients are on a consult-base only...so I won't be seeing everyone, only those who might have gestational diabetes, not eating well, hyperemesis gravidarum (really bad morning sickness), or who come in with previous health conditions that might put their pregnancy at risk. But at most, we might be seeing 1-2 patients who are birthing moms. Lastly, during this rotation I'll also be covering kids who are in for physical therapy. There usually aren't many of these, and they're more of length of stay consults. This is because most of them are in for general physical therapy and don't have any eating issues. If anything, we're trying to get them to eat more so they can heal faster and have enough energy for their therapy.

But seriously? I can't believe that I have 4 months left of my internship. It seems like it's gone by so fast, yet it still seems to take forever. It's going to be a weird feeling of being in the same rotation for two weeks, but it'll be nice not having as much homework this upcoming weekend. 

I also have to give a shout-out to everyone who applied for internships a few weeks ago. I can't believe it's already been a year since I applied! Seriously though, you can't think about it too much until a few days before, or you'll drive yourself insane. Just like every weekly rotation, while I may start preparing for homework and readings the week before, I can't look too much into specific medical conditions. Mainly because I have NO idea what specific medical conditions I'll be seeing, and also that the rotations are a learning experience and it's important to go into each week with an open mind. Being flexible, open-minded, and prepared are MUSTS. Haha, "musts," that's a funny word...