Children\'s Hospital for My Alternate

¶ … Children's Hospital

For my alternate experience, I chose to observe at Briars School. Briars School is part of a long-term care pediatric hospital. The children the school range from 3 to 21 years of age, and have a variety of chronic medical conditions including: rare genetic disorders, traumatic brain injury, and respiratory distress. The majority of the students at the school suffers from severe mental retardation, has tracheostomy, and is on feeding tubes. In addition, most of the children have some degree of visual impairment. Students attend school for four hours each day. Younger children attend class from 8am to 12pm, while older children attend class from 12pm to 4pm.

Before going to the site, I expected to find it very depressing and to feel uncomfortable entering the environment. After all, the vast majority of the children have such extensive physical and mental problems that it is unlikely that they will ever be able to join mainstream society. Therefore, I expected the experience to be negative. However, my initial thoughts were incorrect. I found that, while there were some depressing aspects to the school, it was also uplifting. Each child received individualized attention from the teachers. They are separated into four different classrooms, with 5 to 10 kids in each classroom. This organization seemed ideal for students and teachers. Moreover, it was very educational for me to see the different intellectual and physical capabilities of each child. In addition, it was important to see the difference between developmental age and mental age, because, like other people, I make a lot of assumptions about ability based on someone's apparent age. I feel like this visit will change how I approach individuals.

Obviously, in a school servicing children with such specific physical needs, the RN plays a critical role. The RNs at the Briar School were in charge of maintaining the health of these children in the school setting. This included suctioning tracheostomies, administering medications, maintaining feeding tubes, doing diaper changes, and documenting the students' condition. However, in a classroom setting, it really is impossible to completely separate the role of the RN from that of the teachers and other educational workers. The RN really became a part of the educational team, tailoring her assistance to the child to the classroom environment. In fact, because much of the education seemed tailored towards teaching the students basic life-skills information, such as the weather, the nurse was able to really interact with the child's education.

The best part of the experience was observing the inherent joy in children. From an outsider's perspective, the children in this school had very few reasons to express joy or feel happiness. Almost all of them had significant physical challenges in addition to mental retardation. None of these children has a childhood even approximating normalcy. However, many of the children seemed happy. In fact, it was seeing the joy that a small action could bring to these children was very uplifting. In fact, one particular child seemed especially joyful. Because of privacy concerns, I was not able to access the child's medical records, but he appeared to have cerebral palsy and mental retardation. He had a tracheostomy and the nurse and teachers discussed the fact that he had recently had a significant summer cold, and his tracheostomy required cleaning during school. Despite the fact that his school, which he seemed to be enjoying, was interrupted for medical care, he seemed to maintain a sunny disposition and optimism that were very uplifting. However, watching his care was also one of the more difficult parts of the visit. Although I feel arrogant for acknowledging this, I could not help but feel pity for these children, knowing that their conditions would never significantly improve. Despite feeling that pity and sadness, I would definitely recommend the observation experience to another student. The reality is that anyone in the medical profession can expect to have patients with underlying physical or mental challenges that came make diagnosis and treatment more difficult. Understanding that, despite apparent differences, these people are human beings who deserve dignity and respect is one key to being a quality healthcare provider. I think visits like this one are a great reminder of that inherent dignity.