David Alvarez-Sanchez, NUR ’24, Lawrenceville, GA
This past summer, I had the opportunity to be a Student Nurse Extern (SNE) at New York University’s (NYU) Tisch Hospital in the Ronald O. Perelman Center for Emergency Services. The program lasted 8 weeks and I had the chance to shadow different registered nurses (RNs) as well as learn more about what it takes to be an emergency medicine nurse.
Right off the bat, we hit the ground running. The emergency department (ED) has patients constantly coming in left and right. Whether it’s via ambulance, driving, biking, or even by foot, patients come to us for a variety of reasons. As an SNE, I had the responsibility of helping triage patients and helping the nurses collect important information such as allergies, home medications, past medical and surgical histories and without a doubt their chief complaint. There was an added layer when patients came to us in situations where they could not speak and we had to rely on family members or associated parties to relay this vital information.
When I was not running to get the story on ambulances or individuals walking in, I would help the nurses with their daily tasks. I got to learn more about the different scenarios that could occur in the emergency department and what the next steps included. With NYU being known as the #1 hospital in New York and #1 for Neurology and Neurosurgery in the country, any signs of stroke are taken very seriously. I saw patients get rushed to get a computerized tomography (CT) scan whenever these alerts were called and helped serve as reassurance during these moments of high stress. Additionally, even in moments when patients stayed in the ED, individuals often had numerous questions about their plans of care. Thus, I was also able to help inform them and their loved ones about what the plan for the day or night was.
It is no easy feat to be in the emergency room, both for patients and providers. Be that as it may, the compassion and the care the RNs showed for their patients and for each other was remarkable. Even as SNE, the nurses took me under their wing and taught me everything they knew. During downtime, I learned important skills that I am confident will help me later down the line as a nurse myself. Even in such a fast-paced environment, it was important to never forget that these patients had lives they had to put on pause for the betterment of their health. I am very grateful I had this experience, and I can now say more confidently that the emergency room is somewhere I can see myself thriving later down the line as a registered nurse.
This is part of a series of posts by recipients of the 2023 Career Services Summer Funding Grant. We’ve asked funding recipients to reflect on their summer experiences and talk about the industries in which they spent their summer. You can read the entire series here
