Emilia DeJesus ’19: Boston Children’s Hospital SIMPeds Program Internship (Part 2)

Emilia DeJesus
Sep 5, 2018 · 4 min read

Last week, my internship at Boston Children’s Hospital SIMPeds program sadly came to an end. I want to thank Mr. Schlenker and everyone I worked with at SIMPeds for providing me with this fantastic opportunity and for making it such an incredible experience. I began my internship knowing very little about simulation, but now I am leaving with not only a greater understanding of simulation, but also with more knowledge about different areas of the hospital and medical field. Everyone I worked with was extremely welcoming and did their best to provide me with as many opportunities as possible to observe, participate, and learn in both the simulation program and other areas of the hospital.

The main focus of my internship was, of course, simulation. I was able to observe a huge variety of simulations, ranging from simple procedures, such as practicing managing an airway on a mannequin, to much more complex simulations with full teams of doctors and nurses working to diagnose and treat a simulated patient. Not only was I able to observe simulations, but I also was lucky enough to participate in a handful as well. The ones I participated in were mostly designed for high school or college students as an opportunity to learn new skills, whereas the ones I observed were often for medical students or doctors to practice existing skills. Another part of my internship was to design and run my own simulation for a procedure of my choosing. For my simulation, I chose to have a child come into the emergency department in anaphylactic shock, and those participating in the simulation were then tasked with diagnosing and properly treating the patient. This was a great experience because I gained a much better understanding of all that goes into making a given simulation possible.

In addition to all that I did involving simulation during my internship, I was also afforded the opportunity to shadow medical professionals in different areas of the hospital. One of the observerships I participated in was shadowing a clinical assistant in the medical surgical ICU. During my time in the ICU, I saw a huge variety in the types of patients there. Some patients were only a few months old while others were late in their teens, some had just arrived in the ICU that morning while others had been there for close to nine months, and every patient had very different conditions and reasons for being in the ICU. Spending time in the ICU allowed me to not only learn a lot medically about the different patients and their conditions, but also about how the ICU functions on its own and in connection with the rest of the hospital.

In addition to observing in the ICU, I was also able to shadow a child life specialist in pre-op for a day. Through this observership, I got to see to the surgical side of the hospital while also learning about the importance of child life specialists. It is their job to make sure patients and their families feel as comfortable as possible during this stressful time in their lives. There is a huge variety of patients in pre-op, but child life specialists are prepared to interact with all types and have many different ways to help patients and families feel more comfortable. They have tons of toys, games, coloring books, iPads, and other kinds of activities for kids to take their minds off the fact that they are about to go into the operating room for surgery. For part of my time in pre-op, I spent an hour just playing board games with two young sisters, one of whom was about to go in for surgery. I could see how my taking the time to play games and laugh with them made both them and their parents feel more at ease and enjoy what otherwise could have been an extremely stressful time.

My time at SIMPeds has been invaluable as I have learned more than I ever could have imagined about simulation and different areas of the medical field. I am extremely thankful to everyone I worked with at SIMPeds and in all areas of the hospital for being so welcoming and making my time at Boston Children’s Hospital even more memorable. Interning at SIMPeds not only reaffirmed my desire to pursue a career in medicine but also showed me all of the possibilities within this realm. Although I am sad to leave such an amazing place, I am forever grateful to have had this incredible opportunity and will carry all that I learned with me throughout the rest of my education and career in medicine someday.

The Rivers School

The Rivers School is a coeducational, college preparatory day school for students in grades 6 through 12.

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