Last Day of Clinicals [forever!] at LPCH

So the day finally came! On November 18 was my last day of clinicals as a University of San Francisco nursing student. As part of our last semester, we are split up [no more group clinicals] and go to our Capstone placement. I was placed at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital [LPCH] right near Stanford's Medical Center/Hospital. Since the beginning of the semester, I knew I had to fulfill 225 hours in 12 hour 7pm-7am shifts. Yes, it was a killer but I definitely learned a lot and met a bunch of good people on the unit.

Because it was my last day, the staff at the unit decided to bring some food and have a potluck to bid me farewell. I was able to choose the pizza that they were gonna order so I got the BBQ special.

My mom too contributed in the potluck and baked her famous brownies for the staff [as well as sweet and sour meatballs which was received really well]. This picture was taken in the morning of my last day and that's the day shift's nurse grabbing a few and placing it in cups to save them [for herself]. haha! I definitely had to take a picture of that and show my mom and told her how everyone loved them.

I made cards for the staff and individualized them by writing their names on each card. I wrote a small message and made a custom card case resembling a crayon box. Get it?!

And finally, Jen is special because she was my preceptor and so I made her an individual card and gave her a gift she's always wanted--an Easy Bake Oven! I thanked her for allowing me to work alongside with her as she "showed me the ropes" [meaning having patience as I did my math calculations for meds and taking time to explain procedures]. I remembered in the 2nd week or so, she was looking for things for her daughter and mentioned how she never got these kind of things when she was little like the Easy Bake Oven. So ever since then, I've had this gift in mind and was just as excited to give this to her as a thank-you gift. The staff was present too [in the nursing room] and loved the idea as well.

So to everyone on the unit, THANK YOU! Thank you for helping me as a nursing student transition to a more competent soon-to-graduate nurse!