On the day I shadowed, I had to wake up at 4:30 in the morning to meet with the women I was shadowing. We got to UPMC Shadyside in about 1 hour and 30 minutes due to all the delays and traffic. As soon as we got to the hospital, we parked in the dedicated parking garage and then headed off into work. We took the elevator and many hallways to get to the particular wing of the hospital, the ICU. The intensive care unit is a part in the hospital where patients that are critically ill reside in. It can be temporary or permanent. Whenever we first got to the ICU, we went into the break room, and we put all our belongings in a locker. Jana, the women I shadowed, then checked in by using her card in this electronic swipe system. We then had to meet with the nurses working the night shift to get updates on the patients we would be taking care of that day. In the intensive care unit, nurses are usually given two patients to watch over for their whole …show more content…
It helped a lot because everyone at the hospital would talk to me and tell me random information that will benefit me in the future. It was very interesting to see how the nurses came together in emergency situations and helped each other. They also helped each other in different ways whether it was to watch over their patient or to go fetch a medication for one of their patients. I was very shocked on how much they have to document and how much time they spend on the computers. This shadowing experience introduced me to the field of nursing. Even though I wasn’t there for long, I still learned so much information. During this experience, I witnessed how nurses have to remain calm during their job. I also got to see what their duties and responsibilities were throughout the day. Shadowing a nurse made me really excited to go to college and pursue my dream. I can’t wait till I can go to college to start my education in
This time, I decided to be more talkative and ask more questions about the patients. My senior nurse showed me a patient who fell down a couple flight of stairs and due to his accident, he injured his brain severely to the point where he couldn’t speak anymore. She explained to me all the medications that he had to take and how she had to look up the patient’s lab report because the medications he takes might affect him in different ways. After she was done with looking up his lab reports, I watched her feed the patient for an hour and thirty minutes. During this time, I really felt bad for the patient because he was half-awake and half-asleep while eating. It saddened me how we had to disrupt his resting time to feed him before he could take his medication. After the patient was done eating, I watched the nurse give the patient Lovenox, which I learned was given to patients who are immobile in order to stop blood clotting. After giving him his medication, we had to transfer him off the bed and into a chair, which was my favorite part about this clinical observation. I got to physically help move him off his bed and into a chair. This took 3 nurses, including myself to move him and it made me realize how nursing really requires teamwork. I then got to help clean him up and after changing him, it was time to leave the hospital. This clinical observation made me really excited to be a nurse because I
Working as a nurse can help you gain bonding skills, while working together to save an individual's life or to cure a disease. Also, all nurses know what they have to deal with, therefore it'll be just as much as a challenge for anyone as much as it would be for everyone else. Hospitals are not the only place that nurses take care of patients, they also work in schools, law firms, and insurance companies. Some nurses like to work full time, but part time or on call is always an option (Jennifer Wright). The only bad things that I nurse has to look out for is being exposed to all different types of germs and viruses. Nurses also have to deal with a lot of blood, so this is not your average clean job. Another bad thing is that the job can be kind of stressful because some days they are short on staff or gain a lot more patients. Another con about being in the nursing field is that a nurse will come face to face with a rude patient, they could be rude for whatever reason stretching from family issues, not wanting to be in the hospital, or just not wanting any assistance. Regardless of how rude a patient is, it is important that a nurse gives off a positive and polite vibe (Becoming a
Calls to outpatient areas such as radiology, rehab, and the hospital lobby are also on the rise, with family members, visitors, and employees being added, besides the inpatients, to the list of eligible Code Rescue calls for the ICU nurse to respond to. With Code Rescues involving a Stroke Alert, the ICU nurse must accompany the patient to the CT Scan area for a STAT CT of the brain, which takes the nurse away from their assigned patients for an even longer period of time based on the status of that patient. When a nurses take their break, another nurse is required to monitor those patients as well as take care of their own patient assignment. The attention given to the other patients is not considered to be extensive, basically “keeping an eye” on them until their nurse returns. This patient assignment could be at a safety risk if their nurse is also the one assigned to respond to Code Rescues at any time during the
I think that the information that I learned from the nurse was very informative and help to confirm all the information that I found when researching the nursing career on the O’NET. The nurse was very honest and frank about what her job entails, as well as showing me how rewarding the job can really be. This interview was very helpful in affirming that nursing is a career that I want to be a significant part of. I look forward to finishing my education and practicing as a registered
I have had a pleasure of meeting people in the nursing profession, not a parent or a relative but someone that impacted my life in a different way. Someone that 's helped me before they even knew who I was. A nurse steps up to help anyone before they even know who the truly are. Good personality or not nurses believe everyone deserves an equal amount of help. Sometimes nurses help in emergency situations, or casual checkups. My desire to become a nurse was to help people in need, and maybe they will help me in some way as well. Nursing can be a really rewarding job because it might not seem like a nurse does a whole lot but it can affect someone 's life in the smallest way. A four year bachelors of nursing degree is required to get a job as a nurse ("Requirements to Be a Nurse in the
Nursing is a profession that has always been in sight for me since I was four years-old and I fractured my elbow. I was playing with one of my friends who was also my neighbor. We were playing with a big pink, round, rubber ball. I remember thinking that it would be amusing to try and hug the ball and roll on the ground. Of course since I was only four at the time, I did not think to check my surroundings to make sure that it was a safe environment to be doing such an act. Once I finished my roll I slammed my elbow on a rock that was peeking through the top of the grass. I immediately shrieked out in pain and then had to go to the hospital. Throughout the whole experience I only remember one part of the hospital, the nurse. From the moment that she starting taking care of me in my room, when I was getting casted, to my discharge from the hospital she did nothing but provide high quality care while also making sure that I felt comfortable and relaxed the whole time. At that moment I told my mother that I wanted to be a nurse and that nothing else was going to persuade my decision.
This work becomes even more meaningful if the opportunity to save a life comes along. Gap Medics article states, “You will make a difference. Nursing is a great career choice if you want to be in the helping profession” (Sophie Cresswell gapmedics.com). It is an opportunity to save lives and impacts the lives of others. A difference can be made, and that difference can start by becoming a nurse. This job position does not consist of pointless, tedious work. It is a job that allows someone to make a difference in someone else’s life. That alone is an opportunity that holds meaning. There are various advantages of nursing that are nonetheless
There are a lot of people that just go into nursing and don 't really know what they are getting themselves into so from starting from the bottom really helps you to get to the top the right way and learn more while you are heading there. My goal in the future would be an RN working in pediatrics or even the emergency room in a hospital, I volunteered at CMC hospital for about 3 years in the emergency room and I really enjoyed the environment, it made a learning experience for me to see if I actually wanted to be in the medical field and if I could handle it. I am glad I signed up to volunteer in my community it was a great feeling to be there for people and help out actually see how a hospital is run and what procedures you need to know also. It would be nice in a couple months to work as an LNA in a hospital because then I would already have my foot in the door. But it is very difficult to get into when you only have a year experience in a long-term care
Disadvantages is that you will be exposed to all types of viruses and germs which come from them having to deal with blood and bodily fluids. You have rotating ours so you might have a long work day because there might be shortage of staff and an increase in new patients for you to treat. Patients sometimes don 't want to cooperate because they don’t want your help, but that 's just because some people are more easier to work with instead of others. There will be lots of sad or tragic things that will happen. For instance people will die and it will just make you so sad but you 're a nurse so you have to toughen it up and move on because it’s part of being a registered nurse. Also you will miss out on a lot of things if you have a family. You will miss holidays, nights , and days so you have to be available at all times because it’s a job that requires a lot of time and attention. While there is a lot of disadvantages there are also a lot of advantages. The main advantage is you make a difference and you can literally save someone 's life and knowing that you helped someone can be one of the many gratifying aspects of the job. The job allows you to experience very diverse things and can be very interesting. Working together with others to help save someone 's life or care for their illness can be a bonding experience for the workers and it also allows them to understand what their coworkers have to deal with in healthcare. There are many opportunities in this field too. You can do many things outside of direct patient care. Such as discharge planning, case management and education. They can work for more than just hospitals. They can also work in insurance companies, law firms and schools. The best thing is that you can be a travel nurse and go to many different places and take care of people from different backgrounds and cultures and can be pretty amazing if you love
A study conducted by academics found that undergraduate nurses feel reflection is the key to changing and improving their practice. (Bulman, Lathlean, & Gobbi, 2011). Reflection assists nurses to enhance their nursing abilities by encouraging them to reflect on negative experiences, in order to overcome similar experiences in the future. This essay will aim to demonstrate the importance of reflection within nursing, additionally providing me with a platform to reflect on my decision to become a nurse. I will begin by reflecting upon the factors that influenced me to choose nursing, followed by an explanation of the benefits that reflection has on nursing. The essay will conclude by summarising how I will put reflection in practice throughout
Although students were not allowed in the recovery unit, I was able to talk to one of the recovery nurses. I learned that a nurse’s duty of care includes monitoring the patient’s vital signs and level of consciousness, and maintaining airway patency. Assessing pain and the effectiveness of pain management is also necessary. Once patients are transferred to the surgical ward, the goal is to assist in the recovery process, as well as providing referral details and education on care required when the patient returns home (Hamlin, 2010).
The nurse made sure that my grandfather was comfortable, checking up on him regularly and asking if he needed his bed adjusted or if he needed a drink of water The nurse made sure my grandfather felt protected. My grandfather was on morphine for his pain which made him disorientated. My grandfather thought that he was seeing people coming after him with swords and was quite frightened. The nurse made sure to stay with him and reassure him that it was only the medication making him a bit out of it and that there was nothing to worry about, that she would take good care of him and protect him from any possible dangers Conclusion
It gave me a chance to apply the knowledges and skills that have acquired in the classroom over the past years and gain a real-world hands-on experience that I can use as stepping stone to advance my career. Thanks to this internship, I now have a better understanding of how the healthcare system operates, how insurance claim process works as well as navigate through electronic health record database without difficulty. In a nutshell, this internship gave me a firsthand exposure to the healthcare environment in addition to opening the doors of opportunities that allowed me to obtain an indispensable skills that would serve me for the rest of my
Nurses play a huge role in the health care system. A nurse is a bridge between doctor and patient. s/he is a compassionate, understanding and nonjudgmental yet firm and grounded. S/he is probably one of the most important yet least appreciated person in a patient’s life. When many think of a nurse they probably recognize them by a white hat and uniform. Today those white uniforms have been replaced with vividly colored scrubs worn by both male and female nurses, and many other employees in healthcare. Nurses are not just the people that are limited to bedside care and drug administration; they are highly skilled and well-educated nursing professionals.
I went to the operating room on March 23, 2016 for the Wilkes Community College Nursing Class of 2017 for observation. Another student and I were assigned to this unit from 7:30am-2:00pm. When we got their we changed into the operating room scrubs, placed a bonnet on our heads and placed booties over our shoes. I got to observe three different surgeries, two laparoscopic shoulder surgeries and one ankle surgery. While cleaning the surgical room for the next surgery, I got to communicate with the nurses and surgical team they explained the flow and equipment that was used in the operating room.