Personal Narrative: A Career As A Registered Nurse

I frequently find myself writing at work. I work at Intermountain Medical Center as a Patient Care Tech and as a Health Unit Coordinator. I often am writing for myself, writing to my coworkers, other departments and also to my boss. I write and chart in the computer and send a lot of E-mails and type on a lot of different documents. I have noticed that as I write the longer I have been in this current job the more comfortable I am with colleagues and boss. The writing situation really does have an influence on the texts I produce.

I write as a Patient Care Tech on the patient’s communication boards. I write the date, patient’s name, there diet order, there activity level, who there Registered Nurse is for the day, who there Patient Care

Tech is for the day, who the Charge Nurse is for the day, and patients family name and phone number. I also write on my brain or report sheet information about the patient. I write the patients room number , there name, age, nurse, code status, diagnosis, history, there genitourinary status, if they are a blood glucose check, diet, activity level, if they are on a heart or oxygen monitor, falls risk, aspiration precautions, when they need to be weighed, what specimens we need if any, if they have a blood pressure restriction, if there bed needs to be in a certain position, if they are on isolation, if they need to be turned every two hours, if they are bed alarmed, there intake and out put, there vital signs every four hours, and if they are on oxygen. As a Health Unit Coordinator I write various emails and update documents and spreadsheets on a daily basis. We have audits on Catheter Associated Urinary Tract Infections, Isolations, Patient Status Orders, and Patient Safety. I also use Skype Messaging as a way of communication with various departments such as Social Work, Pharmacy, and other unit coordinators. Email is another big part of my job, Emailing my Boss, or Social Work or my other colleagues on a daily basis.

I participate in all of this writing because I love my job and caring for patients. Sure, it can be a lot and very stressful most days but at the end of the day I love the satisfaction I get of helping the patients out when they cant do it on there own. The situation I am writing in really influences the texts I produce. Here is an example, If I am writing on my patients communication board I am not going to write that there diet is a NDD3, ADA 75 Gram, Cardiac diet, I am going to write a soft diabetic diet with low salt. Also for there activity I’m not going to write up Ad Lib I am going to write Independent or can get up on own. When I give report to my night shift Patient Care Techs I am going to say that they are a NDD3, ADA 75 Gram, Cardiac diet because my night shift Patient Care Tech Understands those medical terms where a patient most likely will not know what that means. I was actually thinking the other day that the longer I have been at this job the more comfortable I feel around my coworkers and everyone in all the different departments in the hospital. So the more comfortable my writing seems as I am communicating to everyone.