Becoming A Pediatric Oncologist Essay

Since I have been a young girl, I have dreamed of dedicating my life to aid others in health and wellness. Nursing, however has not always been my leading career choice. Career options such as a pediatrician, oncologist, anesthesiologist, etc. have been considered in my pursuit of finding the proper career path, but through all the consideration I have never lost my true passion of helping others. Through careful examination of these various careers, I discovered that I wanted to pursue a career that was more personal and hands-on. I have chosen to pursue a career as a pediatric oncology nurse. Although this career with be both physically and emotionally demanding, I feel that I have made the best choice to become a nurse and devote my life in the pursuit of restoring health and wellness in children battling detrimental diseases.

When it comes to cancer, so much of the world’s knowledge is based on statistics. For example, each day forty-six children, or more than two full classrooms of kids, are diagnosed with cancer and one out of every three hundred thirty people will develop cancer before the age of twenty. The simplest and most important of these statistics is this, “Cancer is the number one cause of death by disease in children.” Pediatric cancer takes the lives of more people than the number of children who die from asthma, diabetes, cystic fibrosis and pediatric AIDS combined! About one thousand three hundred and eighty children are expected to die from cancer this year alone. Although the cure rate of children with cancer is steadily increasing for most childhood cancers over the past five years, the number of children who will die is overwhelming and unacceptable.

According to the National Cancer Institute, everyday 43 kids are diagnosed with cancer, and in a year over 1,960 of them will die. That’s why the America Make a Wish Foundation grants a wish every 35 minutes to kids with life threatening diseases. They believe that in some cases, giving the kids their one heartfelt wish could be a real game changer. That's why, one way I’m going to pay it forward is sponsoring a wish.

According to the American Cancer Society, there are sixteen major types of childhood cancers and over 100 subtypes. Leukemia and Lymphoma cancer are the most common cancers that children get at a young age. Everyday forty-six kids are diagnose with childhood cancer and seven children die every day. Childhood cancer kills more kids than Cystic Fibrosis, AIDS, and asthma combined! The worst part about childhood cancer is that the treatment side affects can last a lifetime for these kids. People do not understand that childhood cancer only gets a small percentage of the budget for all cancers. National Cancer Institute budget is around $4.9 billion and only 4% of that sum goes towards childhood cancer.

I have had a passion for becoming a healthcare provider for children for quite a while (for a long time). Children are one of the most important individuals of society because they are the future and will one day be in charge of the world. Their health at a young age is indicative to how their health will be as adults. Childhood has a great effect on how a person turns out to be so I hope to help children I hope to use prevention and education to preserve and restore the health of my patients. My career goals are to prevent children from having to spend time in hospitals or in pain and to help them live out their life and dreams to the fullest extent. Children play a very large role in their families, and when a child becomes sick, the whole family becomes distressed. Pediatricians not only heal children, but they help and prevent a family from suffering. I love medicine and children, and I hope to combine these two passions by becoming a pediatrician.

“What do you want to be when you grow up?” As a child, we have all been asked this question; and as unrealistic children, we all had dreams of being a superhero, princess, cowboy, or astronaut. Later on in life, as time went by, and as we became more knowledgeable, our answers became more serious. Some of us wanted to be teachers, business owners, or a veterinarian. However, I have always wanted to be a doctor, but not just any doctor. For as long as I can remember, I have wanted to be a pediatrician. Now, half way through my junior year in high school, I have started to question the details of this career, and all the hard work it takes to become a part of the medical field.

The importance behind this health issue is that major advances in medicine haven’t significantly improved survivor rates nor have medical advances reduced the number of cancer cases per year in children under 18 years of age (Curtin, Minino, Anderson, 2016).“Congressman McCaul is a father of five and knows that every parent’s worst nightmare is their children receiving a life-threatening cancer diagnosis. Growing up, his childhood best friend lost his battle to cancer. It wasn’t fair then and it isn’t fair now. Congressman McCaul founded the Childhood Cancer

The projected job growth for the profession is 14% in the next seven years. Currently, the median salary for a Pediatric oncologist is ("Pediatric Oncologist: Job Description, Duties And Outlook"). Pediatric Oncologists earn a median salary of $212,577 annually (Decker 2017), but such an impressive pay comes with an even greater price. Pediatric Oncologists usually work for more than 40 hours per week. Their days are filled with hard training and stressfully complex medical care ("Pediatric Hematology/Oncology"), causing fewer chances for personal or family

St. Jude is the only pediatric cancer research center that denies no child. It is a place where families do not have to pay for treatments and services that are not covered by insurance. It helped raise the overall survival rate of pediatric cancer from 20% to more than 70% (GuideStar, n.d.). Some of their goals are to continue to increase the cure rates for pediatric cancer in the United States; to reduce acute and long-term morbidity that are associated with pediatric cancer treatment; to lead the way in the prevention and control of pediatric cancer; and to advance research and treatment of pulmonary infectious diseases and non-malignant hematological diseases (GuideStar, n.d.). St. Jude is also the first National Cancer Institute-designated

Out of 100,000 children 32.1 cancer diagnoses occur in the age group 0-14, 138.6 occur in the 15-39 age group, and 2,053.8 occur in 40 and older (cancer.gov). Pediatric cancer, being so rare, makes research and development hard to fund because there are not many eligible participants for each specific trial. This creates a “Catch 22” by having a good societal support system, yet not having enough “return-on-investment” (Milne). Pediatric cancer is the leading cause of death in children after accidents, however the amount of deaths has lower drastically in recent years. The mortality rate as a whole has decreased by fifty percent in the last thirty years, however for patients with cancers other than lymphoma or leukemia the mortality rate has not declined since 1996 (Analysis of the National Cancer Institute’s Investment). Lymphoma and leukemia are the most common cancers that children are diagnosed with, but there are many more that can occur that need new research in order to discover ways to decrease the current mortality rate. In 1960 it was discovered that leukemia could be treated by “combination chemotherapy and dose intensity” this brought the curability up from 10% before this discovery to 80% by the 1990s (Norris and Adamson). Although this treatment has been successful for leukemia patients, the most common of childhood cancers, it is not as successful with other types of cancer. There are currently clinical trials that take place to begin trying to find treatments or cure for pediatric cancer, however because of lack of funding many of the trials do not continue or never really take off. Due to the lack of funding and efforts put forth into research for pediatric cancer more the 2,500 children die in America every year (thetruth365.org). Children diagnosed with cancer deserve more work to be put into finding a cure so they can go on to live long, happy

Rhabdomyosarcoma is the most common soft tissue sarcoma in children. It makes up a little more than 3% of childhood

Some people have many kinds of goals. It is hard to give exact number people who are majored in nursing, but one thing that I know is that the demography is very wide and large. This is because people have different reasons for majoring in this career. I believe the best reason for majoring in nursing is because it has wide varieties of a career that one can major in. I find myself to be a pediatric nurse as my career. Pediatric nurses have great benefits, good salary, and I love spending my time with children.

As established in the National Cancer Institute, “Cancer is the leading cause of death worldwide for children and adolescents in America, accounting for more than 91,250 children that lose their lives to this disease” (National Cancer Institute). Cancer is not considered a terminal illness, but more of a chronic illness because of the intense treatment that the individual has to endure. As a result of this treatment the chances of survival for children suffering from pediatric cancer has increased around 80 percent. The increment in the survival rate has made it possible for many parents to not have to go through the acceptance that they are about to lose their child to a terminal illness, but have coping strategies that will make them adapt to the fear of the reoccurrence of that illness. This illness has a great impact on the patient as well as the family because not only do they have to adapt to this illness physically, but also mentally. Research has shown that there are both short term and long term effects that come into effect when the child is both in treatment and also years after the treatment. The type of cancers that these adolescents have to endure range from leukemia, brain tumors and other cancerous tumors that have appeared in recent medical studies. These tumors can either be benignant, an acute case that is non-cancerous or malignant, a cancerous case that will need intense treatment over an extended period of time.While many would say there is more of a

(Connective: Transition-Now that you’ve heard a little background information on childhood cancer, I’m going to share with you what St Jude does and how they are helping battle these

Raising awareness is a step in the right direction to escalating advocacy and support for childhood cancer research (acco.org 1). One nationwide project that brings in the most financial aid for visitors and patients is St. Jude’s Children's Research Hospital (StJude.org 1). The mission of St. Jude is "to advance cures and the means of prevention, for pediatric catastrophic diseases through research and treatment" (StJude.org 1). That being said, the support "helps ensure that St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital will continue its lifesaving mission of finding cures and saving children” (StJudes.org 1). Few people realize the dire situation patients and families are in when they are deciding to not