Hairspray's Home Interview

Time spent at my mother’s bedside in the intensive care unit changed my perception of the nursing profession. I realized what unique value was integrated in comprehensive nursing care, which was built on excellence, compassion, and respect. I knew right then and there that nursing was a professional path which I would like to take. Changing my college major to nursing was not a difficult decision – I wanted to repay for all that courteous care my family received in the most vulnerable time of our lives.

A position statement from the American Nurses Association (ANA) under Ethics and Human rights which I find interesting pertains the ANA’s policy on Nursing Care and Do Not Resuscitate (DNR) and Allow Natural Death (AND) Decisions. I consider myself a baby nurse with only four years of experience. My nursing career to date has been in the medical intensive care area in my hospital. The hospital I work for has three different ICU’s. The unit I work for specifically deals with “the sickest of the sick” we care for everything except traumas, strokes, and open hearts. Most of our patients have multiple comorbidities, terminal illnesses, and are noncompliant. In my short tenure I have had many DNR conversations with patients and family members. I cannot stress enough the importance of communication with both the patient and family members during this critical time. We as nurses have to remember, we our patients advocates and if and when they can no longer make decisions for themselves we must be their voices and help to see their wishes are met. “A study by White, Engelberg, Wenrich, Lo, and Randall (2007) was designed to discover the content of physicians’ prognostic reports to family members of ICU patients. Results indicated families with low literacy rates received less information about potential treatment outcomes and thus may have been more likely to

Dying is a process that involves the entire family; that is to say, the family that is defined by the person. The nurse must be aware that this is not only an individual process but a family process. This involves recognizing family dynamics and communication patterns and facilitating healthy interactions.

On reading this article and identifying the study, there was a clear insight on how death and dying, and even improved health, impacted those nurses (Conte, 2014). Nurses, who worked closely with their patients, through the perils and suffering, culminating of death and losses, had grief not readily explored to enable that comfort zone (Conte, 2014).

Death is a part of life and eventually everyone on this earth will experience it. Nurses play an important role in death. Mourning the death of a loved one is something that almost everyone will experience in this lifetime because it is a natural response to death. Bereavement, grief and mourning are all effected by one’s culture, religion, the relationship with the deceased, personality, and how the person died.

Nurses: Assist the patients and families to cope with the end-of-life process such as assessing and

Registered Nursing takes skilled and hard working people. There are many jobs in the Nursing field. To name a few, there are: Hospice Nurses, Long Term Care Facility Nurses, ER Nurses, Pediatric Nurses, Geriatric Nurses, Acute Care Nurses, etc. Hospice Nurses are jobs taken by people that are strong hearted and strong willed. I had an experience with a Hospice Nurse in a job shadow. I went to the houses of her patients instead of a facility. We went to three different houses to take care of her assigned residents. Her patients loved her very much and she did her job with love and care. Three days after my experience with her, one of her residents passed away. They had a great patient and nurse relationship. She was filled with sadness and I also felt sad for the resident’s family and other caregivers that cared for him. Hospice patients are only said to live about six months or less. Not all residents pass away after six months, some live longer. Hospice care is given to patients that are dying, but hospice can also go on pause because the patient becomes more independent. The job of hospice nurses is to take care of the resident nearing the time of death, not to cure their diseases. My job shadow said that it is always sad when her patients go, but she knows that they are not suffering like they were when they were living. The National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization states, “Hospice care professionals and volunteers provide services that address all of the

During my shadowing experiences at UAB Hospital, one particular event was prominent in my decision to pursue a career in nursing. While in the emergency department, a suicidal patient, a quadriplegic who lost her limbs due to a spinal cord injury, was brought in for her second visit. This experience caused me to tap into my ability to stay calm and reassuring during an emergent situation, and it reminded me of my father, who lost two of his limbs in a train accident. My father’s accident in itself taught me strength and courage because he, like the patient, occasionally feels forlorn, which leads to suicidal thoughts. Watching the nurses care for my father made me realize that a nurse must be perceptive and knowledgeable about their patient’s

But this may be what is necessary to begin the grieving process. In a case study published in the journal RN, the authors tell about a program designed to meet the unique needs of oncology nurses. This program was implemented at St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee. As a part of the program, the staff members who have cared for a patient are allowed to participate in a bedside memorial service. After the patient’s family has left the hospital, the chaplain will conduct a service for any of the employees who cared for that patient (Puckett, Hinds & Milligan, 1996). This would help nurses to accomplish the first of the four tasks of mourning-to accept the loss.

When my grandmother was dying of cancer in hospice, I had no intentions of becoming a nurse. Consistently, I repositioned her because she was in pain. Dutifully, I opened her windows because she loved the sunlight. Respectfully, I rubbed lotion on her skin because it made her comfortable. Devotedly, I prayed with her because her faith was strong, and she was ready to be reunited with my grandfather. Wistfully, I held her hand as she took her last breath, and told her it was okay to go. Afterwards, when the hospice nurses had told me that I would make a great nurse and I should consider nursing as a career, I politely said “No, thank you, nursing is not for me.”

I wanted to interview someone outside of the healthcare field because I feel that we are “trained” to deal with death and the dying differently. I can’t speak for anyone but myself, but I feel that now that I understand death and dying more because I am a nurse; my thoughts and feelings would be different from before I was a nurse. So, that brings me to my mother. When my grandfather was sick her and my grandmother decided to keep him at home and have hospice come to the house weekly to care for him outside of what they weren’t able to do themselves. They kept him home until the day he passed away and my mother was beside him every day. He had Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s.

My mom is a nurse for Hospice at the University of Kansas Hospital and her main department is Hospice. Hospice is where people come when they have 6 or less months to live before they pass away. It is for people who are dying and you can either stay in the hospital or you can stay in your own home. Why does she do this you may ask well because she loves to take care of, save, and comfort others. But being and becoming a nurse isn’t easy because it take 4 years of nursing school. So then after all the hard work she became a nurse she hasn’t stopped because she has been one for 33 years.

One of the hardest situations someone can endure is death. The death of a loved one, friend, and even an acquaintance can be tough for most. Healthcare professionals are told from day one not to “Not get too close and attached.” however, that is easier said than done. I currently work as a CNA in the memory care unit at an assisted living facility. In this home, we assist with any and ass activities of daily living, such as bathing, feeding, and dressing our residents. Working so close with these residents, it is difficult not to get to know and adore them, anyone in this particular field will tell you that I myself have a few of them. One resident in particular really held a special place in my heart. I would start my shift and head straight

There is an increasing amount of research centring on health care student experiences of facing the death of a patient, however, substantial gaps have been identified with regards to exploring healthcare professions experiences of death as a group. It has been acknowledged that most of the research on this topic focuses on a singular profession, nevertheless, with a significant increase in the emphasis of the importance of interdisciplinary working, particularly within the healthcare sector, it has been established that looking at the experiences of health care professions synergistically would be hugely beneficial in establishing key themes throughout the different professions.

In relation to the purpose of this study, the driving force behind the research are three questions. What are nurses experience following patient’s death? What are their actions and coping strategies following patient death? Would better learning opportunities and supportive practice environments be provided once there is an understanding of nurses’ grief and coping process, if yes, was it beneficial. The researchers proceeded with a broad question which allowed the focus to be sharpened and delineated later in the