Background
Nursing has always been a passion of mine since my first year of nursing school. Each year my desire to improve the quality of nursing care increases. Obtaining a Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) degree will assist me in not only reaching a higher level of clinical knowledge and expertise, but also increase my usage of evidence-based care.
I have over a decade of professional nursing experience, both administratively and clinically, in a level one trauma center at the Medstar Washington Hospital Center. I have worked in both, the surgical ICU and the Emergency Room (ER). In the surgical ICU my daily responsibilities were to manage and monitor the care of critically ill patients requiring life-saving medical equipment and treatment
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Every day, I triaged patients to determine their level of care, completed nursing care plans, transferred patients throughout the hospital, and discharged patients home when stable. I often served as a preceptor, while working on both units. The experience that I gained from both departments propelled my interest in wanting to further my education, so that I will be able to evaluate research methods and apply them into clinical practice.
My administrative experience was on a medical-surgical oncology unit as a clinical manager. I became chemo- certified, obtained a Medical-Surgical certification, managed the overall operations of the unit, developed a support group for cancer survivors, and implemented quality improvement projects that demonstrated improved clinical outcome measures. Throughout my journey at the Washington Hospital Center, I joined numerous evidence-based committees that improved clinical outcomes.
My thirst for knowledge in clinical research and quality improvement in clinical practice led me to return to school. In 2016, I earned a Master’s Degree in Science with a concentration on Family Nurse Practitioner (FNP) at Howard University. Presently I am working in a primary care setting with a diverse underserved population within the inner city of Washington,
With a great passion for healthcare and helping others, I started my healthcare career by enrolling in the Paramedic Certification Program through Johnston Community College after I graduated high school. After six years of working as a Paramedic with the Johnston County Emergency Medical Response System, I decided to go back to school to further my education in healthcare and work toward obtaining a Master’s Degree as a healthcare professional. I now occupy a position in Patient Services Administration with Johnston UNC Healthcare as the Cancer Accreditation Analyst where I oversee all aspects of the cancer accreditation processes and procedures and work closely with all oncology staff and physicians to insure compliance with the Commission on Cancer (CoC) Standards. With healthcare being so broad, even within the Oncology setting, I have researched the Cancer Registrar profession to get a better understanding of what a cancer registrar does. I work closely with Johnston Health’s cancer registrar but I still do not know what all is involved in her chosen career path.
Professionalism in nursing has advanced greatly over the years. A cornerstone for change includes that of evidence based practice (EBP) as the drive of nursing intervention and patient care. According to the Quality and Safety Education for Nurses (QSEN), Evidence-based practice is described as the combination of the most recent evidence with clinical knowledge that includes the patient’s best interests in mind for greater patient outcomes (QSEN, 2017). The QSEN’s goal is to prepare nurses for improvement in quality and safety of patients (2017). Because of this goal, six competencies, including evidence-based practice, are listed for criteria of improvement in nursing practice (2017). I have been fortunate to have experience with implementing this practice and providing education in certain EBP protocols in my career. One EBP protocol in particular that our unit has been involved in since May of this year includes Enhanced Recovery After Surgery (ERAS) now referred to as Improving Surgical Care and Recovery (ISCR).
My second year of residency started on nights in the PICU managing the full capacity, fifteen bed unit in our level 1 pediatric trauma center. The resiliency of the patients inspired me. To provide the best care possible, I quickly adapted to the speed of the unit. Instead of feeling overwhelmed by the new atmosphere and intimidating workload, I accepted the challenge and relied upon my time management skills and ability to prioritize tasks. In the spare time of an x-ray being taken, I was placing orders at bedside computers, so not a single second went wasted in the care of patients.
I graduated from Florida Atlantic University in May 2017, successful passed the necessary national certification and obtained my Advanced Registered Nurse Practitioner license from the state of Florida. My education has provided me with the skills and knowledge to assess, diagnose and treat patients in a dedicated, compassionate and caring manner. My background includes providing care in an acute care setting as a registered nurse and interning within the Martin Health Care System as a family nurse practitioner student. During my internship, I practiced teamwork, clinical excellence, and became proficient in
In addition, a DNP degree will help me better serve my community by advocating for quality and safety healthcare system. Once attained, I would seek employment at either a school or university with the mission of educating nursing students to practice the highest quality of patient care. One of the major issues facing the nursing profession today is the lack of advance nursing practices. The medical field is in crisis. Doctors are stretched to the limits, and patients are demanding more advanced care. To alleviate some of the concerns facing medicine in the 21st century, advance nursing practices is a vital area in the contribution of understanding and working within the bounds of a team structure, and the promotion of communication between the interdisciplinary health team. The mission of the advance nursing practice is to help individual patients, and their families, determine and achieve optimum physical, mental and social potential, and to do so within the challenging context of the environment in which they live and work Nurses are among the largest professional care group within the healthcare service industry. We are responsible for providing quality care and assisting patients towards independent and healthy living. Considering the changing working environment, health care practitioners like nurses are
I have a Master’s Degree in nursing and am a proud graduate of Mount St. Mary’s University. My two years of volunteer experience in the past as an Assistant Nurse at White Memorial Medical Center helped me realize and implement clinal duties I learned during my course of education. In addition, I currently work as a registered nurse at Glendale Memorial Hospital and I am determined to venture out into other hospitals to gain more experience.
The American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) is committed to advancing professional nursing roles and highlighting the connection between well-educated nurses and quality health care. As a leading supporter of academic institutions that educate advanced practice registered nurses (APRNs), AACN is keenly aware of the direct link between graduate-prepared nurses and both patient safety and positive outcomes. Within the APRN community, Clinical Nurse Specialists (CNSs) play a unique role in the delivery of high quality nursing care. These clinicians are experts in evidence-based nursing and practice in a range of specialty areas, such as oncology, pediatrics, geriatrics,
I am privileged to return to the work environment at Northwell Health to further broaden my knowledge of the emergency room as well as the complexities involving a hospital system. Prior to my job as an Academic Associate, I had no exposure to administrative tasks, and simply assumed I lacked the aptitude to complete the necessary duties. Yet, from working with physicians to plan continuing medical education conferences and grand round series, I see how I am able to incorporate my interpersonal and organizational skills to coordinate these conferences.
Prior to my sophomore year, I worked as a Patient Care Technician, rotating in the float pool, serving as a resource for all floors of the hospital. I was exposed to a variety of patient diagnoses, backgrounds, and assessments. In both of my medical-surgical clinicals, I used critical thinking and assessments that would influence the path of a patient’s care. I saw the importance of obtaining a thorough patient history, as health is impacted by patients’ lifestyles. These experiences prepared me for my next clinical experience: working in a critical care setting as a nurse extern in NYU Langone’s Neurosurgical Intensive Care Unit.
Nursing professionals help individuals, families, and communities to attain, maintain, or recover optimal health and quality of life. The needs of patient care have evolved together with the healthcare system for a few decades, setting higher standards and delegating more roles for nursing professionals. Nurses, especially those with a bachelor’s degree, should always maintain continued education and teach other healthcare professionals as well. This is to equip them with the tools required to deliver a holistic patient
Over the past decade, the healthcare industry has experienced astronomical growth and innovative transformation. As the patient population and complexity of care increases, the number of experienced nurses decreases, putting new graduate nurses on the front lines of patient care. The challenge that new graduate nurses face, is the expectation to provide the same quality and safe patient care that is provided by the expert nurse (Spector & Echternacht, 2010).
After working as RN, I decided that I wanted to advance in my practice in professional responsibility, autonomy, and flexibility. I want to put a positive influence on the lives of my patients and their families and become NP. With a goal to engage in advanced practice nursing, I hope to pursue people more, educating them to know how to take care of their health in the way they feel most comfortable. To me, nursing is a gift of giving, loving, and caring, and the rewards in nursing are limitless. Accomplishing my goal of growing to be a Nurse Practitioner will enable me to strengthen my current nursing knowledge base, improve my relationship with my patients and their families, and participate in a noble profession. Becoming a Nurse Practitioner combines the nursing’s compassion, knowledge and skills with the autonomy to practice, diagnose, and treat patients holistically. I may not heal everybody, but I could make it better by listening, providing care, and leading my patients and their families to their desired
During my medical school and internship I was involved in various aspects of patient care; from taking patient history, to performing
It’s truly a blessing to be a part of such a great profession. Where you are lifted up by your fellow nurses during times of happiness and distress. Working as a licensed practical nurse has allowed me the opportunity to impact patients’ lives in positive ways. When people enter my health care facility for care, they have certain expectations, they are not always at their best and need the best level of care to help them achieve their prior level of function. After nine and a half years of working as a licensed practical nurse, I decided that it was time to pursue a RN degree. Although, I have enjoyed my career as a LPN I understand that the scope of it is not as wide as that of an RN. I am choosing the pursue an RN because I want to not only enrich my life but I also want to provide a higher quality of care for my
The Doctor of Nursing Practice program (DNP) prepares nurses seeking a degree in nursing practice and offers an alternative to research-focused doctoral programs. Also, the DNP program equips nurses to implement fully the science developed by nurse researchers prepared in Ph.D., DNSc, and other research-focused nursing doctorates (American Association of Colleges of Nursing, 2016). Also, the knowledge and practice expertise obtained in the DNP program continues to assure quality patient outcomes. The American Association of Colleges of Nursing (2016) suggest factors that aids in building momentum for change in nursing education at the graduate level include: the rapid expansion of knowledge underlying practice; increased complications of patient