My Third Year “Nurseversary” In a few short weeks I will be coming up to my third official year as a clinically practicing bedside registered nurse. I am feeling a mixture of emotions: Pride, restlessness, uncertainty, elation, determination, humble, and many other feelings I cannot yet describe since there is no name for them. Nursing is all I ever wanted to do. I can’t quite remember how I caught the bug but I do remember making the decision to pursue this career and never looking back. I have pushed through so many obstacles while still in school and since starting as a professional working nurse, it’s a wonder how I managed to stay committed to nursing these past three years. I will admit there was a dark time about a year ago where I just felt that nursing was letting me down and I was becoming too jaded too quickly. Dangerous staffing ratios, experienced nurses isolating themselves from us newer nurses, plummeting morale and a difficult patient population all helped push me into a disconnect with my profession. It was then that I realized I needed to take a step back and analyze and evaluate what I wanted to gain from my career. I needed to figure out how to change my perception and fall in love with my job again. That’s when I decided to learn more about the varying pockets of nursing, their advanced counterparts and go forward with what appealed to me. I was desperate to make a change and take on a new challenge. Even when I started undergrad, I knew deep down that
Soon after, I received my licensure and began working at The Queen's Medical Center as a Registered Nurse (RN) in early part of 1994. Since becoming a RN, I have provided care to a great deal of patients and reassured countless numbers of family members. As a RN, I've also become the coordinator of care, patient advocate, and teacher to the patients I cared for while serving as the eyes and the ears of the physicians. As with any human, I enjoyed sharing the laughter with my patient and cringed at site of their pain and despair. For these reasons, I believe that being a RN is a great career choice for me. However, for these same reasons, I still feel that I am not a complete nurse; hence I've decided to go back to school and try to earn my Bachelor in Science Degree in Nursing
So, I got lost in the middle of Silverwood in Idaho with my little cousin…
Van Gogh once said “your profession is what you’re put here on earth to do, with such passion and such intensity that it becomes spiritual in calling”. That is what nursing is to me. A passion that started early in life. During my senior year in high school, I completed the nursing assistant course over a holiday break in order to begin working as a certified nursing assistant at a local hospital and nursing home. I continued serving others, in this capacity, while I pursued higher education earning my Bachelors of Science in Nursing from Clarkson College. After graduation, I began my career as a Registered Nurse at Sacred Heart Hospital. Over the last nine years at Sacred Heart, my experience grew as a staff nurse on a Cardiology Step-down Unit,
Planning my career and setting up goals beyond being a bedside nurse was not an easy step. It was finalized/ concreted by the influence and support of friends and my family
Caring for others has always been a passion of mine, and becoming a nurse has always been my dream. While my dream has turned reality, I can say that nursing has blessed me with the opportunity to not only be a servant to those in my community, but it has also allowed me to be of some comfort to patients and their loved ones during their darkest and most vulnerable moments. Nursing offers a variety of opportunities, where the only restrictions are the ones we set for ourselves. As for myself, all things are possible, for if I want it, I strongly believe it’s already mine. The depths that I will go to reach the latitude of success that I so desire is boundless.
Summer vacation, and school ends for about three months, and then you have as much fun as you can, then back to school… right? Well I had to go to summer school, but it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. Everything was going fine, I had a job after summer school, and that was going fine as well. They say that summer is supposed to be fun and exciting, and it usually is for me and my family. However in July my father started coughing up blood. My father usually doesn’t make it his top priority to go to the doctors, so he waited about four weeks until he really didn’t feel good.
I had always assumed that my legs were strong and that I had decent muscle control, however, this thought was proven wrong at the beginning of my junior year in high school due to a detrimental injury. It was the first game of fall league for basketball, and within the first five minutes I had succumbed to an injury. Tearing my ACL and Meniscus has taught me to continue improving on my strength, not let this one injury keep me down, and to keep a positive mindset.
My practice in nursing has been influenced by various elements within my career. I have come to embrace that nursing is a learning process and one should expect constructive criticism. When I began as a “novice,” I found myself nervous in some clinical situations but I managed to remain focused on
For as long as I can remember, or since the first time I met a nurse, I knew that was what I wanted to do. I have always held a great deal of respect for those who care for others in their time of need, and sacrifice their own emotional health to be strong for someone else, when they could not be strong for themselves. For several years my fear of being unsuccessful held me back from pursuing this dream, until I decided to finally take the first step and become a certified nursing assistant, and enroll at Clinton Community College to begin my journey to becoming a registered nurse. In the summer of 2014 I had decided to take control of my life and pursue my dream of working in the field of healthcare.
Since my first visit to the Doctor I have been fascinated with the world of medicine and the art of nursing. As I have matured it has become apparent to me that becoming a Nurse has become my calling. I am determined to be the
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
My ambition is to graduate St. Francis College as a Registered Nurse with a Bachelor’s degree in the upcoming years. Although majoring in nursing will not be easy, I feel I am prepared for the challenge. At this time in my life I cannot see myself majoring in anything else. As a young girl, with a mother working in the medical field, I was always fascinated going to work with her. Working in a doctor’s office these past two and a half years myself has given me much experience with patients and has made it more to clear to me that this is what I want to pursue as a career. I wish to be a nurse because I seem to get a feeling of warmth and internal satisfaction when helping those in need. I have begun to learn that medicine is not the only cure for people’s ailments. It is the care they receive by those around them whether it is in a hospital, nursing home, or even their own home. This is where I believe that I can make a great difference in people 's lives by helping them recover.
The National Center for Health Workforce Analysis estimates that “the supply of nurses will be 29% less than what is needed by the year 2020, based on a projected increase in demand of 40% and only a 6% increase in supply” (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2002). This shortage is due to many factors, one of the most significant being newly graduated nurses leaving their jobs or the profession of nursing all together within the first year of practice after graduating (Harrison, Stewart, Ball, & Bratt, 2007). Some of the most commonly cited reasons for leaving include a feeling of a lack of clinical competence and confidence, a disconnect between what was imagined and the ‘real’ world experience, and a lack of support in the workplace (Chappy, Jambunathan, & Marnocha, 2010).
Chances are that if you came across this ebook, you are considering a career as a Registered Nurse or curious about the steps to becoming an RN. Before proceeding to the first step in this ebook, consider why out of every career choice possible you chose nursing. Did you grow up surrounded by nurses? Did a nurse impact your life at one point? Did you watch “Grey’s Anatomy” and think that a nurse's day must be filled with adrenaline and excitement? Whatever the reason that brought you here, I want to congratulate you for taking the first step into exploring what I consider to be one of the most challenging, inspiring and rewarding careers. Nursing school was certainly no walk in the park and took a lot of sacrifice, but it's definitely worth it.
I never really thought about where my life was going. I always believed life took me where I wanted to go, I never thought that I was the one who took myself were I wanted to go. Once I entered high school I changed the way I thought. This is why I chose to go to college. I believe that college will give me the keys to unlock the doors of life. This way I can choose for myself where I go instead of someone choosing for me.