A True Life Hero
Ambulance sirens sound throughout the halls, people are rushing around from room to room, and the waiting room is piled up with people. This is how Lori Breaux describes a typical night in the emergency room. “I’ve been doing this for so long now you would think it would feel natural to me, but sometimes I just have to stop and take a deep breath and make sure this is all real”, she explains. Going through nursing school she wondered if it was worth all the stress, but the thought that one day she could be saving peoples’ lives kept her going.
Lori started nursing school at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette when she was 18 years old and graduated when she was 22. “It was very difficult at times but well worth it in the end”, she says. She started off working as a home health nurse but she didn’t like all the traveling she had to do. Her aunt was a nurse working in the emergency room so she got together with her and found out what it was like to work in the ER. Three weeks later she got a job working in the emergency room at Abbeville General Hospital.
Lori’s first day working in the hospital was very different than working as a home health nurse. She says, “It was much more fast pace and chaotic than I was used to. I wasn’t sure if I liked it, but my aunt made me promise her that I would try it for at least a month before I decided if I wanted to quit or not.” After her first month there she had a completely different attitude toward her job. She eventually learned to like how there was no down time when she was working, but by the end of every day she wanted nothing more than to just sit down and relax.
Lori says that one of her favorite parts about working in the emergency room is all the people that she gets to meet, and the indescribable joy that you get knowing that you are helping make a difference in the world. “Sometimes when I’m not at work I’ll run into someone who I helped in the emergency room and they will thank me for helping them that one time”, she says.
Recently, students of Olympian High School have stumbled upon the question, "What is a hero?" In the school's 2013 Young Minds Essay Contest, students are expected to consider universal concerns and ideas. Many times when people think of a hero, they think of Superman, Batman, and many other Marvel characters who display unattainable superpowers. However, heroes are prevalent throughout the world. A hero can be anyone who has the desire to help others, brave in dangerous situations, and does not look at exterior gain from helping others.
Nursing had not initially been a career option for me, but nursing had made an impact on my life, even at an early age. There was a picture frame that sat on my mother’s dresser with an image of her in her student nurse uniform. It was very formal, and she wore a blue cape with red satin lining. This image gave me my first impression of nursing. Helping my mother with the laundry, bleaching the white uniforms and starching the stiff white cap banded with a thin black velvet ribbon was another activity I associated with nursing. In 1979, my mother was sent to Hershey Medical Center for training to become the first certified Enterostomal Therapist in the state of Virginia. It was at that point that I realized that nursing was a profession, with unique career goals, education and training that was
Ask someone to depict a nurse, what will they tell you? Many hold the stance that the nursing profession is composed of angelic people in starched white uniforms, primarily women, whose main focus is patient care and following doctor’s orders. This image, though iconic and attractive to some, is not accurate when applied to modern nurses. In an effort to assess the attributes currently needed of nurses, I interviewed Jordan Kreklau. Ms. Kreklau is 25 years old and attained her BSN from The University of Eau Claire in May 2014. After attaining her RN license in July 2014, she was hired on for the medical/surgical unit at St. Joseph’s in Marshfield, WI, where she had worked as a graduate student. In 2015, she also began working in a progressive
It has been over one year since I have started the accelerated nursing program at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. When I first started the program in fall 2014, I have no idea what nursing was like. Although I had my bachelor from another institution, everything I learned was very different compared to the information I have learned in School of Nursing. Nursing school has slowly transformed me into a graduate professional nurse based on the professional development that I have completed along the way.
Emergency room nursing is an experienced registered nurse whose focus is providing critical care and dedicated treatment to patients that are either critically wounded or severely ill. These nurses specialize in rapid assessments and treatments of their patients conditions. It is with great responsibility that the Emergency Room Nurse work swiftly and responsibly under a variety of different circumstances. Due the stresses and required skill set of emergency room, nurses must do a good job of utilizing their abilities and must possess good time management skills, these demands ultimately leads to burnout.
I recall being little and played pretend being a nurse with my sisters and I can remember the huge satisfaction I got by it. Pretending to be a nurse today is something I no longer wish to do and hopefully in a few years I will have the opportunity to call myself a registered nurse. In today’s era, it is obvious that nursing has come a very long way and it is all thanks to the nursing community and advanced technology. Nursing is not an ordinary job that consist of an eight-hour shift, drinking coffee and surfing the web. Nursing is a full-time commitment to the community, the patients, and last but not least to oneself. Nursing is more than taking care of an ill patient. It involves taking care of patients
My initial interest in nursing arose from a book, in early high school. My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult is about a teenage girl, Kate, suffering a life-long battle of leukemia...
The nursing profession has changed significantly over the years. In our fast-paced world of health care and technologically-advanced society, nurses are experiencing higher workloads than ever before. According to a survey done by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality’s ([AHRQ], 2012), more than 50% of nurses work in a crisis mode trying to do too much too quickly, and safety is sacrificed to get more work done.
My interest in nursing began at age 18 at Bridgeport Hospital in Connecticut where I was trained as a Certified Care Partner, then as a Phlebotomist, followed by a two year surgical floor assignment and a one year burn unit stint.
Nursing is a collaborative job that encompasses promoting health and well-being, preventing illness and treating the ill and dying. The nursing profession is not for everyone; it takes strong-willed individuals that understand the significance of putting other people’s lives in their hands. Most nurses come to work not knowing how their shift will turn out; as they must take on treating, saving, and caring for patients they possibly just met. As a nurse, I believe that passion for this job should never be lost, patience must be attained and exercised, and that there should always be a strong positive mental attitude on and off the job. These three beliefs have shaped my decision to become a nurse, what health and illness mean to
A nurse’s role in our society today is exceptionally significant. Nurses are somewhat idolized and looked to as our everyday “superman”. “The mission of nursing in society is to help individuals, families, and groups to determine and achieve physical, mental, and social potential, and to do so within the challenging context of the environment in which they live and work” (“The Role of a Nurse/Midwife”). Many Americans turn to nurses for delivery of primary health care services and health care education (Whelan). In our country, there is constantly someone in need of health care. There will always be a baby being born or a person dying, someone becoming ill or growing old. Some people due to their physical and/or mental state of health are completely dependent on a nurse and wouldn’t be able to get through the simple obstacles of every day, or achieve the necessary requirements of a simple day without their aid. Not only do nurses help, and assist you when you’re sick, but also act to promote good health to others. They end...
I have always had a passion for nursing. As a child, I watched my mother getting up early, putting her scrubs on and headed out the door for a 12 hour shift. She was always content, and at ease to go for a long shift and even overtime at times. I love the fact that after work, she would always come home, satisfied with the day no matter how hard it was for her. She would sit and tell my brothers and sisters how she enjoyed the conversations that she had with her patients and what impact she had on their lives that day. Listening to these stories as a child, I knew that I wanted to become a nurse and listening to the same stories and helping people, making their day feel better. I wanted to follow my mom’s footsteps. At the end of a long shift, it is a rewarding profession, knowing that I am saving people’s lives, making them comfortable when they are near of dying, advocate and teaching them. As nurses, we care for patients through illness, injury, aging, health. We also promote health, prevent diseases and teaching the community; that’s what I love about nursing. I believe that this is the right profession for me because I have all the qualities that a nurse should possess when
Nursing can be seen as a “gross” profession and nurses can be told they do all the dirty work, but that’s not necessarily true. Nursing is hands and you get a one on one experience with patients. You create unbreakable bonds, and people remember you for the good work you do and how charismatic you are. Being a nurse is not an easy profession. It has physical exercise and can come with some emotional baggage. Being a nurse is helps those who needs that extra push and support to make a phone call to his or her parents and explain to those closest why a certain treatment plan is the best approach to getting healthier. Not only are nurses essentially good for patients and their families, but also for the doctors. Doctors rely on nurses to get crucial information about the patients’ conditions (Barnet). A nurse named Katie Zehring once said, “ Nursing is a career in which not all goals are attainable, not all successes are measurable, and not all outcomes are predictable, but each small step towards these achievements brings new hope and healing.” Nursing is a lifestyle not just a job, and it is very rewarding to know that you created hope for the hopeless and helped those who needed
The profession of nursing has both positive and negative effects on the well-being of nurses, which can lead to learning opportunities for those that are new to the profession. To receive an accurate depiction of the nursing profession, an interview with a currently practicing nurse is conducted and the challenges that they face will be analyzed with the intent of exploring different strategies that can be used when coping with these issues. The nurse that was interviewed stated that she has been in the nursing field for the past seventeen years; with the past ten being in the role of a nurse practitioner (Personal Communication, October 26, 2016). The nurse has experience in a variety of settings, as well as holding several degrees and certificates
Nursing, for me, is more than a profession, it is a journey where I learn continuously about life changing events and miracles. Touching the lives of others or being touched by other’s story is an experience one can’t describe, only endure. Nursing is a profession of integrity and compassion, and it is the most trusted professions due to our commitment towards our patient. The quality of a good nurse is they should be caring, sensitive, kind and respectful towards their patient, and I believe I possess all these qualities that have contributed to me in my successful career of nursing. Working at Cleveland Clinic, I got a great opportunity to work with a group of doctors and coworkers who have the same mission in life and job as mine; “Put the patient first”. Making a positive impact on patient’s life, big or small, noticed or unnoticed, gives me a great sense of accomplishment and makes me proud to be a nurse.