As a Registered nurse for 29 years, I have worked in many areas during my career. I have worked at the Veterans Affairs Outpatient Clinic for 12 years as a staff registered nurse, in the specialty care with various experience in the clinical and leadership. During these years, I continue to expand my skillset in all areas of nursing using good clinical judgment when assessing, planning, implementing, documenting, and evaluating nursing care, based on ANA Standards of Nursing Practice. Areas I have supported are Pulmonary (bronchoscopy & thoracentesis), Cardiology, Urgent Care Center, Vascular, Orthopedics, Eye Clinic (fluorescein Injections), and currently the renal department. I continue to serve as a Patient Service level advocate of
For this practice guideline, the original development panel of six members included; a Chief Nursing Officer, Charge Nurse, Clinical Nurse Specialist, Clinical Practice Facilitator, a Professor from a School of Nursing, and an Education Coordinator. The revision panel members included; a Chief of Nursing & Professional Practice, an Assistant Lecturer from York University, a Clinical Nurse Specialist, Clinical Practice Facilitator, a Nursing Professional Development Educator, an Internist/Geriatrici...
Examples of patients with complex acute care needs are those with multiple comorbidities who need mechanical ventilator weaning, administration of intravenous antibiotics, and those with complex wound care (Munoz-Price, 2009, p. 438). According to Landon Horton, CNO of Select Specialty Hospital in Fort Smith, Arkansas, “The services provided by LTACH facilities allow the patients to get home who would not otherwise, have a higher level of functioning at discharge, and increase their quality of life” (personal communication, March 7, 2014). The role of the Chief Nursing Officer is a complex position. Educational preparation for the CNO role ranges from a Master’s in Nursing to a degree outside of the profession such as an MBA or a degree in a related area of study (Kerfoot, 2012, p. 38-39). In L. Horton’s role as the CNO for Select Specialty Hospital, the duties required by him are multifaceted.
K. Lynn Wieck, RN, PhD, FAAN, is the Jacqueline M. Braithwaite Professor, College of Nursing, The University of Texas at Tyler, Tyler, TX, and CEO, Management Solutions for Healthcare, Houston, TX; Jean Dois, RN, PhD, NEA-BC, FACHE, is the System Director for Quality and Nursing, CHRISTUS Health System, Houston, TX; and Peggy Landrum, RN, PhD, is Clinical Professor, College of Nursing, Texas Woman 's University, Houston,
In order for optimal patient care to be achieved nurses need to be inspired by their work and feel supported by the health care staff. Both patients and nurses deserve to be given the attention and support they need to thrive. The patient to nurse ratio in California is already being addressed and this is a movement that needs to extend worldwide. It is imperative that health care professionals as a whole are being heard and supported. Patients depend on their health care providers and nurses are the backbone of patient care thus acknowledging their needs should always be top priority.
My desire to become a nurse is deeply-rooted in my aspiration to contribute to the well-being and improvement of the less privileged as well as my own personal ethical stance. My decision was made easy by the professional code of ethics of nursing, which correspond with my personal beliefs. One of my personal values that have shaped me into who I am today is honesty. It is important to provide patients with accurate information on procedures, diagnosis, treatment options, and possible outcomes. Although I am fallible, it is imperative to acknowledge and take responsibility of my own mistakes. These personal qualities would help propel me into my professional career.
at the orphanage, I was able to help build a sidewalk and a garage for
As a medical / surgical RN, I provided care for the elderly, the infirm, the mentally challenged, the young, and the psychologically disturbed. The wide variety of patients exposed me to the effects of life style choices, health care choices, and the resulting impacts to the patient as well as to the family of the patient. This experience has fully matured my view of the awesome responsibility that we, as health care professionals, have been charged with, and it has furthered my desire to obtain the skills necessary to provide more advanced care for my patients. In addition to exposure, maturity and experience, my career as a medical / surgical RN has also sharpened my critical thinking abilities and provided insight on observing signs and symptoms that a patient may be unware of. Furthermore, as a charge nurse I learned the importance of collaborating with other health care professionals in order to provide the highest level of care available. In summary, my career as an RN has provided valuable experience, maturity, exposure to impact and outcome, enhanced my critical thinking abilities, and improved my collaboration
I started my Nursing career in India and then I came to the United States and became an RN. I entered Nursing with the thinking that Nursing is a profession that will always allow me to have a job and all my patients will get better. However, from my experiences I understood that Nursing is more than just giving medications, and it requires clinical competence, cultural sensitivity, ethics, caring for others, and life-long learning about others and the evolving field of medicine. Florence Nightingale once said:
You may hear the words “I've always wanted to be nurse” abundantly, right? Well, for me, waking up and knowing that I wanted to be a nurse is not actually, how it went. As a young girl I have always known that I had a passion for helping others, however, I could not particularly distinguish between how I wanted to help others. What I did know, is that I wanted to go beyond the everyday staple of helping. Nonetheless, not until years to come, I was able to gain knowledge through experiences to find my purpose, nursing.
I have been taking Nursing Assistant classes full-time this year through Eastern Arizona College. Apart of the process includes a clinical trial. Four Saturdays of this semester I shadowed Certified Nursing Assistants (CNA) at our local Nursing Facility, Haven of Safford. These clinicals are for the length of a ten hour period. I have the opportunity to observe and assist the CNAs as they accomplish their daily workload. A few of the tasks that need to be accomplished daily include waking up and providing care for the residents, showering the resident, feeding the resident, and assisting them with any other personal needs. Clinicals have been something I have come to enjoy. I have loved interacting with the people in the facility, and helping
Davenport, Joan M., Stacy Estridge, and Dolores M. Zygmont. Medical-surgical nursing. 2nd ed. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2008, 66-88.
I was never one of those who at a young girl wanted to become a nurse. I knew I always wanted to work in healthcare administration. I will say my journey to become a nurse started after facing some challenging health and personal experience. I lost my father suddenly to heart disease at age 15. My father was my bedrock who at that time always wanted me to become a nurse but as a teenager I wanted to do my own thing. Not until I experienced series of hospitalization, one that told out for me was when I was admitted for 2 weeks in the hospital and I almost died. The nurses were incredible, they were angels at my bedside, they encouraged me, worked me through my treatment plan, and explained every detail to me. The nurses were the parents I did not have at my bedside for 24 hours. After discharge, I started to think about a career in nursing. Not too long after this occurrence, I started taking my prerequisites while in volunteered at Bellevue Hospital. After a long journey, I finally became a registered nurse.
After three months of volunteering at my local hospital’s emergency department, I had one specific experience that led me to a career in nursing. One day, as I was rushing around the emergency department easing the nerves of frantic patients, I walked back to the triage desk when I heard a patient complain of chest pain. The RN sitting at the desk took the patient’s heart rate and pulse oxygen. While the pulse oxygen was normal, the patient had a heart rate of 180. Assuming the patient was stressed out, the RN instructed the patient to wait in the waiting room. By this point, I had been volunteering in the department long enough to know that the triage nurse would order an EKG for someone with those symptoms. I desperately wanted to tell the
This week I began my three-year journey to become an advance practice nurse with a doctoral degree the terminal degree in nursing practice. I was very exciting as I left my home for my one-hour drive to the school campus in the pouring rain. Many song have been written about it never raining in southern California but this was not so. On arrival at the campus, the staff was there at the entrance to direct the new nervous students to their assigned classroom. Like myself my new classmate were eager to embark on this journey, yet apprehensive of the unknown. Many of us during the three days’ emersion, questioned ourselves on whether we had made the right decision in going back to school at this level. We contemplated on the hours of commitment
My nursing career began 7 years ago at SSM on Medical Oncology Unit. I was certified in Chemotherapy and Wound Care. Although there were thirty staff nurses, only two of us were certified in wound care and five were chemotherapy certified. Besides caring for my medical-surgical patients, I was also responsible for administering chemotherapy and monitoring cancer patients as well as assessing, documenting, and recommend the appropriate treatments for different types of types of wounds, including surgical openings, ulcers, bed sores, feeding tube sites, and abscesses. I gained a diverse range of clinical skills in Emergency Department, Cardiology, Neurosurgery, and Orthopedic Surgery as floating was a staff nurse's requirement. Every nursing