Nursing School Essay

Nursing is one of the most respected and rewarding occupations in the healthcare industry. An exemplary nurse exhibits qualities such as empathy, selflessness, and the ability to work well under pressure as a team and also independently. Although the nurses job description focuses on patient care, nurses are also the patient’s number one advocate; the doctor may diagnose and order treatments for the patient, but the nurse is the one whom the patient sees and establishes a connection most. Nurses are skilled, intelligent, and fearless. They are a part of an occupation that I aspire to join. Prior to my parents’ retirement as physicians, I spent a lot of time in hospitals when I was a child. As a result to their profession, I was significantly more exposed to healthcare than the average individual; my toys were sphygmomanometers and stethoscopes, my bed time stories were medical journals, my play area a hospital waiting room. Coming from a healthcare family, I always knew I was going to work in healthcare but never knew to what extent; do I become a doctor or a PA? Perhaps a pharmacist or possibly a nurse? When I began working as an EMT in 2011, it solidified the idea that I wanted to be a nurse. One day at my EMT job, we responded to a woman with substernal chest pain radiating to the left arm with breathing difficulty. The woman appeared pale, cool, and diaphoretic indicating textbook symptoms of a possible myocardial infarction. Naturally, we called a Code heart and went straight up to the cardiac catheter lab. The next thing I knew, I was looking at a literal heart of a literal person on a monitor with all the blockages that caused the infarction. After the stents were placed it looked like a completely different healthy heart with no blockages to be seen. Obviously I have seen such x-rays of vessel blockages and I’ve learned about angioplasties, but it was completely different experiencing it right before my very eyes. I was in awe of the doctor and nurses’ keen attention to detail and swift actions that saved a woman’s life. The cardiac doctor performing the angioplasty along with the nurses and techs acted like it was just an ordinary day, but it i s considered a monumental moment in my life. It was the very first time I was made fully aware of the potential that medicine truly has. After watching the coronary angioplasty I realized that I, too, wanted to be a lifesaver. Thus began the journey of fulfilling my ultimate goal of becoming an ER nurse and part of a trauma team. As an individual, I enjoy helping and interacting with others. My EMT and ER tech experience has given me confidence to work well under pressure as well as understand the balance of empathy and patient care. One of my greatest strengths is my determination to better myself as a person and as a healthcare provider. I believe that motivation is crucial in achieving your goal and I refuse to stop until I achieve that goal. Along with my motivation to be great and do great, I also believe that we should always learn something new every single day. Be it positive, negative, informational, recreational it doesn’t matter—as long as we learn something new about our environment and the people that we provide care for. One way I try to further my knowledge is that I always ask questions and continue to always be curious in regards to learning how things work and indications of illnesses that may follow. Alternatively, I feel that one of my greatest weaknesses is my lack of knowledge from a medical nature of illness standpoint. Working as an EMT in an urban city has given me the ability to understand and execute treatments and follow protocols in basic life support for a mechanism of traumatic injury. However, although I learned about the nature of medical illnesses and its indications, I have never had to treat or understand the illnesses in its entirety for pre-hospital emergent settings. As EMTs, we are taught to â€Å"treat what we see† but we are not trained to understand the underlying reasons and problems that medical illnesses may have. Another aspect I consider as a weakness is that my ability exceeds my level of education at this point in my career. I can only ask and learn so much information on my own that there are still so many areas of medicine that are unknown to me. One way I plan on  working on my weakness is pursuing a nursing education to help me enhance my understanding and increase my level of patient care. I believe that being a registered nurse is more than just an occupation. Nurses are guardians of life. The field of nursing is not for everyone. Furthermore, I believe that you have to have a certain skill or characteristic trait that nursing school cannot teach. Nursing school can teach you pharmacology and protocols, but it cannot teach you the value of a human life. As a nursing school applicant, I believe that the Carepoint School of Nursing will teach me the knowledge and guidance that I desire to become an exemplary registered nurse. I am confident that my experience in  patient care and field of work, along with this nursing program will push me to the fullest capabilities necessary to become an extraordinary nurse and unlock my full potential as an individual and as a healthcare provider.