Liza Topping
Mrs. Morgan
Senior Project
29 April 2016
Internship
Wow! I’m so glad
that I did my senior project. This was an incredible opportunity. It allowed me
to experience the medical field before actually being apart of it. Before this
project I had never really been in a hospital or medical environment unless it
was to visit or get a check up. I loved
being apart of the fast pace environment, everyone around me was working very
hard and deliberately but no one seemed unhappy or sad to be at work. Of course
on the days that I stay longer towards the end of shift the nurses definitely
got antsy to go home but that is expected. The working schedule for a nurse is
three twelve-hour shifts. However if their replacement does not show up they
have to keep working. They cannot leave just because his or her shift is over. However
a nurse cannot exceed a shift of longer than sixteen hours, after sixteen hours
they have to leave. Other than the three shifts a week a nurse can also chose
to pick up more shifts but they cannot exceed sixty hours a week. That means
that nurses can pick up two more twelve-hour shifts but after that they are
working way into over time. Many people do not see the problem with people
working into overtime. Overtime causes the nurse to be tired and fatigued it
also increases the rate of making mistake dramatically. At Piedmont there was
an incentive program in place to keep the Piedmont staff working well and
efficiently. The rotating schedule for most of the nurses was 7 am to 7 pm then
from 7 pm to 7 am. The nurse needed to check in by 6:51 or they would be
considered late and get points deducted. There were other rules that the nurses
needed to follow in order to get points deducted. For example one day I had a
water bottle and one of the nurse told me that if they got caught with that it
would deduct points from the incentive program. The program was there to help
promote a good work environment while simultaneously making the hospital
cleaner and better off. Ultimately the staff receives a bonus at the end of the
year if they had enough points at the end of the year.
While I was at
Piedmont I learned a lot of what it took to be a nurse as I talked to different
nurses and learned about their experiences. When I told many of them that I was
going to school to get my BSN in nursing they looked at me with very
compassionate eyes and said simply, “good luck.” That was a bit concerning but
not something that I have not heard before. I have heard from many people that
this is a very hard course to study and exceed in. That was another major
reason that I decided to do my senior project. I figured if I was about to bust
my butt in this for the next four years I might as well be sure that it is something
I want to do once I graduate. After they told me, “good luck” they affirming
that gong straight to my BSN was the best course of action. There are about
four degrees in nursing before receiving a BSN in nursing. Along with that
after receiving a BSN students can continue their studies to get an MSN degree,
which includes specialties like nurse practitioners and certified midwives, and
then beyond that students can decide to get a doctorate degree which allows
them to be a doctor of nursing. My mother really wants to me to go straight
through to being a nurse practitioner but when I was talking to nurses and nurse
practitioners they told me to first get my BSN then work for a couple of years
before going for my nurse practitioner degree.
A nurse practitioner is a nurse that has almost all the freedom to work
as a doctor. The nurse practitioners described their jobs as being able to see
patients just like doctors and prescribe medicine without the liability.
Meaning they are technically shadow by doctors but can do almost every they can
do. Doctors just have to sign off on the prescription they prescribe.
During
my time at the Good Samaritan I shadow a doctor and a nurse practitioner for a
day. Both of them did almost the exact same thing. When shadow the nurse
practitioner we saw the little girl coming in for her 6-month check up. She was
adorable but her story was heart breaking. Her mother was homeless and worked
very hard to make ends meat. The baby however was so cute and sweet but the
mother said that the baby was still not sleep through the night. Therefore
waking the mother up multiple times a night to eat. I felt so bad for that
mother and so did the nurse practitioner that was see the baby. After shadowing
the nurse practitioner for the day it was interesting to see how she handle
everything she was much more caring and compassionate than the doctor I shadow
at the Good Samaritan. It was quite evident to see the difference in the way
they these two professionals were trained. Nurses are general trained to be
more caring and focused on the patient while doctors are more just there to
figure out what’s wrong and prescribe medicine.
Back
at Piedmont I did not talk to any nurse practitioner because I was in the
postpartum unit so many of the nurses there were simply nurses. I would say
about half of them had their BSN in nursing and the other half had lower
degrees. All of these women were sweet and very thankful for my help. Although
I was just doing the little things they were thankful that they did not have to
do it. During my time at Piedmont I talked to a woman with a specialty in
lactation. She was super interesting because there are so many different
circumstances and things that are involved in breast-feeding. She was a
lactation specialist before she was a nurse, which is slightly weird because
most of the time people become nurses before progressing to lactation
consulting due to getting certified in that field. It was cool to see how she
viewed things now verse how other normal nurses did. The other cool thing about
working in the hospital was I got to see what it is like to work out of the
nurse’s station. I really enjoyed the environment around me especially in the
unit I was in. People were never bored and always doing something along with
that everyone seemed happy and content with their jobs.
This
made a really positive impact on me because although I did not get to work
directly with patients I was around them on floor. I was also excited to work
on the postpartum floor because I plan to go into this field of nursing either
on that side or across the hall at the labor and delivery wing. I really
enjoyed getting to know the pace of things and how people on the floor
operated. The other nice thing about this job is that once you leave after your
shift you do not have to think about it or do anything for it unlike other jobs
where you have to take your work home with you to completely stuff for
deadlines etc. Another reaction that I have received a lot when I tell people
that I want to go into nursing is that it takes a special person to be a nurse.
Many people say it takes a compassion, caring, outgoing person to become a
nurse. After mentioning that they usually follow it up with but it seems like
you will be just fine. Overall I am glad that I did a senior project but it was
definitely lonely at times since I was surrounded by people much older than me
I got kind of bored talking to them. I missed my friends at school a lot so I’m
glad I got to come to back to school for most of senior week. Originally I did
not plan on coming back but Mrs. Greer made a great point she said looking back
I’m not going to want to miss these last couple of days as a senior. The other
thing that got boring was the work I was doing everyday was pretty repetitive.
I did the exact same jobs everyday, which I got super boring lots of grunt work
as my cousin said. At the end day I am glad that I did it and if I had the
chance to do it again I definitely would.
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