Viola Totten
English 111-17
November, 1999
The Future of a Nurse
One of the reasons why I chose nursing as my career or profession is because I will be able to take nursing skills wherever I choose to reside. Nursing has various fields I can elect to enter. One important reason a person elects a nursing career is they have to have a compassion for people. I think I fit into that category. I love dealing with people, not only when they are in good health, but when they are sick also. Another reason I chose this field of study was the pay. I think everyone who decides on pursuing his or her profession considers money as top priority.
To enter the nursing field, one must meet certain criteria. Starting with whatever nursing occupation one chooses to enter will be the beginning. If a person decides to become a RN, one will have to enter college or a school for professional nursing. Before deciding on which route to take, one must decide if he or she wants to receive a diploma or an associate's degree. The difference between these two are one is a four-year program and the other is a two-year program, respectively. One might want to consider his or her age at the present to decide on just how long he or she wants to spend in college. Basically, both certificates will get a person a RN job. When considering the school of choice, some people think of the prestige of the school in which they want to attend. Other times it might be an alumni school within the family.
After a little researching in this field, I found that nursing is the largest health care occupation with more than 1.9 million jobs. Also, RN employment is expected to grow faster than all the average occupations through the year 2006 and because the occupation is large, many new jobs will result according to the Occupational Outlook Handbook (OOH). That's estimated that a person should have no problem seeking a job in any area nationwide. After completing the nursing program I have chosen, I will reside here in my hometown--Hampton, Virginia--for at least a year. After that accomplishment, I plan to move to North Carolina: Charlotte or Greensboro. The reason for these selections is I like the beauty of the cities. There is no particular hospital that I have interest in working, but the jobs are there. I have several friends who work in North Carolina who have informed me of the job availability, and they say the pay is great. The pay in my hometown starts a RN at about thirty to forty thousand dollars a year, while, in North Carolina, it pays a little more. I have not researched the cost of living there, but I plan to.
I will start my first job as a hospital staff nurse. This will get me the skills and experience I will need to have to be able to travel anywhere in the world. My duties would include providing bedside nursing care and carrying out medical regimens. It will also mean to work to promote health, prevent diseases and help patients cope with illness. I would probably be an advocate and health educator for patient's families and the communities. After about a year or two of experience, then I will proceed to travel to my destination, North Carolina.
After working as a nurse for about ten years, I see myself advanced from one nursing field to another. My goal is to have gotten my master of science in nursing. Instead of being a staff nurse, I hope to be a nurse manager or in the administration department. If I'm a nurse manager, my duties then will be to see that the floor is run properly and that all my fellow nurses have all their needs met such as updated licenses, inservices and the proper equipment needed to provide excellent nursing care. If I am in the administration department, I probably would be a nurse director. My duties will be to oversee the whole department of whichever field I have occupied, for instance, the surgical department or critical care department. Being a nurse director would mean less patient care and more focus on trying to provide and develop new techniques. I will be trying to find ways to keep health care costs down and invest more money and time in such areas as pay raises.
Being a nurse takes much written, oral, and computer communicating skills. After interviewing Clinical Nurse Manager of Critical Care, Minnie Coles (RN, BSN who is presently persuing her Master degree), I have found out that it takes much more communication skills than I thought. In fact, there is a communication class required by each person in upper management positions. Ms. Coles usually meets with CEOs, Directors, staff members, peers, sales representatives, etc. She has to use various forms of written communication.
She uses written unit staff meeting notes for employees, open forum such as peer improving (working as a team), CQI (Continuous Quality Improvement) work groups to handle problems that might develop. If someone in the group can solve a particular problem, he or she would write it in detail and present it during the next meeting scheduled every other month. She prepares final review with the accountant for the budget. She meets with a QCC (Quality Critical Care) group to report changes on different progress of certain diagnosis progressions. Personal discipline problems are handle by her along with the human resource department. PMP (Performance Management Problems) are a one to one conversation with each employee with a copy given at the completed sessions. Ms. Coles attends career fairs for which she sets up a storyboard display made by her.
Computer skills are necessary in Ms. Coles' profession. She uses such programs as WordPerfect, Excel, and PowerPoint. Computer-generated slides (prepared by her) are used in some of her presentations during meetings. She formulates all her records on computer disks to eliminate books she normally would have to carry to these meetings. She changes styles, formats and make corrections on monthly reports, does her payroll and expenditures of the budget to be sure it complies. She creates plans for Y2K readiness, creating secondary plans for backup systems including telephones and beeper systems. Ms. Coles keeps employees education profiles updated and business plan programs via the computer. Along with of her written reports and computer skills, she has to have oral communication skills as well. She has remote access from her office computer to her home computer to commute back and forth. She uses E-mail to collaborate monthly reports. Teleconference meeting are done every Thursday, focusing on improvements with another facility to stay abreast of each other’s procedures and progress. Ms. Coles also travels for various reasons related to her profession.
Ms. Coles's long term goal is to open her own Adult Day Care Center after receiving her masters degree in January of 2000. Immediately after obtaining my associates degree in nursing, my long term goal is to receive my bachelors and masters degrees also.
Works Cited
Coles, Minnie. Personal interview. 29 Oct. 1999.
United States. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Occupational Outlook Handbook 1998-1999. Accessed 26 Oct. 1999. < http://stats.bls.gov/ocohome.htm >.
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