The Story about why i Realized that Becoming a Nurse Practitioner is what i Want to do for the Rest of my Life

Throughout this first semester, I was given the opportunity to job-shadow at two different hospitals. The first time shadowing was four hours with an R.N. at St. Bernard’s here in Jonesboro. The second time was in Hot Springs at St. Vincent’s urgent care center, where I shadowed my aunt, who is a nurse practitioner, for six and a half hours.

At St. Bernard's, I shadowed a registered nurse who worked in the medical surgery and observation division located on the first floor of the main part of the hospital.

In the time I spent there, I quickly discovered that the job entailed a lot of walking and frequent hand washing. My nurse, being one of the head nurses, had more patients than many of her colleagues. The first patient I observed was an elderly lady complaining of chest pains and headaches. My nurse prioritized her comfort and administered Motrin and Tylenol. Shortly after receiving her medication, the patient was taken for tests and scans, and I didn't see her again during my stay. The next person we saw was a man, seemingly in his 50s. He had already spent a couple of days in the hospital. After checking his vital signs, my nurse proceeded to fetch his daily medication. To my surprise, he was prescribed a variety of pills, a total of ten different ones that my nurse dispensed from the medication machine.

After returning to his room, she began opening the packages of pills. As my nurse put them in the cup one by one, the patient named each one, what they did, how much to take, when to take them, and some of the side effects of some of them. I was very astonished that a patient who was in so much pain could remember each pill that he had to take just by the color or shape of it. We did not see him anymore that morning since he mostly needed his medicine. After talking to my nurse about her job, she told me that she loves it and that she also attended Arkansas State University. She expressed her joy in her profession because of the lasting impact she makes on her patients. She also mentioned that the day had been one of her slower ones, but I was already tired from all the walking we had done. After a short break to catch up on some computer work and filing, we attended to a patient who was very upset that he wasn’t allowed to have any food before being tested after undergoing surgery.

He was very lively and would get up and walk around the hallway, trying to find the place where the hospital kept the food stored. My nurse finally got him to calm down and return to his room where he ordered food from the phone there. Our next patient was a man in his mid-40s who was getting ready to go home after having heart surgery. He was one of the nicest patients we had all morning and was willing to do anything my nurse told him to in order to make a fast and full recovery. After giving him the discharge papers, we had to go hunting around for a nurse practitioner because an R.N. cannot sign off and discharge a patient from the hospital. Before the patient left, he stopped and talked to me for a second about how ready he was to go deer hunting and that his wife was going to be happy to know that he was done smoking and drinking for good after his surgery.

Seeing the patient this happy really made me want to become a nurse practitioner because I could see their significant influence on a person's life. After that patient, my four hours ended, and I was done shadowing. I realized I want to become a nurse practitioner but not in a hospital setting. I didn't appreciate the routine of seeing the same patients for many consecutive days. I personally believe that I would find that monotonous and would prefer working in urgent care, where I see all kinds of different injuries and illnesses every day.

The second part of my job shadowing took place while I was shadowing my aunt, who is a nurse practitioner at an urgent care center in Hot Springs. Unlike the hospital in Jonesboro, my aunt sees many different patients each day. The day before I went to shadow her, she said she saw eighty-five patients. While I was shadowing her, she told me that it was a pretty average day but very slow compared to yesterday. Our first patient arrived early, complaining of chest congestion and stopped-up sinuses. My aunt took her vital signs and instructed the nurse to set her up for a flu test. The test results came back about ten minutes later, only to reveal a negative result. Subsequently, my aunt diagnosed her with a sinus infection and instructed the nurse to administer a steroid shot of D10 and K40 to the lady.

I noticed that this was a regular occurrence throughout the day, especially with the older patients. Most came in to get medicine or a steroid shot for their sinuses. One of the more unusual cases was a teenager my age who needed an X-ray of her foot. Having reviewed the X-ray, my aunt noticed an extra bone growing between the patient's tarsals and her fifth metatarsal. My favorite patient of the day was a younger woman suffering from a sore throat, sinus infection, and chest congestion. Attempting to speak caused her such pain, she was unable to. My aunt diagnosed her with laryngitis; a condition I had heard of, but knew little about. As my day of shadowing approached its conclusion, I found myself wishing I could stay longer. I was incredibly engaged, fascinated by watching my aunt significantly impact her patients’ lives. Seeing these patients in such pain, and then watching my aunt communicate with them, treating them until their spirits lifted, was inspiring. It made me realize that I want to be a nurse practitioner at an urgent care center, just like my aunt.

The condition I found the most interesting between the two job shadowing opportunities was laryngitis. After doing some research about laryngitis, I discovered what it is and just how painful it can be. There are two different types of laryngitis: acute and chronic. As a whole, laryngitis is the inflammation of the voice box from overuse, irritation, or infection. Acute laryngitis is short-lived and can typically be treated at home. Chronic laryngitis lasts longer than three weeks and needs medical attention for treatment. Some of the symptoms are a dry cough, sore throat, nasal congestion, fever, hoarse voice, swollen lymph nodes, or sleeping difficulty. I also found out that it spreads really easily but is typically self-treatable and resolves within a few days to weeks. Many of the cases of acute laryngitis are caused by vocal strain or viral infections. For chronic laryngitis, the causes differ drastically from acute. Causes of chronic laryngitis include inhaled irritants (smoke, chemical fumes, allergens, etc.), acid reflux, chronic sinusitis, excessive alcohol use, constant overuse of the voice, and smoking.

Preventative measures can be taken to have less of a chance of getting laryngitis. Some of these measures include not smoking and limiting secondhand smoke to a minimum, drinking plenty of water, avoiding clearing your throat, and washing hands often to keep the upper respiratory infections away (Mayo Clinic Staff). There is a large range of various treatment options for the more serious chronic laryngitis, but one of the main options is inhaled humidity. This allows for the loosening of any dried mucus, which then allows the diameter of the airway to be increased to make breathing easier. For temporary treatments, medicines such as nebulized racemic epinephrine, corticosteroids, antipyretics, and decongestants are great options. However, it is highly advised to seek medical attention if these temporary treatment medicines do not help make things better (Barnett).

Laryngitis is very rare in infants and newborn babies, but there are close to three million cases reported each year in adolescents and adults. Croup, or laryngotracheal bronchitis, is a common inflammatory disease seen in children and is very closely related to laryngitis, often being caused by laryngitis. Croup tends to be seasonal and reaches its peak in the winter months. Since this infection is most common in children, the age range it affects the most is between six months and three years. The symptoms of croup are very similar to those of laryngitis. Treatment options for croup are almost identical to those of laryngitis and are usually taken care of with a simple medical room visit (Barnett).

When looking back on the two different shadowing opportunities, there were many similarities, but there were also many differences. Some of the similarities include the fact that you will always have a patient to check in on, the nurse practitioner does the identical tasks, and both involve a large amount of filing and paperwork on the computer. The differences comprise the number of patients the nurse practitioner will see in a day, the layout of the patient's rooms, and the overall ambience between the two. I preferred the feeling and the size of the urgent care center to the hospital setting. I believe this is because I come from a small town and still appreciate the small-town feeling when compared to a larger city, such as Jonesboro, where there are multiple large hospitals. I felt that the urgent care center would be a place where I would want to work more because of the patients. In a hospital setting, the nurse practitioner will see the same few patients repeatedly for many days. I think that I would soon become bored with seeing the same people constantly, which is why I think I would prefer the urgent care center.

My aunt told me she saw eighty-five patients the day before I shadowed her. The injuries and illnesses ranged from sewing up a laceration to colds, and everything in between. The thing I like better about a hospital is that, as a nurse practitioner, I would have a greater chance of having a larger impact in the lives of the patients admitted there. This is because I would get to see them over and over again for multiple days. I wouldn't have that opportunity at an urgent care center. When I look at the options side by side, I strongly feel I would enjoy and fit in better at a smaller urgent care center in a smaller town closer to my hometown. With all the MedExpresses popping up in towns all over, there would be plenty of job opportunities at such a center. My aunt, who has worked in both settings, highly recommended the urgent care option. It offers the opportunity to travel around the country while still working, not being tied down in one area. I know I still have a few years before deciding what I want to do, but I think I have already made my decision: I want to work in an urgent care center.

Job shadowing proved to be a great opportunity in the first semester, as it made me realize that becoming a nurse practitioner is what I want to do for the rest of my life. I am glad to have had the opportunity to visit two different settings, as it clarified exactly what I want to do and where I want to work. The information I gathered from the two nurses I shadowed has directed me towards a career where I am confident I will enjoy the rest of my life, instead of simply enduring a monotonous job. I am thankful for the experience, as well as the life lessons learned from talking to some of the patients. I am excited to soon start nursing school.

Bibliography

"Mayo Clinic Staff. "Laryngitis." Mayo Clinic, Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research, 18 May 2018, www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/laryngitis/symptoms-causes/syc-20374262. Barnett, Elizabeth, et al. "Laryngitis." NeuroImage, Academic Press, 2016, www.sciencedirect.com/topics/immunology-and-microbiology/laryngitis.

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