Let’s face it, the doctors almost always take the credit. When somebody is treated in a hospital or a clinic, it’s always because of the good doctor. But it is also a fact that there are other people who have helped a lot in the process—particularly the nurses. As independent, allied medical health professionals, nurses are not a doctor’s assistants; they have an entirely different and important function in patient care. After all, it’s the nurses who are almost always at the patients’ side. Nursing schools have the noble and difficult task to mold students to be the professionals who are truly fit for a nursing career.(1) Want to know if you’re meant for this career? If you can deal with the following issues aside from having the passion to help patients, then a nursing career may be perfect for you.
Dealing With bodily parts and secretions
The nurse is the first to assess the physical and emotional condition of the patient at his or her bed before the doctor comes. The nurse also sometimes assists by helping the patient clean himself or herself or his or her wounds. It is therefore inevitable that a nurse would be exposed to bodily parts which are often times, well, not on their perfect conditions. The nurse will have to endure blood, pus, urine, stool, and other bodily fluids and secretions on the job.(2)
Working on graveyard shifts
Taking care of a patient requires a 24-hour watch. After all, emergencies do not select a particular time of the day when they occur. Medical facilities have interns and more junior residents to fill in for the attending physicians at night, but nurses have to rotate among themselves. The nursing career entails sacrifices, especially in terms of working schedules.
Stubborn patients
As mentioned before, it’s the nurses who first face the patient at his or her bedside to assess his or her conditions before the doctor starts the rounds. Furthermore, it is also the nurses who implement the doctor’s treatment plan to the patient, such as the giving of medications. So as a nurse, you should be prepared with patients who will not cooperate during the physical assessment or who will not take their medicine. Just remember that however stubborn they are, they are still your patients and it’s your job to enforce the treatment plan on them.(3)
Aside from preparing yourself to face these challenges, you can start preparing for your admissions essay or “essay about myself.” The “essay about myself” is your tool to land that spot in your dream school. When writing your essay “about my self,” you can read an online sample essay about myself to get an idea on how to begin yours.
(1) http://www.nursingsociety.org/Education/SchoolsOfNursing/Pages/schools.aspx
(2) http://stats.bls.gov/OCO/OCOS083.HTM
(3) http://www.marylandhealthcareers.org/html/student/nursing.html
