I have always had an idea of working in the nursing field because of the great opportunities and openings the medical field provides for its employees. And I have grown up to have a passion for helping people out. It truly sparks a good feeling in me every time I am able to help someone, even helping out only one person can make a huge difference, especially in that person’s life. I have worked in several work environments such as smoothie king, old navy, and a restaurant which all consist of customer service and one on one conversions, and socialization with other people. Working in environments like these has made me realize that I want to be in a work field where it consists of working and socializing with people one on one because I tend to get along with people I’ve just met and my peers. While doctors diagnose and prescribe, nurses help with the overall well-being of their patients. Nurses help care for and treat sick patients every minute around the clock. Nurses undergo different cases of patients and face new learning every day as part of the never-ending education in the medical field. Nurses also go through pressure every day knowing that are under the supervision of doctors and mentors and that it affects their ability to pass medical exams, boards, and competition between peers. It takes a lot of passion for medicine, dedication, hard work, and love for helping people to become a nurse. But I intend on passing those challenges and hope to perceive this career by attending the University of Arlington after finishing my first two years at Tarrant county college. Becoming a nurse has its benefits and well self accomplishments, especially knowing you might help and save the life of many people but the nursing field could be improved in ways. The nursing field like any other field does have its downsides that affect a nurse’s life and their patient’s outcomes. The nursing field has to become more reliable and improve the way things are run in the hospital, such as fewer overtime hours to not overtire nurses and affect their patient outcomes and better communication in order to improve the quality of care of all patients.
All around the world, nurses are putting in more overtime at work due to emergent stressful environments and being understaffed which leaves them no other choice than to stay longer than their shift was supposed to be. Nurses who put in more overtime result in getting sick more often due to tiredness and longer exposure to sick patients and dangerous situations. According to studies based on the major publication Medline, “For every ten hours of overtime a nurse works, their sick time is increased by 3.5 hours. And it has also been proved that more than 20 overtime hours as a result of 23% increased hazard rate’’(D’sa 53). Nurses who have experienced this many working hours have also experienced musculoskeletal injuries due to exhaustion, low immune system, insomnia, and hypertension. These injuries cost up to $100,000 just by doing their job but working more than they should. Not only do nurses suffer but their patients do too. Even though a nurse's overtime doesn't have any correlation with increased patient deaths, It does have a correlation with the increased number of patients getting sick after getting discharged from the hospital. Studies have shown that the more fatigue a nurse is the more risk factors there are of medication errors, medical misjudgment or treatment, and less reaction time which might increase infections or more sick time in the patient. This huge problem could easily be fixed by making a habit of hospital boards tracking nurse overtime and making sure every nurse gets overtime hours distributed evenly which could reduce the risk of nurse sick time and the percentage of errors in patient care. And another plan could be to advise part-time nurses to pick up more hours.
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Besides the overtime factor, communication plays a huge role in the process of health care for patients. Good communication requires all of the attention of the one receiving the content and understanding the intention behind the communication given. The information may sound or be understood differently due to the tone, emotion, and voice of the one giving the content and also the one who has received the content based on their listening, perception, and attention. Communicating efferently has helped pass on information from a doctor or nurse to nurse and nurse to patient. It is a fundamental skill a nurse should master since they are always working with real-life people. If you aren't communicating well with each other in the medical field you might end up causing complications in the patient and in the health committee. Such as giving the wrong treatment, readmission even when not needed, and discharge from the hospital even when they still need more treatment. Based on nursing economics, “One in five patients discharged from the hospital suffers an adverse event,” (Swan 78). If communication was improved these events wouldn't happen as much.
Becoming a nurse has its obstacles to go through and overcome but in the end, it has its benefits and you get to care for people and help them feel better, which is a beautiful feeling. With better communication and overtime hours distributed equally among the nurses in every hospital, patient care could improve tremendously. Poor communication might be the cause of mix-ups of information about patients between nurses and between nurses and doctors. And a lot of overtime hours a nurse may take might end up causing costly injuries and sick time. Not only might the nurse be affected but a nurse could affect the patient's outcomes because of their fatigue at work, which could cause misjudgment of treatment or patient care. Nurses serve a great part in a patient's visit to a hospital or medical clinic which is why we need to be cautious and make sure the nursing field is reliable to make sure every sick patient is treated correctly and efficiently. Patient care is the number one goal in a nurse’s career. And I hope to reach that goal of becoming a nurse in order to help others.
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