A Career As A Registered Nurse

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The American poet Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote, “The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well.” I cannot but more than concur with these words. My journey into healthcare began 18 years ago, when I started working as a medical assistant in family practice before becoming a Registered Nurse (RN). Initially, my exposure to patients was limited to technical skills, billing, working with patients and being part of a team focused on improving patients’ health and well being, proved very rewarding. Although my job brought me personal satisfaction, it was not until I became a nurse that I began to understand the importance of the care…show more content…
Variances I noticed was the time spent on patient care, I noticed the MD was unable to spend quality time with patients back in 1997, as compared to the clinicians I shadowed recently. Looking back, in a world of HMO’s I felt that patients were just seen as quantity, which I find hard to develop and bond of trust. Whereas, the practitioners I shadowed here in Wyoming allowed more time for their patients, allowing for a stronger partnership between patient and provider to be established. This concurs with the article, Defining Primary Care: An Interim Report, where partnership is addressed as a bond that is nurtured with faith and confidence amongst the provider and patient (Institute of Medicine, 1994) in which, I feel that is vital to the relationship of patient and clinician. I also, appreciated that one NP did all patient care such as vital signs, lab work, assessment, call backs, etc. giving the practitioner a global perspective of her patient. However, I do understand this cannot be done in every primary practice…show more content…
In my experience in shadowing Dr. Neuwirth, I found this crucial and it had a profound affect on me. His patients were very intricate and well beyond the scope of my critical thinking skills. Also, the patient complexity was beyond what I had seen in the other primary care settings, hence, his specialty in nephrology. The article also, addresses that the primary care NP practice converges on continual health needs and facilitating specialized healthcare when needed. Whereas, the acute care NP practice converges on a patients rapidly deteriorating health status (National Organization, 2012). Neither NP should practice in polar opposites of acuity unless specifically educated. This is applicable to me in my experience with critical care; my practice as a future DNP would be specifically targeted for primary care, nothing

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