Term+Paper+sb14-1191

Sb14-1191 Prompt #1 career Interview
 * Term Paper**

Nursing is an exciting career path that engages with people from all different walks of life. Nurses not only heal the body, but the mind as well. I interviewed an orthopedic nurse named Aaron Eckstrand. He is an LPN at Life Care Centers of America. He sees the transformations of his patients, whether good or bad. He will shed light on the developmental and psychological issues in his career field and explain his position on these issues. The Board of Nursing oversees the quality of care that all nurses give. He is an LPN and and Army medic. The information that he shares with me will best pertain to Chapter 10 in (Mastering The World Of Psychology.) He will also share his opinions on the good and bad sides to his job.

Nurses work in an elaborate team to give the best care possible to their patients. Medicine focuses on all aspects of healing, not just the physical ones. Aaron says that there are a lot of problems you will face as a nurse. He greatly emphasizes that its all about putting yourself in their shoes and try to understand how their feeling. "All too often when people come to an unfamiliar place, they have trouble keeping calm." (Eckstrand, Aaron M.) This is true for a clinical setting. Family and friends help patients adjust to this scary experience. Another factor to consider when someone is newly admitted is post anesthetic confusion. After a patient wakes up from anesthesia they will feel very disoriented. Some patients of his also suffer from dementia. Patients with dementia need familiar settings, people, and things to help them feel comfortable. He also works with people who have tremendous amounts of anxiety about taking medications. There are even people who develop an addiction to some of the pain medications that they have been prescribed. As a nurse you must have an answer to all of those issues that may come your way. If patients feel uncomfortable, his goal is to surround them with friends and family members who can help ease them into this new environment. If the patient does not have friends or family members available to visit, you can get the comforts of home in other ways such as telephone calls and letters from loved ones. When patients are put under by anesthesia, in most cases they come out of it dazed and in a confused state. "As a nurse in a care center such as mine, you are likely to have admissions to your facility straight from surgery. The key to working with patients who are in this state is to be sensitive to the fact that they are not only out of it, but they are in a totally new environment." (Eckstrand, Aaron M.) His job as a nurse is to assess the new patient and get several forms signed and a bunch of questions asked about their care plan. He recommends that you give that patient time and space to adjust back to their normal self before you bombard them with a ton of paperwork and people. Another hurdle in his job is to work with patients who suffer from dementia. He says that their reality is different from what we may think as normal. "When people are in such a state it is wise to not clash with what they perceive, as long as its safe, you need to try to see the world as they do to better understand how to care with people who have dementia." (Eckstrand, Aaron M.) Another scenario a nurse needs to be considerate of are people who have high levels of anxiety about their medical care. This makes a connection to our textbook in Chapter 12 on Anxiety Disorders. (Mastering The World Of Psychology) As our textbook shows us, prolonged stress threatens health. Aaron explains that his goal is to try to keep the patient in a calm state. He seems to agree in a professional sense with our text making the connection between levels of stress and overall health. " As a nurse you must reassure the patient that their doctor made careful decisions and has ordered certain things for a reason, and the reason is to help them get better. You cannot force someone to do something that they do not want to do though. If a patient refuses care, all you can do to protect yourself and them is to document each occurrence." (Eckstrand, Aaron M.) On the opposite end of the spectrum lies the dark side of medicine. "People are prescribed medications to help them, not to hurt them. People become addicted to pain medications on purpose and by accident. It's a sad thing to see someone so dependent on taking pain killers, it can start to take over your life." (Eckstrand, Aaron M.) He explains as a nurse you must offer the patients' prescribed medications. If patients start showing signs of addiction, he would notify the patients doctor and very possibly set up a psychological consult if things progressed to a certain point. As a medical professional, he cannot express his personal opinions when it comes to giving care to somebody. He must act in a professional way and follow protocol to ensure the patient gets the help he or she needs. This connects with Chapter 4 in (Mastering The World Of Psychology) about substance abuse and addiction. When i listen to him tell me about addiction, it brings a real life situation to what we see in our text books. He explains that there are softer pain killers like barbiturates and tranquilizers, and then there are heavier narcotics. As someone who is not addicted to drugs, it is so easy to point the finger at someone else and tell them that they are wrong, but Aaron opened my eyes to the fact that good people in this world can be addicted to drugs too. He explains that it is not important about what type of person you are, the real worry here is that people are getting hooked in the first place. He feels we focus too much on the person who is addicted to drugs as the "bad guy."

As a nurse you are licensed by the Board of Nurses who regulate the standards and continuing education of every licensed nurse. Each state differs on what they may require of you to be a nurse or to stay licensed. Aaron explains that nurses have to re certify every two years. He explains that healthcare is ever changing and medical professionals must keep up with it. "There are additions, revisions, and all sorts of changing features of medicine,and that we as nurses are always are finding better ways to care for our patients." (Eckstrand, Aaron M.) The person who directly ensures that all of the nurses licenses are protected and the quality of nursing is being maintained at his facility is a Director of Nursing or DON. As a nurse he looks to his Director of Nursing for guidance and insight in how to give the best possible care that he can give.

Like any job, Aaron says there are pros and cons to what he does. He says that his favorite thing about the work he does is that he gets to spread health and happiness to others. Some patients even improve from when they first were admitted. He loves that he helped be apart of someones life transformation. He says that the downside to being a nurse is all the paperwork that must be done. Aaron feels that for the amount of time that he spends on paperwork, he could be giving more of his time and effort to his patients.

As a nurse, he does not work alone. He works alongside a diverse team of professionals that heal in so many ways. First on the list would be doctors, they map out the care plan for their patients and give their team of healthcare professionals all the tools to give the best care that they can. Up next would be Physicians Assistants. These are the "middle men" between the doctors and the nurses. They represent various doctors and give a personal touch to a patients' medical care. Nurses are a big part of this team too. They accept admissions, process discharges, chart, administer medications, provide wound care, and look into every department that is assisting the patient in recovery. Speech therapists help in many ways to recover range of sounds and words from some patients who need them. Physical therapists work with the patients physical recovery. Dietitians map out the optimum nutritional standards for their patients. Certified Nursing Assistants are the caregivers who assist in a various range of day to day tasks that a patient may need help with. There are so many wonderful professionals that work together to heal every part of a patient.

To conclude, Aaron shed a lot of light on all aspects of nursing. His career is important to the world and he is apart of an elaborate team of health care professionals that change lives every day. He seems to be one of the best choices i could have made for an interview, considering that i am planning on becoming a nurse myself. This sheds light on the common problems faced in the nursing field and the best ways to approach them. He made me see things differently when it comes to dealing with things like addiction, confusion, anxiety, and dementia. He also explained about the accreditation or license of nursing and how nurses keep their skills sharp by taking in new ideas and methods to be a better nurse. It seems that the best way to care for others is to see the world through their eyes.


 * Works Cited**

Eckstrand, Aaron M. "Aaron LPN." Personal interview. 07 Aug. 2014.

Wood, Samuel E., Ellen R. Green. Wood, and Denise Roberts. Boyd. //<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 16px;">Mastering the World of Psychology //<span style="background-color: rgba(255,255,255,0.0980392); font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 16px;">. Boston: Pearson/Allyn and Bacon, 2004. Print.

Students: DO NOT edit below this line!

Rubric toc

Content/Development--40%
If the essay doesn't use proper vocabulary: -5% (see comments)

Organization--30%
If.the transitions between paragraphs are unclear: -5% (see comments)

**Style/Mechanics--30%**
=Final Grade: 90%=