Lack of care

This tragedy happened on June 20th, 2008 at Kings County Hospital Center in New York. I had heard about this over the summer, but never actually watched the footage of it. Watching it now, I am disgusted at how bystanders did nothing to help the woman in need. The security didn't even attempt to get help when he knew something was wrong! How could such inhumane behaviours exist in a health care setting where all patients, if not family members, are seeking medical help for themselves as well? Now recalling the incident again, wouldn't you agree with me that this was a sad death that could've been prevented?

There is no doubt that nurses and other health care professionals treat their job without pride. I'm not saying that all nurses are like this, but to think that when I get certified, I will have to work with nurses who have no heart and care only for themselves and not their patients. I really do not appreciate their decision of becoming a health care worker, because why would you want to be surrounded in an environment where care is needed most when you have no intention of caring? I was talking to my physician the other day, and he was delighted to hear me say that I'm in the BScN program. He told me that the requirements just used to be a college diploma, where it took less time to become a nurse. Reflecting on that, I'm glad they decided to make it a 4-year degree program, where caring theories are taught, and where we have time in class to share, discuss and 'bring out' our caring attitudes. This way, I'm more assured that graduating nurses actually had the will to endure four years of learning, so that they can continue to do the same in the health care setting.

Travel Nursing

You've heard that nursing is a rewarding career. One that I'm looking forward to is the opportunity to travel. Travelling has always been one of my ambitions, and I'm excited to bring my skills to other parts of the world while travelling at the same time! Why do I want to travel? It's not just for vacation, but so that I can be exposed to one million other things that are not present in my community. I'm always looking for adventure, so hopefully one day I can participate in something like a rescue mission to third world countries. I'm lucky that the degree I'm graduating with is compatible anywhere in the world and that it will be appreciated by everyone. To be able to travel is something I will definitely take for granted in the nursing career. Life is a learning journey, and there will never be an end to that. Travelling will bring learning opportunities to me...or rather it would give me the chance to reach out to new learning opportunities. Where would you like to travel to?

Seaman, R. (2003). Grand Canyon [Image]. Arizona. Retrieved November 29, 2008 from http://www.richard-seaman.com/Wallpaper/USA/States/index.html

Is technology helping or hindering when it comes to overcoming communication barriers in health care?

From my knowledge about health care in my perspective, I feel that technology helps to overcome communication barriers in health care. This doesn’t just include verbal communication over telephone anymore, but visual and written communication can be done as well through webcam and email. We are provided with different methods of communication, meaning different levels of comfort for the user. Today, the convenience of the internet service even allows us to conduct research and obtain information in a matter of seconds if we have insufficient data. With rapid access to any kind of information, research can be done a lot faster therefore increasing the rate of development in health care which I think is an accomplishing improvement that benefits all of us.

Technology reaching out to health care [Image]. (n.d.). Retrieved November 30, 2008 from the Health Information Technology Summit Web site: http://www.hitsummit.com/past3/index.html

Nursing shortage

Although it's only been a few months of school,I've been exposed to many issues regarding health care - one of them being the extreme nursing shortage in Canada. Before I enrolled into the program, I had heard that there was a nursing shortage, which partly influenced me to make this career decision. But I didn't know that it was this bad, and after learning about it in class, I realized just how serious the problem is. In class I learned that the current nurse to patient ratio is 1:25, which leads to problems we refer to as "burnout" where nurses get too tired, or "burn out" like a match, due to their large work/responsibility load and lack of help.

Because of undesirable working conditions and frequent burnouts, nurses are finding it better to leave for another job. On top of that, the older and more experienced RNs are nearing retirement, leaving the younger nurses with the aging baby-boom population.
Learning about this makes me want to be in more of a hurry to graduate so that I can help them out. At the moment, they say that there is little attraction into the nursing profession, and even if attraction did rise, there would be insufficient faculty to meet the growing applicants into nursing school. Here's a fact for you: 40% of the RNs in the province is 50 years of age or older, so we will be expecting a huge operational gap when these RNs retire (Fedorchuk, 2007). The problem just seems to go in circles!

I would have to disagree though, about the lack of attraction in this field. Nurses are gaining respect from the public, and it helps if nurses in the hospital provide caring relationships. Everyone is affected because people get sick sooner or later. A nice relationship will create a memorable hospital visit, and perhaps inspire the younger generations to pursue the nursing profession.

The decrease in RNs mean that nurses will have a bigger work load, meaning less time to rest, and weaker concentration when working with clients. They would not have the heart for a caring relationship either. This issue cannot be ignored, because one day it will affect you!

Fedorchuk, Sarah. (2007). Saskatchewan Has 985,859 Reasons To Say Yes To More RNs. SRNA Newsbulletin, 9(1), 9.

Here's a short but effective video on nursing shortage:

Getting there...

It's been about 2 months into the program, and I'm finding it quite easy to handle. My schedule's easygoing, and we get a lot of time after class to work on our papers and studies, and still have time to have a little fun. In class, every teacher is speaking like we're going to be working with real clients really soon. Yeah right. But now that I think about it, it is really soon! For me personally, this transition from high school into the nursing program has been unbelievable. 5 months ago, I was still sitting in every class with a pencil and notebook. Now I'm holding syringes and stethoscopes, and in 7 more weeks I'll be using them on real people! What I'm trying to say is that, just a few months ago I was preparing myself for university. But now I'm finding myself preparing for the workforce. I just can't believe how fast they teach the material so that we can gain the clinical experience asap. The amount of material to learn is almost incredible, but it's way different than high school, so I'm certainly willing to learn. Thinking about the clinical experience is exciting yet intimidating . I am shy and quiet, so will I be able to handle the agressive patients? I am only 18, will they trust me with the responsibility? On the other hand, I am already sensing pride in this rewarding career. And unlike my other friends who are still unsure about their university courses, I know I definitely got myself into the right program.

Hello

Hi everyone, my name is Rachel Wong and I am a first year student in the BScN program at UOIT located in Oshawa, Ontario. This institution is computer-based and exposes us to all sorts of different ways to communicate electronically. Creating this blog for reflecting my experiences here at school and in clinical settings is a great way for you guys to know what a student nurse has to do in order to become a nurse. I am open to all sorts of comments and replies, so feel free to leave your thoughts behind. I believe hearing from other people is the best way to learn, and I'm excited to get this blog up and running. So please come back soon for any updates!

For those of you wondering how the nursing program looks like, here's an overview of what my course calendar is like: