Inspiring the Inspirational words of Hope from Nurses to Nurses

For the past couple of months I have been reading a book called, Inspiring the Inspirational words of Hope from Nurses to Nurses, by Sue Heacock. It is made up of many touching stories from a lot of different nurses. All of the stories are heart felt experiences that nurses have gone through. The experiences are all completely different, but are pulled together with the theme of how nurses effect patient's lives. It is also filled with philosophies about the need for nurses in our world. It has direct quotes from nurses talking about their careers and the events they have encountered. My favorite part of the book was being able to learn of a variety of experiences from so many different people. It is very different from the writing that is usually seen. I feel that it provides an inspiration from multiple people that portrays how great the medical field truly is. It isn't just one person describing how amazing nursing is. That was something that I really loved about the book and found very interesting. I would recommend this book to others because it provides a great insight on the amazing opportunities you will have to help people. It really brought to life the things that I dreamed would happen and showed me that it does happen.

Ted Talks

I recently watched a Ted Talks called Take health care off the mainframe, by Eric Dishman and it was filmed in November of 2009. Eric does health care research for Intel. His argument is that health care needs to be more personal. 10 years from when this was filmed there was a much larger amount of older people than younger people. During this time he wanted perform research for Intel by looking at disruptive technologies for this problem. He called this the Y2K + 10 plan. In the beginning of the video he shows that just how a person answers the phone can show a lot about how cognitive they are. It can be used to simply evaluate a disease such as dementia. He wants research to be done in at least 10,000 homes with the new machines available. One type of machine is the magic carpet which can show a persons postural change over a period of time from them walking on it. In his argument he states that when you search about health care the first things to come up are hospitals, and doctors. He wants it to become more personal and for research to be done in a span of homes. I thought it was interesting that there are so many different machines that can trace such detailed effects on the human body. I agree that we should use these different devices to further the knowledge of why certain problems are occurring. Others who are interested in healing others and the health industry would find this Ted Talks appealing. The resources we have should be utilized to discover more about the reasons behind why different problems take place. I feel that others would agree that we should make the medical field more personal. It is a very interesting talk and discusses how we can further our health care.

Everyone Has an Impact

In this big world sometimes we don't realize how far a simple gesture can go. You could change a person's day just by saying hi to them. It is hard to realize how big of an impact you may have on other people. This past weekend my parents attended a bar mitzvah and they shared a very important story with me. At the ceremony, the boy expressed the impact we all can have on each other's lives and the lesson he learned. He said that at his school he became very good friends with this one boy, but the next year he decided not to talk to him. His mother heard the news and she was in shock. She told her son that he needs to say hi to that boy and there is no reason not to when they had been such good friends. One day the boy said hi to his old friend. At the end of the school day the other boy exclaimed to his mom, "he said hi to me!" The boy was so excited by a simple hello. I feel that this story is very easy to relate to. There are very friendly students in the hallway that say hi or simply ask how I am doing and it really does make a difference in my day. It feels good when people care about how you are feeling that day. You never know how someone is feeling that day or what they are going through. Even the little things can turn a person's day around. Recently in our iQuest class, we decided to express our gratitude in various ways. In my group, we wrote positive messages on sticky notes and left them on cars in the parking lot. Then when the school day was over, students would see a note that would make their day a little brighter! We wanted to impact more than one person and that is why we decided to write a lot of different sticky notes. 

After the group activity in our class, I did an act of kindness on my own. I chose to make a card and have everyone at my work sign it for our new manager. I currently work at Vitality Bowls. Within a small time frame, he has already improved many different aspects of our store and we all let him know that we appreciate his work. He is very creative and brings new ideas to the store.  Managers have a lot to handle and I thought we should let him know that we are very thankful for all of his hard work. I know that when I get positive feedback at work it makes me feel great and that I am doing my job to the best of my ability. That is why I thought it would be nice to do that for someone else!

Internship Update

Since last September I have been interning at our local hospital for four hours twice a week. I love seeing the different medical procedures first hand. I have witnessed the insertion of PICC lines on patients, vitals being taken, IVs, patients being discharged, and reports of all the patients in the hospital. I have delivered a specimen to the lab, towels, blankets, and snacks to patients. Additionally, I've learned how to answer patient calls from the rooms, page nurses, and I have copied down the hospital schedule. Everyone there is extremely friendly and they all tell me how much I am going to love being a nurse. It is very inspiring to be involved in a field where the workers have such a strong passion for their jobs. There is an abundance of people in my life that work in the medical field and it is awesome to talk to them about my experience. Now, I feel like I can relate more and understand what they are describing because I witnessed it. The best part is seeing the gratitude the patients have when they have been helped through their medical situations. However as I have seen from following the nurse, it can be hard to please every patient with a mass amount of patients that have to be cared for as well. Through these past couple of months I have discovered that I want to be involved in some hands-on activity, but not everything. It has made me look into becoming a nurse practitioner. I will be able to do a little more than a nurse, but less than a surgeon. I feel that for me it would be a perfect balance. As I continue my internship I would really enjoy watching some surgeries. I have talked to my nurse about it and it can be difficult because most surgeries are during the morning. So far the nurse has worked more weekdays and I am in school during that time. I am going to go in on the weekends that she works and ask if I could watch the surgery. The nurses want us to have as much exposure as possible, it is just a matter of my schedule working with the hospital schedule. It would be ideal if I could intern on the weekend and a patient has surgery at that time.

Inspiring the Inspirational

Recently I have been reading an inspiring nursing book called Inspiring the Inspirational words of Hope from Nurses to Nurses, by Sue Heacock. However, the book is filled with lots of short stories written by other authors as well. I am going to read 20 pages of my 145 page book per week to finish it before Christmas. This book aims to inspire readers by sharing touching nursing experiences. It tells the sentimental stories and show that the littlest things can mean the most to someone. It is a very touching book that grasps the emotional side of the reader. The whole book is about memoirs from different nurses and how they have effected people's lives. In my first two chapters the short stories are centered around nurses caring for kids and the philosophies of nurses. The philosophies discuss that nurses are always needed and in the very beginning of the chapter it is filled with inspirational quotes from nurses. It also mentions that a poem about an elderly woman who may seem crabby, but she is saying to imagine if you were her. We are all going to get to that age some time in our life and it is hard. The chapter about nurses caring for children is filled with touching stories and my favorite is when a little boy Charlie comes in every day to the school nurse to take his pill, but he would never talk. The nurse bought a stuffed monkey and Charlie spoke up that day to ask who the monkey was. Ever since then, when he would come in he would speak to the monkey. At the end he tells the monkey he is his best friend. The nurse never sees him again, but every time she looks at the Monkey she prays for Charlie. All of the different stories the book is filled with have a different way of inspiring the reader. The stories stay with me and show me how much a nurse can do for a person. Nurses are there to care for people in every way possible. So far I love the short stories and they excite me for the experiences I will encounter in my nursing career. I want to wake up and read this book everyday. I know I'll finish way before my deadline because I can't get enough of the nursing field and hearing about it. It makes me so eager to see how I will effect people's lives and the difference I can make.

Cal High Mentor

For my Cal High Mentor, I chose my Physics teacher that instructed me during my Junior year. I had the wonderful opportunity of meeting her last year and having her as my instructor for the whole year. She has taught at Cal High for quite some time and teaches multiple subjects. Along with Physics, she also teaches Chemistry. I really enjoy her teaching style. She makes it challenging but helps you completely understand the material, leaving nothing uncovered. I love it when things are a little more difficult as long as the teacher teaches the material well and is helpful. This is exactly what she did and I love that she is so eager to help answer questions. It is vital that I can go to my teacher and not feel like a bother when I have a question. It shows that the instructor wants you to learn and is there to support you. I chose her as my mentor because I really enjoyed her class, and she was the start of me discovering my strong interest in Physics. It is the perfect balance between math and science. I understand it and grasp it very well, but it still makes me think. I want to major in physics and then I will be able to apply to medical school. As a little girl, I never would've imagined myself choosing it as a major. I'll admit I was scared enough as a Junior before I stepped foot in the classroom to attempt the material. I had overheard from numerous people that it was extremely hard. I've learned that different subjects are going to click for different people. Without this class, I may have never discovered a major that I am passionate about that would help me pursue my medical passion. Over the course of this year, I hope to create a stronger bond with my teacher and hope that she will always remember me as a great student. It will be great to have another mentor to look to and be able to reach out to. It will be so amazing to be able to share how I keep making steps towards my dreams.

We Were all Made to Fulfill our Dreams

In my life, I can see myself one day being very successful in my career while being very involved with my family. From being a very driven person I know that I am meant to go far in my career. I expect to exceed high above average standards. I don't settle for anything less than exactly what I want. That is where my driven personality can also be stubborn and get myself into trouble. But, we all have our imperfections, right? It's hard for me to know exactly what career I plan to pursue. I want this internship to open my eyes to more job opportunities than I have ever known. I always wanted to attain a master's degree at least and possibly a P.H.D. I have a passion for learning. For me, attaining new knowledge is what keeps me going. It is a necessity for me to take on new tasks and tackle new challenges. I always want to get as much exposure and broaden my capabilities as much as possible. I am going to go into the medical field and I plan to excel in it. My personal goal is to always be a step ahead of everything and I want to be a leader. I see how to plan things in an organized manner and what would make everything run the most efficiently. I have always had leadership qualities in my personality and that is something I am going to bring into my job career. I like helping everyone and working in teams. It's my goal to be the leader of that team. My career will be a leadership role in the medical field and I want to work tell sixty-five, at the oldest. I know I am meant to be a mother with at least two kids and balance my family with my work life. When I am young I realize I may spend an excessive amount of hours at my job because that is what will be required of me if I really want to excel in my position. I must put in the time and effort to get where I want to be one day. I feel that I was made to be a balanced person with my work and personal life. I know I'm not mean to have one side of my life weigh me down drastically. Balance is something I always talk about it and would be the word that would best describe me.