Second Observation

For my second observation, I decided to interview a teammate and watch a few episodes of Trauma Life in the E.R.
A recently found out that a girl on my rowing team is already in the nursing program. I sat down and talked to her for a little bit about it because she was already a step ahead. I found out that she is in the dual admissions program so she was basically automatically accepted to the program when she got accepted to Nova. She is a sophomore here and is currently getting all her pre-requisites out of the way. I just wanted to get a feel for why she decided to go with nursing because I am still making up my mind. She went on telling me about how a lot of the women in her family were nurses and they all loved it. She said she admired the way her mom would do her job. She told me when she couldn’t stay home alone her mom would take her to work and she got to see her mom working first hand in the hospital. She said the chemistry between workers and patients was just something she always loved. She said she had respect for all the time and work they put in for the patients and she knew at a young age that she wanted to also be a nurse. I really enjoyed talking to her because I could tell while she was talking to me that she was really sincere and excited to be in the nursing program. It got me motivated to start as soon as possible. She did tell me the down sides but I told her if it gets me to be a nurse, I’ll do it. She reminded me that it was a lot of hard work, like everyone else has told me, and can be very stressful. She said even though her mom was passionate about her job, it still took a toll. Overall I’m glad I got to sit down and talk about her past experiences.
For the second part of my observation, I watched Trauma Life in the E.R. This has always been one of my favorite shows because even though you’re not right there, they show you everything and everything is real life. From serious gunshot wounds to stitches and casts, this show never gets old. There is really never the same story twice and that portrays what it’s really like in the Emergency Room. The action in there sometimes is so unbelievable and so uncalled for; some of the things that I watched, you wouldn’t imagine could ever happen. The first guy that came in was 33% decapitated. This was a freak accident that happened while he was working on his car in his garage. While he was under the hood, something went terribly wrong and the fan somehow broke off and slit his throat while it flew out from the car. I heard what happened and saw the damage I did and my jaw dropped. They nurses and doctors were racing to save this man’s life because with 33% decapitation, not only has he lost an extensive amount of blood, they said it was very possible that he hit major arteries. That much blood loss automatically made them assume that if he survived his injury, he would be brain damaged. They also had to check to make sure that major arteries had not been hit because if they were, there is a change for more blood loss and possibly death. As miracle workers, both doctors and nurses were able to save the man’s life; it was truly incredible to watch.
Another man that came in had a serious gunshot wound to the hip. He came in screaming and you could just see and hear that he was in agonizing pain. Although he came to the hospital for help, whenever the nurses tried to touch him he freaked and didn’t want anything to do with him. When he finally realized that if he didn’t calm down he wouldn’t get help, he let the nurses do their job. They gave him medication to lessen the pain and to see what the exact damage was. When x-rays came back, they determined that the bullet shattered the whole right side of his hip; it was literally in pieces which you could easily see on the T.V. screen. Even though it was a serious case, it was kind of ridiculous when they asked him if he had been shot before he said yes. When they asked him how many times, he replied “twelve”. Even the nurses’ faces were priceless. It’s true in an emergency room; you really never know what you’re going to see until it comes in.

Further reflection of observation two

For my second observation, not only did I interview students who are going into the nursing program but I also watched multiple episodes of Life in the E.R.
A few girls on the rowing team are currently working towards the nursing program or are already in it. I sat down at lunch with one of the girls who is in the program and just asked him a few questions. We had a pretty good conversation and at the end I saw she was as passionate about it as I was so it was nice to hear her thoughts.
The second part of my observation was what I personally enjoyed the most. The episodes I watched of Life in the E.R. made me wish I had already been working in a hospital. The show is just so interesting to me; not because people come in injured but that people that he ability to heal others and to help individuals in need. What surprised me the most about the show is just how crazy some people really are and you would think that certain things like what I saw on that show were nearly impossible. The blunt truth is that people get hurt each and every day, and it’s the people that realize that, that are doing something about it. The show did not disturb me at all but it definitely opened up my eyes as to what I might see in the future. The intensity that they are surrounded by daily kind of intrigued me.
Although I was not there first hand and they aren’t going to base the whole show on paper work done in the E.R I know that there is more to it than the hands on aspect. It does not necessarily bore me but I do like working with people so I feel it won’t be the most enjoyable part of the job. Guess I won’t know until I actually get the chance.
From time to time during the show, the action would die down and the camera would go to a nurse or a doctor. Few nurses said they never saw themselves where they were currently at. I guess some people just know and others learn it down the road.
Overall the show was sometimes more exciting than others but that’s just the way it is in the E.R.
Hopefully for my next observation, I get to visit the nearby hospital and apply to volunteer.

First observation

For my first observation I put a bunch of my interviews together to try and get a feel for nursing. I spoke to numerous people who had both started out in nursing and found out it wasn't for them, and I have spoken to people who love it and could not see themselves doing anything else.
My first observation was with the nurse at the doctor’s office. She welcomed me to the office sweetly, and just had such a good attitude. You could really tell that she liked where she was working. She brought me in to one of the rooms and took my vitals before the doctor came in and she made me feel very comfortable. That day I had my NSU Women’s rowing shirt of so she started talking to me about it. She may not have actually been interested if I was on the team or if I even attended school there, but she made it seem like she did and I liked that she wanted to have a conversation with me.
I generally feel that if you are in a profession that deals with different people on a daily basis, you need to be patient and want to talk to patients. Personally if you have a good attitude wherever you work, it’s a positive outlook for you and for whom you are actually working with.
My second experience was with one of the doctors who work in Athletic training. He too generated small conversation and it brought me away from why I was actually there. Because I am a student at Nova, he asked my major and what I was learning towards. When I had mentioned nursing, he automatically congratulated me but gave me some helpful advice. He said before he started working with athletic training, he too wanted to become a nurse. He told me he volunteered at a nearby hospital to see if it was what he really wanted to pursue. He then continued to ask me why nursing, and to check local hospitals to see if I could volunteer. Once we started talking about it, I felt like I wasn’t even there to see a doctor. I was so interested on what he had to say that I wanted to know why he didn’t end up in the nursing field. Later he said that he just knew it wasn’t right for him. He said the amount of time and hard work put into it, I have the upmost respect for anyone who is a nurse.
At the end of the appointment it made me feel really good and it kind of motivated me to want to really be a nurse.

Choosing My Subculture

For comp 2000 we have to pick a subculture. Something that really interests us and that we want to learn about throughout the whole semester. I have a few ideas but I can't seem to pick one. I'm really interested in religion but if I picked that, I might not be able to really go out into the "field". I might possibly pick Coaching at Nova, or even the Nursing program because that is what I want to do for school. The more I think about it, the more I'm leaning towards the nursing program at Nova. Considering that is what I want to do career wise, it would be the best choice.

Intro

Welcome to my blog for Comp 2000! This blog will be all about the subculture we pick in class this semester.