Professional Narrative: My Path In Nursing

I have known since I was very young that helping vulnerable people is important to me. My only requirement for a career that I would be happy and excel in is that I’m experiencing something new every day and that I feel like I’m making a difference. Applying for the accelerated nursing program at McMaster was an easy decision for me. After applying three times in the last three years, I had essentially lost hope that I would ever become a nurse. I was at a point in my life where I lacked direction. In hindsight, however, I am glad that I didn’t get accepted until my third attempt. This enabled me to complete my biology degree. Graduating with distinction was an incredibly empowering experience in what was the most difficult time of my life. I never knew how much my degree would mean to me until I was holding it in my hand. Now I am ready to move on with all of the lessons I learned in my first undergraduate program, and ready to take on the many challenges that will be coming my way.

My father was a paramedic for twenty-something years. Watching him come home with a smile on his face, even after the difficult and traumatic shifts, helped me in understanding the euphoric feeling of helping others in their most desperate times. He still receives Christmas cards from people whose lives he saved twenty years ago. My father is an inspiration to me, and I want nothing more than to follow in his footsteps by helping those around me when they need it most. I am no stranger to the dramatic ways that hospital environments are shown on television. Grey’s Anatomy, Nurse Jackie, and Scrubs are all guilty pleasures of mine. Although I know that the drama on television would be nothing like real life nursing, it was not the internal dramatic relationships within the hospital setting that drew me to the programs. It was the thought of meeting new people every day, facing new situations, and solving new problems that really sparked an interest in me. But it isn’t just television nurses that behave in heroic ways. One media story that caught my attention amidst my many attempts to enter this program was that of Alex Wubbels, a Utah nurse who was arrested after she refused to draw blood from an unconscious patient despite police orders (Manson, 2017). The body-cam video shows a woman who stands firmly for what she believes is morally, even if it meant being wrongfully arrested, in order to protect the fundamental rights of her patient who was required to give consent for blood to be taken (Manson, 2017).

I remember being taken aback at the violent way Wubbels was dragged from the hospital by a frustrated police officer. Only someone who was exceptionally passionate about their career would be willing to stand up to a powerful individual in such a way. I wanted the opportunity to be that passionate about my career. The uproar surrounding this online video was amazing to watch. People came together to fight for justice for Alex Wubbels. It isn’t just present day healthcare professionals that I look up to. Many strong women have paved the way as leaders in a respected profession. When researching these heroic women I came across Margaret Sanger, who advocated for birth control and sex education at a time when this was not the norm for society. Sanger was so passionate about her work that she opened the first birth control clinic in the United States, leading to her arrest (Wepman, 2017).

Although I don’t agree with all of Margaret Sanger’s views (specifically regarding eugenics), I find her inspiring because she was willing to dedicate her life to fight for what she believed was right. She spoke up for women’s sexuality, for reproductive rights through access to birth control, and for freedom of speech (Steinem, 1998). It is never easy to go against what is considered the standard in society, however without pioneering leadership there would be no progress. Sanger was eighty-five years old when she finally saw the legalization of the contraceptive pill, the pill that she had helped develop, in the Supreme Court (Steinem, 1998). Sanger was a woman well ahead of her time, and I believe her to be the true embodiment of a leader in the nursing field. I’ve never been the type of person who would be satisfied at a desk job. In fact, doing research for the summer last year at a lab bench was enough to convince me to never be stuck at a desk again. I can imagine myself in a fast-paced emergency room, never knowing what to expect but ready to push myself to help individuals in whatever way is necessary. Not only will I be able to help patients who are often experiencing an undiagnosed pathology for the first time (Mason, O’Keeffe, Carter, & Stride, 2016), testing my knowledge and competence in the field, but I will see something new every day. I will have to learn how to assess my patients in a fast and accurate manner, a skill that seems daunting now but will surely develop over time. I will need to be completely confident in my abilities to perform various procedures necessary to stabilize patients, such as: administering medication, transfusing blood, first aid, transferring patients, rescue breathing, and being knowledgeable about diagnostic testing like electrocardiograms and x-rays (Kulshrestha, & Singh, 2016).

The emergency room, or another fast paced environment, seems like a perfect place for me. However, having yet to experience various clinics, I can come up with many career paths that I think would leave me fulfilled. What I look forward to most, outside of my day-to-day career, is disaster-relief and volunteering in other countries. I have fallen in love with traveling over the years, having been fortunate enough to volunteer in Sri Lanka and Kenya. I have seen more countries than I could have possibly imagined in my twenty-three years, I cannot wait to merge my career with my passions and assist wherever I am needed. I will need to learn how to help those in communities that have been through disasters, such as controlling bleeding, treating for shock, and clearing airways, as well as collaborating with the local population and government (Berhanu, Abrha, Ejigu, & Woldemichael, 2016). Nursing will rely on a set of skills that I have yet to learn, as well as proficiencies that I have been developing my entire life. I’m sure that the transition will not be an easy one, but I look forward to the challenge. One attribute that I have had little experience with and know will be difficult for me to develop is autonomous practice. I have never been in a position of power before, where my direct decision-making and actions can seriously impact someone else’s life. Perhaps it is because I am so new to this program, but growing the confidence it takes to be able to explain and trust in my own decisions for patients, to trust in a team that I’m working with, and to re-evaluate situations where I do not feel self-assured will likely be a difficult for me.

Collaboration is also something that I’ve never had a chance to develop in a professional setting. Even in my undergrad university career, group projects and presentations were few and far between, and many of them did not go as smoothly as I had hoped. It is difficult giving trust to other people when there are consequences if something goes wrong. Nursing is an extraordinarily collaborative profession. I will have to learn to be more trusting of others. Although collaboration and autonomy are two skills that I need to work more on developing, I think there are also many qualities of nurses that I am already confident in. One of these aspects is patient advocacy. I have always been the person in my social settings who people come to with their problems. I think that I have excellent listening skills and therapeutic communication is something that I have been practicing my whole life without being aware of how important it would be in my future career. I will be able to sense when a patient is unhappy and be someone that they feel comfortable opening up to with their concerns and fears. I am also sure that if I felt it necessary, I would be the person that advocates for a patient who doesn’t feel like they’re being heard. Although patient advocacy is a relatively new role of nursing, established in the 1970s (Clarke, Pedersen, & Santalucia, 2015), I believe it to be one of the most important traits of the job. Ensuring that a patient is fully informed about their treatment options and making sure that my health care team knows exactly what the patient wants and needs is something that I think is very important and something I will not waver on. I also believe that I am firm in my morality.

Although ethics is a broad term and it is impossible to know when my own principles will be tested in the field, I believe that I have an innate sense of what is right and wrong, and I stand strong in my opinions. If I believe someone is being mistreated, I will not stay silent. Not only are ethics important directly in the field; it is also necessary to maintain competency by continuing my education indefinitely. I know this will be a lot of work, but ensuring the safety and well-being of my future patients is the most important thing to me. I have known the type of work that I’ve wanted to do for a long time, despite not knowing what path to take to get there. When I got accepted to this program in April this year, while on vacation overseas with my mother, I knew it was meant to be. I didn’t need to think about my options, or wait to hear from other schools and other programs. I went out and enjoyed the sunny day in the English countryside, celebrated the good news, and accepted the offer that night when I got back to the house. I know that I will excel in this career, and every day at McMaster is another opportunity for me to learn the skills I will need in the near future. I’m so excited to have finally begun my journey.