Megan Gray, RN & Brittany Parzuchowski, RN
November 5th, 2013
Megan:
· Nurse at Beaumont
· Started as a teacher (6 years)—2nd grade
· Applied to Hope College for undergraduate, which is known for teaching and pre-medical
o Decided against pre-med after taking Organic Chemistry
o Enrolled in the teaching program
o Taught 2nd grade and almost through her Master’s degree when she decided to become a nurse.
Applying for nursing school:
· Emory University
o One of the best nursing schools in the country
o 2-year program for those that came in as a second career
o Graduated top of the class
· Worked as a hospital nurse for a few years, and is now working on becoming a nurse practitioner (University of Michigan)
· Worked at Emory University hospital (progressive pre- and post-doc cardiac surgery floor)
· Did travel nursing for a year
o A way to see the country and go to different hospitals
o Find hospitals that are short-staffed
o Hard to get into hospitals that you want to because they want experience
o Worked in Arizona, Baltimore, etc.
o Stayed with a cardiac unit
· Applied to Beaumont and University of Michigan (for graduate school—nurse practitioner; family medicine and minor in occupational health)
o Difficult to go from critical care to family care
Nursing:
· Typical day on a cardiac unit
o Cardiac progressive unit: too sick to be on a normal medical floor but not sick enough to be in the ICU; heart attacks, dangerous rhythms, bypasses
§ Will also have cancer patients, etc. because if they have anything wrong with the heart, they get sent to the cardiac progressive unit
o 7am: report on your patients (2 nurses for 7 or so patients)
§ How are they doing? What’s the plan?
§ Divide up patients
o Medicine, assessments, etc.
§ Constantly getting interrupted (patients going for procedures, x rays, etc.); takes away from patient care
o 7pm: report to the night nurses and come back in the morning
· The challenges of being a nurse
o On your feet for 12 hours a day; physically challenging (lifting patients, etc.)
o Some of the duties are difficult (giving shots, taking blood, dealing with bodily fluids)
o The emotional toll (dying patients; you can’t fix people and take away their disease)
§ Professional vs. personal
§ Are you even making a difference?
· The benefits of being a nurse
o Make people feel better—physically
§ Give them medication, etc.
o Can be emotionally there for them (emotional support)
§ Comfort them, etc.
o Being there for the families (family-centered care)
§ The whole family is involved but they are often forgotten/ignored
· Nurse practitioners and Physicians Assistant do similar things
o Nurse practitioners are taught with a nursing model; have more autonomy, they don’t have to work under a doctor and can run their own clinics
o PAs always have to work under a doctor; taught with a medical model
Brittany:
· Graduated in May 2013
· Applied to nursing school two years ago
· First semester of nursing school and already working in a hospital
· Working in the emergency room with pediatrics in DMC (Detroit Medical Center)
o Broad spectrum of patients (newborns to 19 years old) with a broad spectrum of injuries
· Study abroad to China through the College of Nursing during undergraduate years
· Apply to nursing school early sophomore year
· Two years of prerequisites followed by working under a faculty member in a hospital (group of 8), and then during your senior year, you work under a specific nurse.
· What makes a good nurse: being compassionate and caring for the whole patient (emotionally and physically), you have to know your stuff (being quick and evaluating the patient), knowing when to ask for help, and anticipating what’s going to happen