Why I Study Nursing
Hey guys! This is my essay for the RD Sober Living Scholarship on why I am passionate about nursing. You can find the scholarship at this link: https://rdsoberliving.com/scholarship
To Save a Life
An eerie silence hangs over the sterile hallways as I make my final rounds for the night checking in on all the trauma patients. I make my way to the emergency center to offer any assistance before heading home. The bustling of the injured from earlier in the day has cleared out, and my fellow nurses are clicking away on their keyboards updating their charts. As I turn around and started walking towards my changing room to end my shift, the phone rings.
The phone only rings in the ER when we need to prepare for incoming trauma injuries. Ambulance is three minutes out, so we have three minutes to prepare for treating the wounds and saving the lives of the family. The truck driver died on scene.
Everyone knew their role in those three minutes and what to do to prepare. We got the rooms ready, the medications, the gurneys, the IVs—we were prepped and ready to go when the ambulance came to a stop outside the emergency doors. I ran outside with a few other nurses to gather information and transfer the patient, a five-year-old boy, inside. Unconscious with a head lesion and broken arm. I process all the injuries and immediately familiarize myself with the necessary treatments for the injuries, so I am prepared when the surgeon needs my assistance. Priority. Prioritizing injuries has become second nature. With that knowledge we can efficiently save a life and waste no time. The broken arm can wait. He’s bleeding from his head—fix that first. Think ahead; don’t wait for the doctor’s order to prepare for the next step—be ready. The boy lives. The father lives. The mother lives.
Ten years earlier, I am a senior at Arizona State University studying nursing and applying for the accelerated nursing program. My nursing program will teach me the medical knowledge necessary for saving lives and helping people, while my normal college education is teaching me the problem-solving and analytical skills necessary to efficiently and effectively process information to increase the chances of a patient coming out alive.
Nurses don’t get as much credit as they deserve. Yes, they deliver your chocolate pudding, put your IV in, and ask exhaustive questions. No one talks about the trauma nurses that assist doctors in every which way to save a patient’s life in a critical condition. These nurses are on the front lines of every disaster, freak accident, or the common car accident. Without having them prepare everything meticulously for the scene by analyzing and predicting the needs of the injured, the doctors would not have the necessary tools to do their job. I want to be that aide. I want to be saving lives along with the doctors.
Ever since my accident when I was a child, I have looked up to the nurses that treated me and helped save my life. The doctor came in, said hi, saved my life, and disappeared from my life. The nurses stuck around and nurtured me physically and mentally. The doctor’s work means nothing without the nurses maintaining it on a daily basis.
My current educational track will propel me towards the nursing career that I long for. I. will be able to give back to my community, help save lives, and nurture all of my patients and make them feel as safe and comfortable as possible. A hospital is no one’s favorite place, but it is made tolerable by the warmth and trusting presence of the nurses. I aspire to make my patients feel safe and cared for in my place of work. No one wants to feel like patient #37. Nurses make patients feel human and cared for, and I will be a part of that force.