A woman who claimed a few titles a healer, a midwife, an explorer, a diarist and a pioneer of social medicine. She was a woman during an age where women who were educated were uncommon. She was born and lived during the American Revolution where medical practices were starting to become the basis of the refined practices to where we are today. Martha Ballard found it was necessary to record her life for 27 years to shed insight on her life and the more she work she practiced as a midwife. Over 9000 child births were recorded in her diary and was presented for us today so we can see how much more complicated childbearing was in the 1700s.
Once I started researching a career in nursing I realized that there were a lot more types of nurses then I had originally imagined. I have not decided on which field of nursing I would like to specialize in yet but I just imagine myself as a general nurse, working in a hospital setting. A Registered Nurse (RN) is not a doctor assistant; a RN gets to treat wounds, give IV’s and basically get to treat their own patients. Right now my main priority is to stay focused on taking all necessary steps to pursuing Nursing as a career.Gwendolyn Mink describes most Registered Nurses as working directly with the patients and their families. They are the families’ contact with the medical world, in the hospital and at the patients’ home.
Lastly, they may advise patients on health maintenance and disease prevention or provide case management. Berry comments in his article, “Nurses consider quality care to include meeting patients’ physical and psychosocial needs” (22). Although these duties sound challenging, I look forward to a job where I would be learning new things every day and helping a lot of people. In addition, Registered Nurses can work in a broad variety of practice settings. Two-thirds of all nurses work in hospitals.
Three years later she completed the baccalaureate nursing program with honors. She took her first nursing job at the University of Kentucky Hospital working in the trauma intensive care unit. By working in this critical care setting, she learned an immense deal of knowledge, critical thinking, collaboration, and the necessary decision making skills to become a more effective nurse. In this position, she also learned that the patients look up to the nurse not only to treat them but to educate and provide support to them and their family members. After being a nurse and working in this area for six years, she then contemplated of taking her education to the next level.
It was not until I had children of my own that I decided a career in the nursing field was what I wanted to pursue. My own experiences in the hospital during labor and delivery is what opened my eyes, and a short time later I decided that I wanted to become a labor and delivery nurse. “Labor and delivery registered nurses provide care to women and their newborns during the antepartum, intrapartum, postpartum, and neonatal stages of this important life event. They evaluate each mother and baby and develop an individualized plan of care. L&D registered nurses collaborate with physicians and other health care providers to provide the best plan of care for each patient” (Davis, 2011).
She taught at Teachers College, Columbia University and at Yale’s University School of Nursing. She educated many future nurses about the proper treatment and care to provide to patients. Virginia was a very well educated women that never stopped learning and educating herself and others. Virginia believed that nurses are responsible for "nurses assisted individuals, sick or well, in the performance of those activities contributing to health, its recovery (or to a peaceful death), that they would perform unaided if they had the requisite strength, will or knowledge” (Henderson, 1966). There are 14 components to her theory.
I could be on a wheelchair and still work effectively as a pharmacist but not nursing. With the economy worsening every day, double degree has become the order of the day, could it be possible that a nursing /pharmacy combo strategizes one for the challenges ahead? I have first-hand experience of what it means to help people and doing so made me to love it. I have had elderly ladies come into the hospital only to tell the nurse that she is afraid staying home alone and that leads to anxiety; Patients come in complaining about their medication not working only to find out that they need education on dosing. As a pharmacist I am positioned to continue doing what I love doing from a different aspect.
I tended to the needs of the elderly and spent a ton of time baby-sitting my new born god-son, nieces, and nephews. Watching the care that was needed during pregnancy and enjoying the new life once it arrived only increased my passion for the care of those that were expecting. Once I decided that the medical field was for me I began to refocus on obstetrics. I figured that by being a Nurse Practitioner I could do doctoral duties without being a doctor. Currently I am attending ITT Technical Institute working toward my Associates Degree as a Registered Nurse.
A midwife cares for the new-born baby, gives health education and the parents support for the first 28days after birth. They will then be referred to a health visitor. There are three types of midwives: Hospital Midwives they are based in a hospital or consultant unit, birthing centre or midwife led unit and the antenatal clinic, labour wards and postnatal wards. Community Midwives work in teams and they give the woman the consistent. During the pregnancy the community midwives will either see the woman at home or in the clinic.
Lisa Bibbs Into to Nursing Section U 09/28/2012 Reflection Paper on Nursing I believe that a nurse has the opportunity to be there at all of the trials and tribulations in a patients’ life. A nurse is there for people giving birth to their children, people that become ill with a life- threatening disease or illness, and even death. We as nurses have to guide these patients and their families through the hard and rough time especially when they loved ones dies. It’s our duty to teach, comfort, and use our skills for a progress of our patients. Sometimes nurses get caught up in their emotions dealing with patients and their, they get off focus on their responsibilities as what a nurse is supposed to do.