A Career in Nursing

Erin Dumke

English III Level - Honors Pd. 6

Mr. Alburger

February 23, 2017

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Erin Dumke

Mr. Alburger

English III Honors

23 February 2017

A Career in Nursing

Nursing provides an individual with immediate and direct patient care, making it one of

the most rewarding careers one can have. From helping other people maintain their health and

quality of life, to helping those in great need, creates a new puzzle to solve every day. Nurses

become partners with their patients offering assistance in managing both their physical and

emotional needs. The ability to have such a positive impact on another persons life and

wellbeing transcends words of reward. Nothing can compare to the bond created between a

nurse and patient. Since the Civil War, nursing has changed over time through advancing

technologies, education requirements, and the different nursing specialties.

Nursing has changed over time through advancing technologies, education requirements,

and the different nursing specialties. Since the beginning of time, women have naturally

assumed caretaking roles in their communities and with their children and families. Known as

one of the oldest professions, nursing started out employing women as wet nurses. Wet nurses

take care of a baby when the mother dies or she can not nurse her child. The first hospital in the

US opened in Philadelphia in 1751 (Weatherford). At first, people originally had saw the

hospital in a negative light, more as an asylum or poorhouse, but eventually, with time, opinions

changed and with the onset of the Civil War, people soon realized how many lives hospitals had

saved (Weatherford). Nurses had a huge impact on the Civil War by changing and advancing
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the profession as a whole. During the beginning of the war, the United States had no official

organization of certified nurses (Burns). Some women had the courage to risk their lives by

bringing supplies and nursing wounded soldiers back to good health. Clara Barton in particular,

had a huge impact on the Civil War through her consistent dedications to the health of the

soldiers.

Known as one of the most honored women in American history, Clarissa Harlowe

Barton, also known as Clara Barton, changed the practice of nursing. In early 1861, when the

Civil War began, Barton as well as many other volunteers, arrived at the Washington Infirmary

to care for soldiers in need (Clara American). Later that year, Barton decided to help care for

soldiers on the battlefield rather than working in hospitals. She brought wagons full of supplies,

tools, and her knowledge hoping that in some way she could truly help out the men in need. At

the battlefield, Barton pushed surgeons, made medical supplies out of everyday items, taught

men how to correctly administer first aid, and gathered food and water food for injured soldiers

(Clara American). During the war, Barton and her supply wagons helped out the Union forces

traveling throughout the East providing aid to injured soldiers.

The Union soldiers had very little nursing or medical care. Helping the Union forces,

Mary Ann Bickerdyke, one of the best known nurses of the time, started out contributing 500

dollars worth of medical supplies to men stationed at Cairo, Illinois (Civil). Shocked the

Union had no one caring for the soldiers, Bickerdyke became the only woman General William

T. Sherman allowed to travel with his army (Weatherford). Bickerdyke and a team of nurses

followed the Union throughout the country providing aid to injured soldiers. Later in the year,
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General Sherman asked Bickerdyke to lead a group called the Fifteenth Corps and asked if

Bickerdyke would join him to help provide aid to the wounded.

Meanwhile in the Confederacy camp, Captain Sally Tompkins and Phoebe Pember

played a significant role in helping to save numerous lives in the South. Appointed to officer,

Captain Sally Tompkins distributed medical supplies to the troops of the Confederacy.

Tompkins phenomenal nursing skills made her want to continue to help soldiers by turning her

Richmond mansion into Robertson Hospital (Weatherford). The hospital quickly established a

precedence for outstanding success, having the lowest death rate of any facility in the North or

South, even though physicians sent their worst cases to her (Weatherford). Treating more than

1,600 patients and losing 73, Tompkins and her staff of six women, four of whom were slaves,

had an incredibly low number of patients lost for that era which suggested that they may have

had more than a rudimentary understanding of germ theory (Weatherford). Understanding the

relationship of germs and infection would later become a major advancement in medicine.

Another prominent figure in nursing, Phoebe Levy Pember, lived in South Carolina for most of

her life. Pember moved to the capital of the Confederation, Richmond, to run the largest hospital

at the time, Chimborazo Hospital. On a usual day at Chimborazo Hospital, Pember helped to

oversee the treatments of over 15,000 patients having a staff of roughly 300 enslaved African

nurses (Weatherford). These women made a huge contribution to advancing nursing as a career

and played a significant role in the Civil War.

The contributions of nurses in the Civil War paved the way for women to begin to earn a

living to help support their families. Their entrance into the workforce further strengthened when

Congress passed a bill in 1892, providing retirement assistance to Civil War nurses
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(Weatherford). Alongside doctors, nurses worked with few supplies and with huge casualty

rates. They learned as they worked and new medical advancements were often discovered

through trial and error. Nurses gained a tremendous amount of respect for their contributions to

their country during the Civil War, which helped create new opportunities for more formal

training and helped to establish nursing as a highly regarded profession.

Florence Nightingale helped modernized nursing with her concerns about sanitation,

military health and hospital planning. Growing up, Nightingale always had an interest in

nursing, but her parents would not allow her to pursue the career because they believed a woman

of her social class should not work as a nurse. Over time, Nightingales parents allowed her to

study nursing and pursue her dreams. In 1851, she went to Kaiserswerth Germany for three

months to train and become a nurse at Pastor Theodore Fliedners hospital and school for

Lutheran deaconesses (Balch). After finishing her training, she moved to London, England, and

worked at a hospital for women of high social class. When the Crimean War broke out in 1854,

Nightingale trained and oversaw a team of nurses that cared for the wounded soldiers in the

military hospitals in Turkey (Balch). Skeptical of women nurses at first, doctors soon warmed

up once they needed their help and noticed their effectiveness in the workplace. At the hospital,

everyone loved Nightingale because she cared for the injured, wrote letters to soldiers families,

and comforted them. After the war, she went back to London, England establishing the

Nightingale Training School for Nurses at St Thomas Hospital. These nurses would train at the

school in all different disciplines, then sent out to hospitals all across Great Britain (Five).

Throughout her career, Florence Nightingale authored books, pamphlets and reports on hospital,

sanitation, and other health-related issues.

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Dr. Marie Zakrzewska, a prominent doctor at the time, always had an interest in nursing.

Associated with the New England Hospital for Women and Children, Dr. Zakrzewska founded

the medical school for women in Boston in 1862 (Weatherford). Then in 1872, she began the

first associated nursing school in the country (Weatherford). Known as Americas first formally

trained nurse, Linda Richards had become the first to graduate Dr. Marie Zakrzewska school.

Richards later founded nursing programs at New Yorks Bellevue Hospital, Massachusetts

General Hospital, and eventually started the first nursing school in Japan (Weatherford). Dr.

Marie Zakrzewska brought women into the healthcare industry as nurses by creating education

programs and showing people that women could excel in these professions.

Initially during this time, student nurses did not get paid. They spent days scrubbing

floors, doing laundry and other menial chorus. As the number of nursing schools began to grow,

each school had a unique cap that a women wore after graduating. These caps soon became a

symbol around the hospital letting people know their education history and boosting school

reputations. These nursing schools denied acceptance of African Americans with exceptions

given to those women that nursed wounded soldiers during the Civil War. Graduating in 1879

from Dr. Zalewski's nursing school in Boston, Mary Mahoney became the first African

American Nurse (Weatherford). Despite widespread segregation and discrimination, in 1908,

Mahoney ran the National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses (Weatherford). The National

Association of Colored Nurses gave minorities a foothold into professional nursing career.

Known as one of the best nursing programs in the nation, The University of Pennsylvania

devotes their programs to educating their candidates to think outside of the box and become

leaders in their field. At this university, students apply for direct admission into the Bachelor of
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Science in Nursing (BSN) program freshman year. The highly competitive BSN program draws

candidates from a nationwide pool. In order for students to become eligible for admissions,

students need to maintain a high grade point average throughout high school with a heavy

concentration in the science base classes as well as having high entrance test scores on both ACT

and SAT. The school draws some of finest health care professionals in the industry which

exposes student to state of the art medical training from leaders in the field of medicine

(About). The BSN program consists of seven different group requirements. General

Education requirements consist of classes that the university feels every well rounded student

should take. Nursing science requirements cover both the physical and life sciences. Nursing

clinical requirements, considered as the beginning of the practical phase of training where

students begin applying their knowledge and start working with patients in a medical setting.

Business core requirements, provide students with general business training. Business

concentration requirement, cover business as it relates specifically to the healthcare industry.

Program breadth requirements cover the different approaches to nursing management. Then last,

seniors capstone requirement covers methods of health care research (Curriculum). The

curriculum blends science and research with sound clinical practices to give students a relevant,

comprehensive approach to nursing that will help develop the skills needed in for success in

nursing

Duke University, recognized as one of the premier nursing schools in the nation, provides

students with a multi disciplinary approach to learning in a cutting edge, research and training

environment. The schools hospital based training takes place in the world renowned Duke

University Medical Center which attracts some of the most prestigious health care professionals
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in the world. Students benefit from this talent and gain exposure to hands on, outside of the box

medicine. The numerous clinical trials and research at Dukes hospital, constantly pushes the

medical advancement envelope. The school offers numerous academic programs ranging from a

BSN in nursing, to Masters, PhDs and numerous specialized programs (Programs). For

students with limited exposure and a general interest in nursing, the options seem limitless at

Duke University.

With nursing, every day creates new experiences with new cases to solve. Typically, a

nurse's day will start around seven am or seven pm depending on the hospital in which he or she

works. When arriving at the hospital, the previous nurse updates him or her with information on

the patient, such as name, age, weight, what happened to the patient, what changes, if any, in

medication the patient takes, any special instructions, or any changes in the patient's condition

that the nurse will need to know. After catching up on the patient, nurses start rounds. During

rounds, nurses perform assessments; checking vital signs, lungs, bowel sounds, circulation,

check IVs, give medication if needed, and answer any questions. Patients need updates in

between every round, to make sure things progress as they should. Checking on the patient

between rounds helps keep them stable and their medical statistics improving (Alburger).

Throughout the day, time management plays a huge role in completing needed tasks. Planning

for a balance of patient care and paperwork allows nurses to succeed in daily tasks.

Caring for patients from infants to adolescents, pediatric Nurses work in a variety of

settings from clinic, school, home health, doctors office, emergency room, hospital floor, and

intensive care unit (Your). Education play a huge role in becoming a pediatric nurse. These
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nurses need to understand the growth process in children and care for the child individually.

Pediatric nurses need to adapt to working with these children's families.

A subspecialty of nursing that works with newborn infants, neonatal nursing deals with

problems consisting of premature infants, birth defects, heart defects, infections and surgical

problems. The neonatal period covers the first 28 days of life however the infant's conditions

could exceed for much longer (Fitzpatrick 157). Neonatal nursing generally encompasses care

for those infants who experience problems shortly after birth, but it also encompasses care for

infants who experience long-term problems related to their prematurity or illness after birth

(Is). Depending on the newborn's state, some neonatal nurses care for babies until

approximately 2 years of age but usually most neonatal nurses care for the newborn until

released from the hospital (Neonatal). In most job areas, neonatal nurses must have Pediatric

Advance Life Support and Neonatal Advanced Life Support certification (Fitzpatrick). The

National Certification Corporations allows neonatal nurses to focus and pursue many different

concentrations while the American Association of Critical Nurses main focuses on infants in

critical care (Fitzpatrick). Neonatal nurses need a variety of skills in order to excel at their jobs.

These nurses need to know and understand the precise background information on neonates and

pediatric nursing as a whole as well as the ability able to think outside the box in stressful

situations (Fitzpatrick). When working with families, nurses must simplify information so that

families can understand (Alburger). Extreme organization and having a strong math background

to properly oversee medication allows for neonatal nurses to succeed while dealing with patients

(Fitzpatrick). In North Carolina, the salary of a neonatal nurse average $63,000, which ranks
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22nd in the nation for highest paid neonatal nurse (Neonatal). Neonatal nursing provides a

challenging and rewarding career path for those interested in caring for infants.

Oncology nurses care for patients with different stages of cancer and they deal regularly

with patients in varying degrees of physical and emotional crisis. Even though oncology nurses

typically work within the hospital, a common work experience may call for them to work outside

of the hospital, in places such as hospice or even in the patient's home. These nurses need to have

a firm understanding the diagnosis and treatment protocols, including the side effects as well as

helping the patient manage the fear, depression, anxiety and stress that typically follow a cancer

diagnosis. A nurse in this field must have emotional stability, coping skills, and the ability to

establish healthy boundaries with patients in order to limit emotional spillover into their personal

lives.

From a technical standpoint, an Oncology Nurse, needs to constantly educate themselves

in order to stay up to day with the numerous treatment regimes that evolve at a rapid rate. These

treatment modalities often include highly technical and complex approaches such as surgery,

chemotherapy, radiation, immunotherapy, hormone and stem cell therapies to name a few

(Types). Ranked 23rd in the country, North Carolinas average oncology nursing salary

exceeds $60,000, 5% lower than the average salary nationwide (Oncology). Oncology nursing

provides a challenging and rewarding career choice for those interested in helping these patients

through some of the most difficult times in life.

Working in an atmosphere that regularly encounters life-threatening situations,

emergency room (ER) nurses deal with trauma and critically ill patients on a daily basis. ER

nurses handle a variety of different cases, from heart attacks patients brought in by ambulance to
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those seeking primary care with ear infections and sore throats. (Fitzgerald 76). In order for an

individual to become a ER nurse, registered nurses (RN) need one to three years of practice in

another subspecialty background, since emergency room patients tend to have mass casualties

(Fitzgerald). Working in this environment can produce an extensive amount of stress for nurses,

so learning how to function in stressful conditions plays a huge role on one's success. Nurses

have to mentally accept and process fatality in the workfield. Patients come in with catastrophic

injuries that ER nurses need to quickly triage and diagnose on the spot. ER nursing provides a

good career choice for someone with specialized skills that thrives on a fast paced team

environment with stimulus coming from all directions.

From the Civil War to present times, opportunities for career nurses have increased

steadily over generations. Current projections expect that nursing opportunities should continue

to increase to as much as 16% from 2014 to 2024 (Registered). As medicine continues to

advance, so will the opportunities in nursing. New discoveries will lead to new specialties and

subspecialties. This continuing evolution promises a future with exciting new directions and

endless possibilities in this field. As a career choice, the prospect for steady growth and above

average pay would make nursing a natural choice for someone with in aptitude for the sciences

and a desire to help others.

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