I knew from a young age that I wanted to help people, but I never knew how. My sister, who is eight years older than I am, went through nursing school a couple years after she graduated high school. As she was taking classes and getting her bachelor's degree in nursing I realized that nursing is the path for me. Now I am in school to become an emergency room nurse and my sister has had a job for a couple years now as an operating room nurse. Many people get these two career fields mixed up, but they are not the same. They just have similarities that all nursing professions have.
Operating room nurses can work in both large and small medical centers. Danielle Brown wrote on a blog called Gap Medics "Depending on the hospital, nurses may have a chance to specialize in a particular type of surgery." There are different types of surgeries people get when they go to a doctor such as pediatrics, heart, lungs, ortho, and general surgery. Operating room nurses work long hours, which are usually 12 hour long shifts 3 days a week. Gap Medics wrote a blog post on working in the OR as a nurse. There are three different types of OR nurses. A scrub nurse is a registered nurse that prepares the operating room. This includes laying out and organizing the surgical instruments. They also assess patients upon arrival and during the surgical procedure they pass instruments to the surgeon ad monitor the patient. A circulating nurse ensures all the patient's paperwork is done, such as consent forms. During the procedure, they may document what takes place and replenish surgical supplies as needed. After the procedure, they verify the instrument count and complete the charting for the patient. Registered nurse first assistants generally control bleeding, suture incisions and intervene when a complication occurs. Before the patient's surgery they give them pre-operative instructions or answer any questions and after the surgery they answer any questions and provide discharge instructions. The pros of being an OR nurse are working in the operating room can be challenging and exciting, and no shift is close to being similar. The cons are that you may deal with stressful situations and cope with the loss of patients and also hours are long which can be physically and emotionally draining.
Emergency room nurses usually work in emergency rooms in hospitals, urgent care centers, or helicopters. A day in an ER nurse is extremely fast-paced, which is either scary or exciting, depending on the person. Discover Nursing wrote an article on Emergency Room Nurses and how to become one. They wrote " with an emergency nursing background, you'll also have the option to work as an administrator, manager, researcher, or educator." This means that even if you went into this field there are more options to transfer to than just being a nurse and working with patients everyday. Kmoonshine wrote a comment on allnurses.com giving her pros and cons of being an ER nurse. Her pros are " there is never a dull moment, you're always being challenged to figure out what might be going on with a patient, and being able to develop great working relationships with the emergency department staff." Her cons are " dealing with impatient people, feeling overwhelmed when you are caring for multiple patients who are critically ill, and seeing some sad things people do to themselves and others, such as domestic violence, sexual assault, drug abuse, and suicide." With these pros and cons almost all nurses have to deal with most of the bad parts of a job.
Nurses are here to help people when they are sick or injured and in some cases not everyone leaves the hospital or facility they are being cared for. Every nurse has to deal with the loss and or the saving of a patient. The question is: Who would you want to save everyday for the rest of your life? I would rather save anyone and everyone I could. I don't see a difference between a hurt child and a mentally ill homeless person. They both need help and that is the reason me and thousands of others are going to school to get degrees.
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