“Why you should become a Nurse “ Dominic John C. Maata Gurnick Academy of Arts Vocational Nursing class 74 March 1,2023 Introduction A nursing course is not a course where you just give medicines, help the patient move from one place to another or guide the doctors during their rounds. Nursing is way more than what most people think it was, the course is just a set of goals that nurse finishes and that’s it. Nursing is a profession that throughout the year has honed nurses to do more complex tasks and has only one thing that is constant, to make patients feel better. In this professional task, ways and approaches have always been subjected to change, the roles evolve as time and circumstances are needed. Nursing programs in today’s age have become the most vital part of the health care system as it encompasses a total care approach towards each patient. The profession that was once’s deemed to be a lady’s job had evolved to its multi-role capabilities that shoulders the total care and services for patients and their families, accommodating not just there medicinal health but also their mental ,psychological ,social, spiritual and emotional needs. Nursing profession is both an honor and power that lends us great responsibility to take care of every person in society. SCOPE OF PRACTICE According to The California State and University (2010), “Classification and Qualification STANDARDS” a Licensed Vocational Nurse (LVN) have a scope of practice to be able to perform task such as participate in planning and execution of patient care interventions that was on the care plan prepared and sign by charge nurse of nurse practitioner. LVN’s should be able to explain self-care treatment to the patient, make follow-up and evaluate individualized interventions related to the care plan according to the stablished standard under the order of a physician or similar practitioner. LVN should be able to administer medications in various means including intravenous(IV), subcutaneous route and perform phlebotomy, start and impose IV line and fluid, administer vaccine with prescribed course approved by Board of Licensed Vocational Nursing. A Licensed Vocational Nurse will also able to perform wide range or nursing services with specific training and have been ordered by a physician or similar licensed practitioner, such as but not limited to performing TB test, catheterization, observe and record drug reaction, apply and change dressing, measure and teach pt how to use clutches, ear leverage, and perform CLIA-waived testing including specimen collection, preparation for requisition of laboratory and X-ray that was ordered by the physician, support the general health care maintenance with activities such as cleaning, sterilizing, equipment and instrument, setting up treatment trays , changing linens, stocking supplies, checking refrigeration of equipment that should be operating in a specific temperature for storage of medications and specimens, assist in maintaining and filing of medical record, assist in other medical and technical support in other clinical department such as laboratory, radiology, optometry or physical therapy services, perform duties correctly and be able to collaborate with other clinical staff. A Licensed Vocational Nurse may have a whole lot to offer inside the medical field, LVN’S and nurses in general are there from when the patients comes in to the hospital, during the stay in the hospital and after there stay in the hospital as nurses are often sent thru different agency both hospice and home health and to follow-up on patient’s care once they are discharge from the hospital. LVN’s are also able to perform tasks that others do, like phlebotomy, obtaining specimen, and many others. Being an LVN also let you work in different job sites, with or without additional training such as but not limited to radiology, home health, hospice, physician’s office, hospital, clinics, urgent care, schools, office buildings, and roads, meaning that if and only if there was an accident and a nurse was near he or she with nursing knowledge could help people involved and do some first aid before the paramedic arrives, nursing knowledge even if for LVN’s is power that can be used in a lot of occasions. TECHNICAL Licensed Vocational Nurse (LVN) poses a lot of technical capability with regards to the kind of job and site an LVN will be working, nurses are very versatile, and the profession gives wide range of flexible working environment and job descriptions as wide range of technical and educational capability. According to Gamboa, A (2023),”Licensed Practical Nurse/Licensed Vocational Nuse (LPN/LVN) Overview” a Licensed Practical Nurse/Licensed Vocational Nurse should be able to assess a patient from head to toe, an assessment that checks out overall external appearance and function of a patient, monitor and taking vital signs such as blood pressure, temperature, pulse, oxygen level, respiration rate and pain level. LVN’s are also expected to provide personal care assistance to patients such as feeding, bathing, ambulating, transfers, and other assistance in accordance with the site rules and regulations. The LVN should also be able to perform the ability to administer medication various ways such as but not limited to oral, sublingual, rectal, virginal, ocular, nasal, cutaneous, subcutaneous intravenous and more depending on the doctor’s order, although an LVN can help administer thru intravenous an RN or any same level should be the one to program the pump most specifically on pain pumps. The LVN’s should also be able to maintain patient airways, including assessing and cleaning breathing assistive devices such as but not limited to Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP machine), oxygen, nebulizer, of even patients’ position, the nurse should be able to assess if the apparatus or the patient breathing and at its best position. The LVN’s should also be able to utilize the used of specialized equipment with or without special training based on guidelines such as feeding pumps, hoer lifts, zero gravity mattress and other specialized equipment that helps the patient achieve its maximum care. Licensed Vocational Nurses should also be able to collect laboratory samples, such as blood and bodily fluid, at point an LVN should also be able to do jobs as phlebotomy but some site and areas required additional training with regards to phlebotomy. The LVN should also be collaborate with the patient and other healthcare providers, an LVN should be able to hear what the patients needs or wants, find a way to work that with regards to the rules and relay those to the providers and be able to help make a care plan that appropriate with patient that also corresponds to what the patients need. The Licensed Vocational Nurse usually able to do these tasks independently but will not be able to start anything unless there was a doctor’s order, the scope of practice specifically the technical ability of what an LVN/LPN can do varies in combination of both state laws, under Nursing practice act that each state enforce and institutional policy that the work site applies as there procedural manual. The Licensed Vocational Nurses are working directly under Registered Nurse (RN), Physicians or any other similar licensed, that send orders or delegations towards the LVN, which are to be followed by the nurse, an LVN must have orders to conduct technical interventions such as but not limited to invasive treatment such as inserting catheter, wound treatment, medications, IV lines and other. Being a Licensed Vocational Nurse also allows to be employed in a wide range of site that an LVN can be employed such as but not limited to Hospital, Dr. Clinics, schools, acute care facilities, rehabilitation facilities, correctional facilities, long-term care facilities, home health agencies, hospice agencies, and many more, the range of site also congruent to the types of work, diverse. SAFETY The LVN profession is one of the few professions where they are more needed as danger arises, a nurse is more needed when their calamity, pandemic, epidemic outbreaks, and others. Nursing is the kind of profession where there are a lot of risks and some risk must be taken by the nurse, by the patient, or by the doctor. These is because being a nurse are both an honor and a responsibility, an honor to serve the community, to be given the knowledge to help people in need is such an honor that also comes with the responsibility to use it, use the knowledge to help people, to give care, to be able to give good health towards the community. SAFETY TO PATIENT Patient safety is the main priority, the patient’s safety was all thought during the educational part of being a nurse where big part of the modules details about patients safety and ways to ensure patients safety. The Nursing Practice act of California details how a nurse should ensure patients safety relative to and depending on the situation, the act serves as guidelines for nurses on how and what to act during a certain situation involving a client. The act ensures that no harm was done towards the patient and that all legal rights will be served to the patient during the stay at the care facility. The most common risk for the safety of a patient inside the facilities were errors such as but not limited to neglect, fall, medication errors, health care related infections. The nurse should ensure that neglect would not be happening during the time he was carrying out care towards the patient, some of the most common manifestations of neglect where pressure ulcers, unsanitary patients’ situation, rashes on buttocks and perianal area. The manifestation arises as the nurse neglects the patient’s care, changing the diaper, and cleaning the patient. Pressure ulcers were prominent by immobility but for some cases it could also tell the patient were not cleaned in time or spend a long time with wet diapers. Medication errors, one of the most common in health care problems yet the most lethal because one wrongfully given medication given to a patient could end that patient’s life. Health care related infection, it was very hard to maintain an aseptic area most specially when you were working of site and or patients room at a facility and you were just visiting, but there are several things that a patient that a nurse could do such as but not limited to make sure to prepare everything before even opening the pocket, wash hand before and after each visits, make sure to sanitized equipment’s before and after use, maintain cleanliness and sanitation of the work area. Nurse Safety Safety is not a one way highway, it’s a two way road, protecting our patients and protecting ourselves cause if we can’t protect ourselves how can we protect the patients. The site policy and Occupational and Safety Health Administration protects nurses from unsafety work environment and unfair labor practice. According to Williams , E (2021), “Professional Issues in Nursing”, there are several dilemma that a nurse face every single day, the obligation that are not limited to clinical care but also adheres to legal and ethical standards, facility policy, federal policy, state policy that must be sure to the nurse and that he/she must act in a way that supports the rest of the team. One of the nurse dilemmas is maintaining confidentiality, with the hectic work and work overload it was hard to maintain patient confidentiality that only allows people that was directly involved with regards to patient care. A nurse has no room for errors, small errors made by a nurse may cause harm to the patient or to the nurse itself. The nurses are the part of the health care system with the most time directly contact with the patient, that’s why nurse have the high risk of communicable disease from patients in the hospital or site setting, The nurses have the highest risk yet have the greatest heart and this was shown during the Pandemic when nurses do 24 hours shift in the danger of the virus. To be able to minimize and ensure the safety of the nurses, government agencies have sent guidelines in dealing with these adversaries. Health care facilities implement precaution markings and labels towards each patient with communicable disease to let the nurse or any medical personnel know what type of preventative device they should use with regards to dealing with the patient. With regards to the pandemic or epidemic, CDC and other agencies will continuously supply nurses and medical personnel with guidelines regarding the virus and how to be able to contain it. This basically entices that nurse’s safety with regards to communicable disease is a team effort of different agencies and intrapersonal support of workers inside the facility. Standard of Profession The Standard of Profession in nursing refers to a nurse’s professionalism towards the work and its workmate; it governs how a patient acts in a manner that maintains professionalism to both the interpersonal medical staff and to the patient and the family. Professionalism is one of the things that a nurse must learn and contain as nursing as a job and a profession puts nurses into a very high amount of stress and emotion. According to Williams, E (2022), When society hears the words nurses, it ties to the words compassion and patience. Compassion and patience might be essential characteristics of being a nurse, there was more than that. A nurse must undergo further to attain professionalism to always act in the best interest of their patients. Nurses should have strong moral mindset that even taking care of patient is stressful yet it could not be compared to what the patient and there family feels knowing that he/she or a member of there family is at the hospital, often family or patient become anxious and lash out towards the nurses, the nurse much stay professional and make sure that history agitation will not affect how they treat patients. The nurse must be able to maintain a professional and collaborative relationship with the medical staff, even if he/she dislikes a coworker, it must be put on the side and work for the best interest of the patient. A nurse must maintain integrity, a nurse must not backdown from conflict, stand her ground and advocate for the patient, this also contain taking responsibility for its own action. The nurse may present equality towards patients, he/she must treat the patient equally. The Standard of Practice follows various guidelines and rules, a Licensed Vocational nurse must be able to assess a patient, implement doctors order and evaluate patient for further interventions. The standard of practice depends on state law and facility regulations. To make sure that a nurse follows standard of practice he/she must check the state Nurse practice act and the procedural manual that his job site required to be able to do a certain intervention. Personal Why would I want to become a nurse? who would not? being a Licensed Vocational Nurse opens to what I know the most vast opportunity out of all my options, so let’s start the story of why would I want to become a nurse from where it all began, so it all began from high school during CAT days, before I become an officer I all think was math and engineering, but the blow of the wind turns table towards health care when I become an officer I was a assigned to become the medical officer, a medic, far from the dirt and machines I used to work on, being a medical officer is far from my own territory, I am careless I am very instantaneous and I want to always be moving, I do not even know how to take blood pressure but that whole medical officer gave me a lot of learnings, there I learn how to become more gentle, how to become more loving and caring and how to really take care of people, that does not include the advance clinical hours learning from the school nurse with regards to dealing with emergency situation and wounds. When a war against ISIS broke out south of the Philippines, I volunteered to be a medical aid, there I learn more that I have missed so much in life taking to my numbers and machines. There I learned how much the health care system has been lacking and how much my abilities and strength would be needed in this profession. During my senior year I have to choose between engineering and health care, that time I choose engineering, I took A-STEM in University of the East, I may have had some success specially learning robotics but for some reasons my I got pulled back to health care 2019 about December I was having my vacation/learning experience here in California when COVID happened, I could not go back to the Philippines and my aunt who owns Residencial Facility for Elderly asked me to become her caregiver here I go back to healthcare, I said yes and I even volunteer to work on COVID patients, there my eyes and heart melts on how much I would be needed to become a nurse, my first patient papa, he called me mojo and his family has still been in contact with me, even the times that he was having a very severe agitation our bond has let him still know who I am, and his family was very grateful about how I was able to take care for him, there I thought maybe I’ll give health care another chance but the real turning point was with my other papa, I took very good care of him, when he died I was at the funeral and the family they are all thankful his daughter even hug me and hold my hand when he was being walked on to his last resting place, these situation melt my heart and had me in tears, I mean all I do was to give my best to take care of their relatives and I am receiving this much love and appreciation, I have hold that in my heart that maybe just maybe my calling was really not for machines but for people, maybe this is what I was made for then another thing that hurts me is when I received patients from other facility with bed sores, wound, very unsanitary condition, I felt like maybe just maybe if I become a nurse I could start a change and that change may progress into a bigger change I mean I just thought that if I was able to acquire more knowledge and licensed maybe I could take better care, I could assess my patients better I could know indications that can save their lives, I could be a better "icon" to my patience and I may be able to help more patients most specially the elderly who badly needs to be taken care, maybe I could get more information and send education towards care givers, facility staffs and other parts of the care team that was under me so that they could give better practice of helping patience not just the patient we are dealing but to all the once they have to take care during their whole career. I would like to become a nurse not for me but for all the people who may be depending being help by me, taken care by me and a total care to all the patient under my aunts facility and to all various facility I could be in. I mean to be honest, being a nurse is the most diverse profession that I could ever think of. so, I Dominic John C. Maata your future nurse, and I want to become a nurse not for me but for everyone CONCLUSION Licensed Vocational Nursing is not an easy profession to do, it requires patience, professionalism, dedication, and thru love of caring towards others. It is a job not for person who just after money, I mean there is money in nursing but it might have been the hardest way to earn it compared to other profession. Nursing is also not a profession for people who easily give up, in the profession we are fighting for patients right, patients life. This is not for people who have weak stomach, in this job we are dealing with feces, urine, bodily fluid and other material that may make a normal person threw up. Nursing is also not for people with soft heart, it not easy to take care of a patient who are already not feeling well both physically and mentally. Basically nursing is not an easy profession, it is the profession for those people who really care, people who advocate for the patient, people who can give their best every single time no matter how patient or family treat them, nursing can be unfair but if you have passion and you were passionate about your passion, nursing can be a profession you may start looking after as it entails a total standard of care for a person. Reference: CA.GOV, (2023), “Nurse Practice Act”, https://www.rn.ca.gov/practice/npa.shtml. The California State University (2014),”Classification and Qualification STANDARDS”, https://www.calstate.edu/csusystem/careers/compensation/Documents/Licensed_Voc_Nurse_Series.pdf. Gamboa, A (2023),”Licensed Practical Nurse/Licensed Vocational Nurse (LPN/LVN) Overview, https://nursingeducation.org/degrees/licensed-practical-nurse-lpn/. Williams, E (2022). “Define Professionalism in Nursing”, https://work.chron.com/defineprofessionalism-nursing-15763.html. Williams, E (2023). “Professional Issues In Nursing”, https://work.chron.com/defineprofessionalism-nursing-15763.html.
