Thursday Blog- Final Blog

This quarter I learned an immense amount of information from reading just four books. I chose to read about nursing because nursing is something I am very interested in. I thought reading about nursing would help me tremendously considering I hope to be accepted into nursing programs in college. Some of the books I read were challenging while others were simple. However, each book I read I learned new information that can be very helpful in the future. Some information I learned is followed:

• Most RN's (registered nurses) carry around an ink pen, flashlight, scissors, tape, blue IV caps, alcohol wipes, saline flushes, and a sharpie. It is important for nurses to have all these things ready by hand in case of an emergency. 
• The hardest thing about being a nurse is getting attached to certain patients. Nurses are the ones who comfort a certain patient after the doctor delivers a devastating diagnosis or illness. Although nurses are taught to maintain emotional distance from patients, it is hard for them to maintain the part between professionalism and personal relationship. 
• I also learned a lot about different medicines such as, amphotericin B, consolidation chemotherapy, doxorubicin, and rituxan. And how to distribute them. 
• Talking care of someone with Alzheimer's is extremely difficult but I learned the process of both what the patient with Alzheimer's goes through and what the care-giver goes through.

The first book I read, I thought was both easy to read and understand, but also emotionally hard to read. Considering it was written in first person, the author let us readers experience and learn what happens in the twelve short hours of a busy hospital oncology department. I was able to learn and feel like I experienced the difficulties of working in a busy hospital, the positives, the emotions, and the struggles. The main thing I learned from this book was as an RN the main role is to provide physical support to patients and their family members but also a little emotional support during the difficult times and to do their best with helping treat a patient and make them better than before. When a cancer patient is able to go home after a long stay in the hospital it may mean the world to not only the patient or their family but to the nurse as well. The feeling of helping someone that is in pain or really needs assistance, hope, and support is a "crystalline illumination of earned success, a gem-like moment", as the author describes.

At the same time this book was emotionally hard to read. Since the author works on an oncology floor, she is working with patients that have developed tumors and/or cancer. Every nurses miracle on an oncology floor is for the patient to confront their own possible death and move on. Yet, it is harder when the patient is not able to confront their death because they are in denial they are dying and for the nurse to tell them their percent of living is low. Nobody wants to tell somebody the operation they are preparing for may kill them, or the medicine they are about to take may kill them. It is not easy. Nurses do everything to help and save patients and telling someone they may die is the worst part. But nurse's always need to be positive around their patients because they are two people with a shared mission: healing. Often people think that once somebody gets cancer their life is over. But life is too precious and too short to give up that easily. Proving people wrong may be the best medicine. Since I want to be a nurse in the future, I have to take into consideration that I could potentially take care of someone that could be on the verge of dying. This book taught me a lot about how being positive is key and how there is not just going to be positive outcomes but also terrible, negative ones. I thought this book was also very helpful because I got to experience the authors feelings and emotions. If I am ever a nurse in the future I am going to always remember reading this book and all the tips and emotions the author provided.

Although all my other books were helpful and interesting to read, I thought the first book I read taught me a greater quantity than the other four books. The second book I read focused on the author embarking a career of a nurse at age seventeen. It aimed at the author working at a hospital, how her mother died of cancer and how it affected her, and how she ended up becoming a flight nurse. It was interesting to read, but I did not learn as much information compared to my first book. My last two books focused on family illnesses and deaths and how the author dealt with it. The book I finished the quarter with was mainly about how the author took care of her mother with Alzheimer's. Although, I want to either be a nurse in the emergency room or an OB/GYN, it was still important to learn about Alzheimer's and how a person with this disease deals with it because if I ever work in an E.R someone could come in with Alzheimer's disease.

Overall, I thought this quarter was very successful for me. I enjoyed reading each book and I learned a lot of information from just four books! This class and the information I learned will carry on with me into college and when I start my career. I highly recommend this class!