Example+of++an+RN+interview+paper

AN ORTHOPEDIC NURSE 3 An Orthopedic Nurse  I had the pleasure of interviewing Miss Ratched, a Registered Nurse with a regional health care system. She graduated from A BSN program in 2007. Currently, she is employed full time and earns plenty of overtime hours as well. Her regular hours are from 7am to 7pm Sunday through Tuesday and she is paid hourly. Her floor receives six to seven new patients per day, mostly for scheduled surgeries such as hip or knee replacements. However, they also receive trauma patients with injuries sustained from auto or motorcycle accidents, falls, or even gunshot wounds. They usually only tend to adult patients, but they have had patients as young as fifteen.  Miss Ratched’s work responsibilities include disbursement of medications, wound care/dressing changes, charting, and prepping patients for procedures. In the absence of a secretary, she is also responsible for putting in orders for things such as lab work, X-rays, or CT scans. She must report any abnormalities discovered during these procedures to the physician. In addition, she is required to carry out any standing orders the attending physician may have provided.  The hospital requires that the R.N.s complete annual competency evaluations. Miss Ratched says she must pass a 120 question test that covers mostly the basics of nursing, such as infection control, etc. However, only one attempt to pass the test is allowed. There is another annual exam given to nurses on her floor. They first attend a four hour class and then have to successfully complete several different “stations” that cover things such as EKG, AccuCheck (blood sugar test), restraints, chest tubes, and a mock code blue. If the nurse does not pass one or more tests, he or she must attend another class and then retake the test. During the year, she is given two other code blue scenarios and must be able to successfully describe how to handle each situation.  Miss Ratched is a member of a Unit Based Council that meets monthly to discuss ways of improving their floor and making patients happier. Every six months, they focus on a new project. Topics covered in the past include reducing the amount of infections from catheters and reducing the number of patient falls. Currently, the topic is improving the discharge process. A slow, frustrating discharge process can result in low patient satisfaction, even if everything else went well (Wilson, 2010). Patient evaluations have shown that patients feel the discharge process takes entirely too long and that they are not given enough information on how to manage their care at home, so they are working on ways to improve in those areas.  Miss Ratched has prior experience in the medical field. While completing her core requirements at a local university, she worked for over two years as a PCT (Patient Care Technician) on the same floor she works on today. She completed the nurse extern program while attending E.T.S.U. and did an internship her senior year. She strongly advises getting as much hands on experience as possible. While she says she learned a lot during her senior clinical, she feels she gained the most knowledge actually working in the hospital as an intern or employee. Unfortunately, she expressed that some nurses in the clinical setting did not allow students to participate as much as she felt they should. For this reason, she expressed the importance of taking every opportunity to complete any task the nurse will allow.  The greatest challenge for nurses today, in Miss Ratched’s opinion, is meeting the demands of such a heavy workload. She is not alone. In 2009, nurses from 11 different countries (including the United States) overwhelmingly agreed that they could not spend adequate time with their patients (Cole, 2009). Miss Ratched used to work the graveyard shift before switching to days, and she recalls on some nights being solely responsible for as many as eleven patients. Her supervisors asked that every patient be visited hourly, but if one patient took 45 minutes of her time, that requirement became impossible to fulfill. The State of Tennessee has not implemented a standard minimum nurse/patient ratio, which further exacerbates the problem. Fortunately, Miss Ratched says, the hospital is looking to implement it’s own minimum standards. Sadly, nurses will still probably continue to struggle to provide adequate patient care.  I found this interview to be very interesting and enlightening. I still have much to learn about this profession, but I feel confident that I have chosen the right path for my family and my future.

AN ORTHOPEDIC NURSE 7 References Cole, B. (2009, July). Overworked nurses are hurting patient care and outcomes. //Healthleaders// // Media. //Retrieved from [|http://www.healthleadersmedia.com] <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Wilson, A. (2010). Discharging hospital patients. //The Thomas Group.// Retrieved from <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">[|http://www.thomasgroup.com] <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">.

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