Need to interview an RN... Please help! :D

would answer if I could figure out how to send a personal message

-stacy

how long have you been a registered nurse? over 32 years now i graduated from a diploma program in 1975 st. clare's hospital and health center, school of nursing in nyc (it closed in 1976, sigh....)

how did you become interested in this career? why did you become a nurse? i became a nurse after being sick myself and saw how calming the nurse was to me {i was getting my tonsils removed and i remember being in this i guess you could call it a pediatric ward with lots and lots of kids of different ages. well, i was terrified of receiving a shot/injection but i remember the nurse took her time to calm me down. also my cousin was a nurse and i was so impressed with her knowledge!

what is your educational background? i have two undergraduate degrees: a ba in anthropology/sociology and a bsn. i have a masters in anthropology and i am working on obtaining my masters in nursing as a nurse practitioner

where did you obtain your degree or education? what certifications do you have?

i obtained my ba in 1998, my bsn in 1999, my ma in anthropology in 2003. no certification

was your education adequate or were there areas in which you needed additional training? no i feel the education i got from st. clare's adequately prepared me for nursing in the real world. i did not experience any culture shock because of all the hours we nursing students spent at the actual bedside. from the second week of school that first year, in fact, we learned therapeutic communication then off to the wards! lots of hands on experience.

how long have you worked in this field? i have worked as a critical care nurse for my whole professional career, whether as a civilian or as an army nurse

what do you like most about your work? patient contact

how long have you worked in a particular area (er, or, icu, or particular specialty area)? why did you choose (er, or, icu, ltc, fnp, or other specialty area of nursing)? as i stated above, i have worked as an intensive care nurse for my whole career, well that is not true. i worked as a med/surg nurse for the first three months post graduation from nursing school until i passed the boards, then i switched over to the icu. so i started working in the icu january 1976. stayed at st. clare's icu then went to memorial sloan-kettering cancer center in 1981 and worked in the special care unit there (also icu)

what would you change about your life if you had the opportunity? well, if i had the opportunity to go back in time, i would go back to nursing school and make better grades! also, i would have become an army nurse earlier in my life

what skills you wished you already possessed when you started the job? i think the skills i picked up go hand in hand with the knowledge and education i gained over the years. it is a natural process to go from novice to skilled to expert

what other jobs have you worked at in this career field? i also worked for a while in hospice/palliative care

what is the approximate starting wage for this kind of job in our geographic area? ummm i had worked for the federal government in the icu - the va, and i made base pay $92,000 annually. that doesn't include any ot or shift differential (i worked 12 hour nights) this in new york city

what task does a typical workday consist of? i am not sure what you are asking

what leardership characteristics do you consider to be essential for

a professional nurse ? you must be a patient advocate, pro active, and never stop learning

what do you wish you had known when you were a freshman in college? nothing comes to mind

what advice would you give someone starting out in this field? in nursing? ask questions if you don't know. try not to take your work home with you. try try try to manage your time and get out on time. never stop reading and learning. subscribe to a few professional magazines and keep up with all that is happening in the world of science/nursing/medicine/technology

how much writing and what kinds of writing are you required to do in your work? do you mean nursing or progress notes? well, i use computers, cprs (computerize progress report system) so i type instead of writing. but i still need to write in the bedside chart, vitals, lab results, different measurements such as cvp, pcwp, ci, co....

what makes "good" writing in your work? not sure what you mean

is there any other information that you believe would be helpful for me to know?good luck. i hope you do well on this research project. you may either email me/pm me if i can be of more assistance to you.

bye for now,

athena