When I
started this project I had all hopes to job shadow someone from the medical
field. What I didn’t realize was my idea of a job shadow was incorrect. Talking
to Mr. Johnson I found out what job shadowing really was. Job shadowing is not
going and watching someone work, it’s taking the chance to really understand
ones job by talking to them and seeing the importance of the facility they work
in everyday.
Where do
you start? This was the question that I had to figure out. When I had some
problems with my ribs I went to Children’s Hospital. Waiting there to get my
ex-rays I observed the hospital and I really was interested. I could see myself
working in an atmosphere that works with personalized medicine and the well
being of children. When I talked with Mr. Johnson about having a day where I
would job shadow, he asked me where I would be interested in going. I was set
on going to Children’s and being able to meeting people who work in the third
best hospital in Wisconsin.
The
conversations that normal students have with their teachers are pretty basic
but with Mr. Johnson it is so much more. One of our amazing conversations came
about when he and I were talking about my personality and how it can help me figure
out what I want to do as a career. High school becomes reality and after high
school it’s time you decide your future. This is very scary to me but I know I’m
not alone. Mr. Johnson started our conversation with the question of “How do
you find a job that will make you happy”. A lot of society gets this wrong. It
about what’s inside and really discovering what it is that makes you happy.
Money and material items will never make you happy. But if you can find
something that gives you joy then run with it.
We also
looked at the reasons why I love dance. Then we found what characteristics
match with the ones needed for the medical field. After taking a look at those
Mr. Johnson and I took a Briggs Mires personality test. A Briggs Mires
personality test is a quiz that analyses people’s traits to a find job that
fits them as a person. I was shocked
when I read my results and it showed a teacher being a good fit. I knew that
the tests can vary but my love of helping and caring for people was stronger
and I knew I wanted to job shadow someone in Children’s Hospital.
That
week I made phone calls, left messages, and sent emails. What I soon understood
was that no one was returning my phone calls and messages which was quite
frustrating. When I was on the phone I was treated terribly. I was overwhelmed
with the fact that school was going to end soon and I needed to get this set up
but I couldn’t be helped by anyone because I was a kid and they sure did treat
me like one. Reality settled in that
Children’s Hospital was not going to work and I was really bummed. Perhaps one of the main reasons they didn’t
get back to me is that Children’s Hospital is a huge and busy place. One
afternoon I came back to academy after making another phone call that was
unsuccessful and I sat down next to Kathryn. She started to explain how her mom
works at Aurora HealthCare Summit Hospital. Even though I was disappointed
about Children’s Hospital not working out I was so thankful for Kathryn who
helped me out!
First
getting connected with Mrs. Van Hulle from Aurora HealthCare was exciting. Knowing
that I might have the experience to job shadow a nurse was very thrilling.
Working with Mr. Johnson I learned so much about emailing and the different
formats. When I first started communicating with Mrs. Van Hulle I emailed with
formal format. I learned that when your communicating with others via email
your format changes depending on how they respond. After a few emails back and
forth with Mrs. Van Hulle she responded in an informal way that was my signal
that I could turn my emails into an informal format. After a while of
communication she connected me with a registered nurse who deals with infection
control. At first when I heard that she dealt with infection control I was not particularly
excited, but then I remembered the real definition of a job shadow.
As soon
as I got connected with the nurse from Aurora I was on my way to planning a job
shadow. The moment I entered the Aurora HealthCare Summit Hospital I was amazed
on how much it didn’t look like a hospital. My mom and I sat down and waited
for Rosalyn to arrive. When I saw her approaching I was nervous but the warmth
of her welcome and her excitement was reassuring. We sat down in the cafeteria and
I interviewed her. For the next twenty-five minutes I learned so much
information about a job I had no idea about. We took our seats and she asked me
to begin the interview:
Q:
How did you get into this field of work?
A:
Well, I’ve actually been a registered nurse for twenty three years. I have a
degree from Marquette University for bachelor science and nursing. The
wonderful thing about nursing is there are so many avenues you can go in to. It
is almost limitless the options you can do when you have a nursing degree. You
can take care of the patients bed side, you can go into insurance review, you
can go into research coordination, you could do what I do, you can look at
quality review in the hospital. There is a lot of different things you can do.
At this
point in the interview, I realized just what a valuable expert she was. I was
really lucky to find someone who knew the profession inside and out. Someone
who has had different nursing jobs in the medical field and was able to relate
to a lot of them.
Q:
What does your basic day look like?
A:
Well my job is essentially to prevent infections in the hospital. So when our patients
come in we want to keep them safe and we don’t want to cause them any harm.
Unfortunately sometimes when they have surgery or they come into the hospital
they can get an infection. My job is to try to stop those. On a day to day
basic the first thing I do when I came in is I look at the patients that we
have in the hospital and I look at the patients in isolation. I look at the
rooms to make sure there set up correctly. We also do a lot of work with trying
to prevent the infection in the first place; a lot of research goes into our
job as well as teaching. That’s the thing about this job everyday is different
so one day I could be teaching new employees, or I could be traveling into the
city to attend a meeting or a conference. Other days I could be at my computer.
When I
first heard she dealt with invention control I had no idea how this interview
would go. Was it even going to help me figure out if I wanted to be in the
medical field? I had no idea and quite frankly I was nervous. But as we kept talking
the information she provided was so helpful.
Q:
What do you find most challenging about your job?
A:
What I find most challenging about my job is when you have very educated heath
care professionals that don’t always want to do the right thing. Sometimes a
doctor won’t want to put on an isolation gown when he goes into a room. So then
I’ll have to go up to him and say this is why you do it we don’t want our
patients getting sick and sometimes they don’t like to be told what to do. So
that’s probably the biggest challenge.
When she
answered this last question I was surprised that this was the most challenging
part of her job. I mean she is the only registered nurse that deals with
infection control in that specific hospital. She has to make sure all is good
in that huge facility so I was quite shocked with her answer. Having that much
responsibility was a new thought for me. I hadn’t really considered that a
person could be the sole qualified nurse in her field. I know I would like to
have a lot of responsibility, but that much sounded a little scary.
Q:
What do you find most rewarding about your job?
A: I find most rewarding when I
see the things that I have put in place actually work and our patients don’t
have infections. It’s different than hands on nursing. It’s rewarding on a long
term sense, more behind the scenes sort of way.
I
could easily see myself as a more hands-on person, working with patients one on
one. I believe this job would be interesting but during that the interview I
saw myself as a physical therapist, a pediatrician, or working with kids. I
believe these were possible vocations for me.
Q:
What kind people skills do you need in your job?
A:
Well you have to be a good communicator because there could one day where I’m
talking to patients and patients family explaining to them why there in
isolation or what they would need and so that is a little less clinical and
less medical. The next day I could be going to a committee meeting filled with
surgeons very high level brain surgeons. So you have to have good communication
ability and have to be able to tailor that to who you’re speaking to. You have
to be organized because of all the data we look at.
This
skill of communication is something I think I got a head start on with the
program of Academy. Emailing, calling, interviewing, are just a few ways I
learned to communicate in a professional way. I know communication is important
in the real world so I am glad I was able practice this ability.
Q:
How often do you deal with emergency?
A:
That actually believe it or not in my role can happen. Sometimes I’ll get paged
on the weekends, for example there a new influenza over in China so I got paged
one weekend. We had a patient that came to the emergency room that had just
flown in from business from China and was having repertory symptoms and they
were really concerned that he might have had this new flu. That’s sort of an
emergency because we have to figure out what types of testing to do (to help
the patient).
I think
emergencies would keep your job exciting and upbeat. So it was interesting to
hear that she does deal with emergencies. I am not the person that likes to sit
all day and fill out paper work. That is why I want to be in the medical field
working with kids. I love caring for people and helping someone get back on
their feet.
The next
twenty minutes I was shown around the beautiful facility of Aurora Health Care
Summit. I was very happy when I found out that I was going to get a tour.
Interviewing and talking to Rosalyn was really helpful but also getting shown around
the hospital was a cool learning experience for me. I was imagining coming
there for work every day. It was hard to comprehend since I’m only fourteen and
I have a lot of school left, but it was worth thinking about. This facility was
fairly new so the detail in the architecture to the medical capability was
outstanding! I would like to work in a professional hospital where futuristic
curriculum is an everyday improvement.
After I
thanked Rosalyn for all the help she provided we headed to Lisa’s office where
I meet my second registered nurse. As we entered the office I saw her sitting
in a gray cubical similar to the ones we use in Academy. She said hello and
before Rosalyn said goodbye we got a picture with all three of us. Rosalyn said
her goodbyes and Lisa lead us to the emergency room. As we walked she asked me
to start the questions I had prepared for her:
Q:
How did you get into this field of work?
A:
Well when I was still in high school I had a very good friend of mine that was
signing up for the nursing program at Carroll College and there was an
information day so I went with her because she said “Oh I can bring a friend” and
I was already signed up for some medical assistance (program) at a Tec collage
so I went there and I was totally blown away by the whole nursing program and I
realized, that was something I was going to pursue.
The
medical field has a wide verity of jobs it is stressful trying to figure out
which path to go on. Hearing from someone that had to make these decisions was
really helpful. Knowing that she had a gut feeling about what she wanted to do
when she heard it was quite comforting.
Q:
What does your basic day look like?
A:
Well for me my role as trauma coordinator I do a lot of patient reviews. There
are certain patients that fit the criteria to be enrolled in our trauma
registry and so I’ll do follow up on them. So it’s basically case reviews and
making sure there care has been managed appropriately. I also get involved in
other thing with the emergency department. So the day can really vary. There
could be meetings, it could be me at my desk, or I could be making rounds on
patients. It pretty much varies!
After
hearing her answer I noticed that both nurses answered “My day is different
everyday”. This is something that intrigues me about the practice of medicine.
While I was interviewing her she showed me around the emergency room. For being
a new hospital I was expecting it to be busy with people. The hospital was not
busy it was quite hushed for an emergency room, but that’s probably a good
thing!
Q:
What do you find most challenging about your job?
A:
Well for my job here at the hospital the goal for us here is to be a trauma
center. There are different levels of trauma centers. Madison and Froedtert
Hospital are a level one. We want to be a level two which has all the same
capabilities as a level one except we aren’t attached to a medical school. That
has been the challenge for me, we just open three years ago and being the
trauma coordinator… I put the pieces in place to be a verified term center.
Both of
the nurses I talked with that day were very important people. Rosalyn was in
charge of the infection control of the hospital and Lisa was in charge of the
trauma center. When I first came into this experience I expected that a
registered nurse was a small job. What I soon found out was that it is anything
but a small job!
Q:
What do you find most rewarding about your job?
A:
Patients that we take care of able to see them getting better. You know if they
are really injured being able to follow them along in there hospitalization and
see how they progress. From the time they get omitted to the time there going
home (is really rewarding).
Comparing
the two nurse’s answers I noticed that Lisa was hands on with the patients
however Rosalyn was not really a hands-on nurse but more of in the background helping
the hospital. I can see myself having a job where a personal relationship is
established with my patients.
Q:
What kind people skills do you need in your job?
A:
Well you have to be able to like people. You have to have a lot of patients for
people that are really sick or in a lot of pain. You need good communication
skills. You have to have a lot of sympathy as well as empathy. You have to be
able to switch gears quickly!
Talking
to Lisa is was quite noticeable how much she loved her job. I hope to one day
find a job that gives me as much joy as it did to these two nurses.
Q:
Is there anything else that you think is important to share to someone who is
interested in working in the medical field?
A:
I think you have a whole wide area that’s open depending on what you’re
interested in. I always knew that the ER and specifically Flight (were my
interests). I have worked in a few ER’s but working on that helicopter is my
favorite job. So I think that there is such a verity that you can do in the
medical field. You have to have motivation because it is such a wide open field
to do anything.
This
advice that Lisa gave me was beneficial toward moving forward. When Mr. Johnson
and I first sat down and started talking about jobs he told me this “Find a job
that you will love, not a job that produces a lot of money but a job that you
will make you happy.” There is so much you can do in the medical field but the
most important is finding a job you love and nothing else will matter.
Ever
since I was ten years old I wanted to be in the medical field. I am not sure
what sparked my fuel for this interest but I just knew that it was something I
saw myself doing. After job shadowing at Aurora HealthCare I realized why I
want to be in the medical field. To come to work every day and know that you
have the chance to make a difference in someone’s life is worthwhile. Helping
someone get back on their feet, whether it’s from a heart attack or
occupational physical therapy, sounds rewarding. After job shadowing at Aurora Healthcare I’ve
come to realize how much of an impact you can make if you find a job that you
love.
