"Beware what you set your heart upon, for it surely shall be yours." Emerson

An Essay on why I want to become a nurse.

By An Open Heart

Through the course of my life I have been a patient, beginning from infancy, I have endured multiple surgeries and survived the most complex parts of recovery from open heart surgery, the mental trauma. My main objective in getting into the nursing field is to provide myself with a platform into the medical community, particularly in the pediatric cardiology arena, as an inroad to helping children who will be going through similar expriences that I have lived through.

I was born with Tetrology of Fallot, a quadruple defect of the heart, a blue baby; without surgery I would not have survived. Fortunately for advancements in medicine I did survive and was blessed with great health care professionals everytime I faced another surgery or medical issue. After my most recent pulmonary valve replacement in 2005 I was introduced to another survivor of congenital heart defect and we began a friendship, a therapuetic relationship whereby we discovered that we were not the only ones who lived through these traumas. We also discovered, rather confirmed that the doctors who deal with the mechanics of our heart defects, rarely deal with the emotional issues related to our heart defects, the trauma of these huge medical procedures.

Born from this relationship was a joint thought that maybe a survivor of these kinds of traumas should become involved in the medical field and become an advocate for counseling. I began researching the possibility of getting involved in some way from a lay person's vantage point, however, politics in the medical arena, especially if you do not have any medical education, was tough to breach. I contacted various support groups and discovered that most of them were for either the parents of the patients or grown adults who suffered from heart disease, not a heart defect, neither of these systems provided for the kind of counseling children need to process the trauma of open heart surgery.

Nursing will provide me with skills that will launch me into the medical field. This is an opportunity to open a door, as much for me, as for kids who will be going through a very traumatic experience. I don't necessarilly expect to walk out of school upon graduation and begin counseling children through these experiences, but, nursing will provide me with the launch pad. Through all of my medical experiences, the nurses are the ones who made all the difference, they had the pulse of the situation in hand and my repsect for their profession has lead me to this path in which to give life to my dream.

In closing, in 2007 I cared for my Grandmother at the end of her life, Hospice was involved and because of their involvement I met an amazing Angel, our Hospice nurse. She was inspiring in ways I will never forget, her intuition about what was going on with my Grandmother and about what was happening to me and my family was ethereal. My respect for her and nursing knows no bounds. I might not have gotten to this place had it not been for the part she played in my life. She has as much to do with why I want to become a nurse as my experiences with my own medical 'career'.

(I have to turn in an essay tomorrow to complete the application process, so, this is why it's posted here....)

(looks like I have all of my old study habits in place, 'wait 'til the last minute!).