Month: March 2022

            Taking Pharmacology ATI’s are always more challenging for me. However, in this case I feel like taking the ATI Pharmacology CAT practice exam prior to this helped me do better. I was thinking back to the questions that were asked on the previous exam and any remediations I did that may have helped me answer questions for this exam. Since there were only 60 questions I felt as though I was able to keep my focus for the whole exam without losing any. That is something I felt went well and something I hope to carry with me for the next ATI exams I take. In general, I would like to improve on my knowledge of pharmacology. I will take practice exams and retake previous ATI exams prior to our proctored ATI exam in class. I do not have any input on course adjustments at this time, I feel as though this will help with our proctored exam overall. When it comes to my SMART goals, I continue to strive to keep my focus for the whole exam time in order to do my best work. This will be measurable based mostly on how I felt I did, and it should be attainable by the next time I take an ATI exam. This is relevant to taking ATIs, but also to nursing in general. We need to be able to keep our focus for 12-hour shifts and for the NCLEX, so this is helping me with that.

I liked the theme that I had because I am familiar with it and I find it easy to navigate. I changed the writing in my home page and also edited the About Me page by changing my paragraph and adding pictures. I also added my resume to the tool bar and made sure that a person from the outside looking at my portfolio would be able to navigate it.

During this interview I learned so much about my grandma’s time as an oncology nurse. She shared many stories explaining all she has done for the nursing community, which gave me a greater insight into how much of a leader she really is. My grandma said she knew she wanted to be a nurse since she was 5 years old because she always loved to care for people. Once she fulfilled her dream of becoming a nurse and realized she wanted to do oncology, her love for it pushed her to get more involved. At Cooley Dickinson Hospital my grandma started a cancer care support group, cancer care fund, and a celebration of life. The cancer support group was held in the hospital, and she would have patients and families come and surround themselves with people going through the same thing. She wanted to do this to make the patients and their families feel less isolated and alone. In the hospital, patients would have to pay to watch TV and other activities they should not have to pay for. When they are in the hospital for a long-time getting cancer treatment, they are going to want to do anything they can to distract themselves. With that my grandma created the cancer care fund where people or past patients would donate to the fund and it would cover any of those types of expenses in the hospital. The celebration of life was held in her back yard, and she would have patients and families come who have beat cancer and are on the path of recovery. Also, outside of the hospital she would tutor new grad nurses to help them pass the NCLEX. She was also once the women of the year in Northampton MA while all of this was going on. I am very honored and proud to have her as my grandma.

            When I asked my grandma to describe what she feels a leader is, she said she felt her views were much different from some of her peers and most of her superiors. She felt that her superiors would say that a “good nurse” would get all their care and paperwork done within a timely manner or before the time that it is due. She feels a “good nurse” and a leader is someone that fights for the patient’s and their families’ rights, advocate for them to collogues, and stay true to your own beliefs as a nurse. With that being said, this has led her to come into conflicts in her work life. During most of her time as a nurse, she would stay late after her shift is over to hold the cancer support group and would spend hours unpaid at the hospital trying to make patient’s lives better. While she was at work, she would make sure to spend free time getting to know the patient and their family and making sure that they were always satisfied and felt heard. She has had to report other nurses for treating patient’s poorly and she would always be on the lookout. Eventually, the hospital hired a new oncologist who would get angry with my grandma for staying past the end of her shift and coming in on her days off. She would also get angry at my grandma for not getting her paperwork done fast enough when she was in with patient’s trying to form relationships with them. Due to this situation and her beliefs, my grandma thought it was best to step away from nursing. She felt that if she could not be in an environment that would allow her to be the nurse that she wanted to be, then she could not be there at all.

            My grandma is very strong willed and always stood up for what she believed in. She was always self-aware and socially aware when it came to the hospital and management. I was surprised with some of the stories she was telling me just because I did not know them, however I am not surprised that she did any of that because she has the biggest heart and is the most selfless person. I have always looked up to my grandma and I will continue to look up to her. Her story has motivated me to want to get more involved in whatever unit I end up working on. This has also reminded me that the patient and their families are the priority when you are at work and better care will be given if I take the time to develop a relationship with them. I hope to be half the nurse that she was one day.