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Ten(der) Loving Caregivers
There are more types of nurses than there are medical specialties. This is because nurses specialize according to many criteria: type of patient illness, stage of patient recovery, administrative function, technical training, and more. Nurses attain varying levels of responsibility based on their specialized education. Here are ten ways in which nurses work at comfort and care.

ADMINISTRATOR:
Nurse administrators are supervisors or managers who guide the many healthcare workers that affect patients. Administrators also make the rules of conduct, plan budgets, and work with other leaders in hospitals and healthcare facilities. They oversee an entire organization, ensuring that it runs well for patients and healthcare workers alike.

FLIGHT:
Flight nurses are specially trained in emergency care and fly in helicopters to places where people have been injured and need immediate attention. These nurses often work for hospitals where they await the calls that direct them to people in need. Like most emergency medical team members, these nurses focus on keeping patients in “stable condition” until they are able to reach a hospital.

INFORMATICS:
Informatics nurses are relatively new on the nursing scene. These nurses do not work directly with patients but use their knowledge to help others understand the work that nurses perform and to process the information that nurses manage and gather. Informatics nurses generally work in hospitals translating medical information into computer programs so information can be shared, tracked, preserved, and studied. Keeping accurate and organized medical records is critically important to maintaining and improving patient health.

INTENSIVE CARE:
Severe injuries or illnesses, such as extensive burns, heart conditions, premature births, or major surgeries, can require round-the-clock patient care and supervision from intensive-care nurses. These nurses have special knowledge, training and skill with advanced medical equipment to keep their extremely weakened patients’ conditions stable or improving. They are responsible for tracking their patients’ vital signs (such as temperature, pulse, breathing, and blood pressure), maintaining their fluid intake, recording their digestive progress, distributing their medications, and monitoring their consciousness level (awake, alert, drowsy, or unconscious).

LABOR:
Labor or delivery nurses work in hospital maternity wards assisting mothers and babies both during and after the birth. Before labor they are responsible for ensuring that the delivery room is stocked with all the tools that may be needed. During labor they check the mother’s blood pressure, heart rate and contractions, and coach her on how to breath and when to push. They track the unborn baby’s heart rate, movement and position in the birth canal, and assist the doctor with any complications that may arise. After delivery, these nurses care for both the baby and mother until they leave the hospital or are moved to a recovery room.

PEACE CORPS:
Peace Corps nurses travel to developing nations to deliver medicine and health knowledge to local residents. These nurses commit to a two-year stay in their assigned location and learn to speak the language of the country in which they work. They teach mothers how to keep their children healthy, administer vaccinations against common diseases, and provide and teach others to provide first aid. They train families to care for sick relatives, teach health courses, set up and run clinics, and try to locate and combat health risks found in the area.

PEDIATRIC:
Pediatric nurses specialize in the care of children, from babies to teenagers. Because the human body changes as it develops and ages, pediatric medicine is a specialty that requires specific knowledge and training. These nurses give kids their scheduled shots (vaccinations) for protection against common illnesses, track growth and development, and teach parents how to care for sick kids and keep families living healthy lives.

PUBLIC HEALTH:
A public-health nurse’s work focuses on the health of hundreds or thousands of people in a given community. Some public-health nurses work on government-sponsored projects, helping to develop public health policies. Public-health nurses provide information about healthful living in the home, at shelters, in schools, and at public health clinics. They instruct the public about care between doctor visits, what to do in case problems arise, and about continuing care for those living with long-term and lifelong illnesses.

REHABILITATION:
Rehabilitation nurses care for those no longer in grave danger but who have suffered an injury or illness and face long-term recoveries. Because rehabilitation can be ongoing, “rehab” nurses often work in private homes with patients who have been released from the hospital. They work to restore patients to the best possible mental and physical health. Because their patients are often depressed about new disabilities, these nurses work to help patients to want to get as well as possible and to prevent new health problems from arising. They deliver humor, encouragement and friendship along with health care.

RESEARCHER:
Nurse researchers gather healthcare information in hopes of improving the care that nurses give, resulting in happier patients and more satisfied workers. Nurse researchers work in nursing colleges, hospitals and clinics, establishing useful health vocabulary for caregivers and patients, noticing health hazards and fixing them, finding the most powerful and comfortable treatmentsm and reviewing nursing shift standards. They’re more likely to work with other nurses than with patients.

Take Care

• Keep yourself well. A career in nursing starts with maintaining optimal conditions for healthy growth. Maintain your own health by attending to your own hygiene – keeping yourself clean and your living spaces sanitized and organized.
• Know yourself. Be honest with yourself about how much patience you have for others. Do you like working with children? Are you good at assisting an elderly relative? Do you like being in charge of someone else’s care? All of these questions can help you determine whether or not you could be good at both following orders and protecting another person’s wellbeing.
• Care for another living being. Ask your parent or teacher to help you grow a plant. If you have a pet, participate in caring for its feeding, grooming and healthcare.
• Pay close attention in your science classes; no nurse ever became one without studying anatomy, chemistry and biology.
• Volunteer! There are plenty of opportunities at hospitals and nursing homes for young people to help out. You’ll learn more about healthcare in the places where it happens every day than you will from reading your science books.
• Have a teacher, guidance counselor, relative or clergyperson help connect you to nurses practicing in doctors’ offices and hospitals. You may be able to meet and talk with real nurses, which will help you figure out if this career is for you.
• Search it out. If you have access to the Internet, find out more about the body and health by searching with the keywords: KIDS’ HEALTH, KIDS’ ANATOMY, KIDS’ SCIENCE, KIDS’ CHEMISTRY and KIDS’ BIOLOGY.

Armed With History
Whenever a patient seeks medical attention, a nurse’s first step is to document the patient’s medical history. Reviewing a patient’s medical history allows caregivers to rule out or relate possible causes by gaining awareness of existing conditions and medications, as well as family medical conditions.

Find a trusted adult and sit down together with a piece of paper and pencil. (You can do this with a friend, but working with an adult may be more fun because the average adult has a longer and more interesting medical history than the average young person.)

Basic Information:

• Name:
• Date of Birth:
• Age:
• Gender:
• Marital Status: Married | Divorced | Single
• Children:
  
  • How Many?
• Emergency Contact:
• Medical Information:
• Any known allergies?
• Any past surgeries? When?
• Any existing illnesses or injuries? Starting when?
• Are you taking any medication currently? For what?
• When was your last physical?
• Are you a smoker?
  • If so, starting when?
  • How many cigarettes per day?
• Do you have any symptoms or health complaints? Any recurrent problems? For example, do you suffer from headaches, earaches, nosebleeds, etc?
• Family History:
• Any known allergies in your family?
• Any known illness or death due to illness in your family?
• Parents, aunts, uncles, grandparents?
• Any major surgeries among your immediate family?
• Any smokers in your home?
• Anyone taking regular medication? For what?
• Any recurrent problems in your immediate family?

Feel free to add your own questions to better understand your patient’s medical history. When you’re done, go through the answers and figure out how you can provide them with custom medical assistance if needed.

For example:

• If his/her appendix was removed already, appendicitis can be ruled out as a cause for abdominal pain, right?

Can you take your own medical history?

Q. Can you describe your average workday?

Hannah K., who has been a nurse in New York City for three years, says:

My nursing shift starts at 8:30 a.m. with “report.” During “report,” the night shift shares information on each and every patient. Usually, I’m assigned to care for 10 to 13 patients a day. Sometimes, I am put “in charge,” overseeing patient care and helping nurses throughout the floor of the hospital where I work.

Medication time starts at 9:00 a.m. Many medicines have to be given with meals. So, we have to get through report and get out onto the floor by 9:00, in order to get the medications out.

Morning is also busy with cleaning patients and changing their beds. This is often a task that requires two to three helpers. People who are “completes” have to be lifted up with a machine called a Hoyer lift. Sometimes we can “log roll” them. Patients either have to be turned every two hours or have to be lifted into chairs.

Sometime after noon, we start getting lab work back. Lab results tell us if we need to order anything for the patients, like blood transfusions or supplements like potassium. Nurses have to make sure that doctors are aware of any abnormal lab results. Checking all the lab work on 13 patients is detailed work and, because it can mean the difference in someone’s health, mistakes are unacceptable.

Another medication time occurs at 2:00 p.m. Intravenous bags delivering constant fluids and medicine directly into patients’ veins all need to be changed. Then the nurses start getting patients back into bed in preparation for the evening shift.

There are other responsibilities that nurses keep in mind while performing all their shift duties, like watching vents, suctioning, wound care, and more.

Between 2:00 and 4:00 p.m., nurses continue to give medications, bloods and supplements to their patients. Often nurses need to draw more blood or take other kinds of specimens. Families are attended to and patients are often cleaned again.

By 4:00 p.m., we’re supposed to have taped day reports for the evening nurses using tape recorders. Often, it is impossible to find the time to “tape report,” so instead we give an “oral report” when the new staffers arrive.

After “report” is given and the new shift is on, we record nursing notes in every patient’s chart. Where I work, notes have to be both typed into the computer and written. So, at some point before 2:00 p.m., the notes are entered into the computer. Then at the end of the day, updates are written in the chart. Notes are comprehensive, containing every detail from how much a patient ate at each meal, to how many feet a patient was able to walk and with how much help.

At 5:00 p.m. I’m done for the day and I can hardly believe it’s over. There is so much to do during the day that we hardly notice the time pass. I think it’s some of the toughest work around, but it’s also some of the most gratifying.