St. Gianna Health

AcademyBy

Jill Brown

15 December 2011

Orientation Week

Back in junior year I was super excited when I found out I would

be getting interviewed for St. Gianna Health Academy. Once I found out that I had gotten in I was pumped! The first week of school we went of over a lot of

information. We went over what Mrs. Clark-Hang expected from us and the rules of the hospital. We

had a few speakers talk to us such as the security officer. After I knew all the rules I was excited to get out and start doing rotations!

Hand Made Thank you Letters

Professional Thank You Letters

December 7, 2011

Jo Chance 6 EastSt. Joseph CampusDear 6 E staff,

I would like to thank all the staff members who let me follow them during my rotation. It was truly a great experience and I really learned a lot. I learned that being a nurse is so much more than just taking care of patients, but also being involved in their families too.

A goal of mine is to become a registered nurse and being able to shadow this unit has really confirmed even future my wanting to be a nurse. I really love how nurses are there for the patient 24/7. They get to watch the patient grow and progress every day. That is the one thing that appeals to me the most about being a nurse.

Once again, thank you so much for taking time out of your busy day to let me shadow your unit. God Bless and Happy Holidays.

Sincerely, Jill Brown

Rotation 1: St. Francis OR

On Thursday and Friday I went to the OR in St. Franic and it was AAAAAWWWWWEEESSSSOOOMMMMEEE! The first procedure that I saw was called a total hip (hip replacement) I came in at about half way through and I thought that I was going to have to be super quiet and stay out of everyone's way. But, actually it was really fun. They had heavy metal music playing on the speaker system and everyone was just chilll and talking about the weekend. I stood some what far back because apparently during total hip's spluting is common because they are using a drill so blood can sometimes just go out everywhere. Once they put the fake hip in, which is actually a plastic femoral ball and a femoral sleeve. The doctor let me come over and another guy help his leg and moved it and I got to see his hip and leg move as if he was walking, totally cut open and saw it all!                                                                                                         The second procedure I was as a pseudoaneurysm femoral artery repair. This man had a heart cath a few weeks ago and for some reason his artery in his right leg didn't heal right and he got a really bad infection. If he wouldn't had done anything for it then he would have died. But they went in his lower leg and took part of a vein and replaced it on his artory. It was really awesome because of how small the utensils they used were and they didn't know how bad the infection was so they thought the procedure was only going to take 45 minutes, but actually took about 4 hours. The cool part about this was that when they stitched him up some they also stappled gunned his leg shut. I thought that was legit and really wanted to do it.     The third procedure I saw was on a little child who had their tonsils taken out a few weeks, but for some reason was bleeding like crazy so she came into the ER. I walked in right at the end of that surgery so I didn't see much at all.     On Friday  I saw a femoral artery repair. This man had a stint in his leg to circulate blood somehow, I didn't quite understand all they said. But, there was an actually nursing student in there watching so he was basically surrounded by people so I couldn't really see much.  Most of the time I talked to the nurse and asked her a bunch of questions about her job. She was super helpful.     By far the coolest thing that I saw the total hipped and i really fell in love with OR!

Rotation 4: Burn Unit

Back when we all went on rotation 4 I was sick so I couldn't go. I just made up this past Friday and it was actually pretty interesting. When I

first got there all I did was look at what they call the Burn Book, it explains all about burns and types of treatment. After I read that there

wasn't really anything for me to do. Most pateints were sleeping and I just sat there for about an hour. Finally, they had something for me to see. They had a patient from another town be helipcoptered into St. Francis because he was electricuted. I watched them as they admitted him and scrapped off all his dead skin off his body where the burns were. He had some 3rd degree burns and 2nd degree burns. Finally it was time for me

to leave, but I really liked the burn unit a lot & I could definitely see myself working in it!

Rotation 9: Heart Cath Lab

This week I went to the Heart Cath Lab. The atmosphere at this place is really chill. The x-ray techs/nurses work 8 hour days 5 days a week and some days they are busy and some

days they are not. When I went in they were not busy at all, I just sat in the lounge and did

homework. I saw one man get a heart catheter and another had a fluttering hear beat so he had

to get his heart shocked and set back to a normal beat. That was really it and it was actually pretty interesting and I could

see myself working there.

Rotation 3: NICUThis week I went to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. There were about 10 babies there. Most of them

were about a month old, some were just a day old. The NICU isn't exactly what I thought it was giong to be. I was expecting sweet little babies, but in reality, while they are absolutely precious, they are very sick and fragile. A lot of the families were there while I was there and I think I would

have a hard time dealing with the parents, because a lot of the mothers are drug users which really upsets me and some are just teenagers who didn't take care of themselves well while pregnant,

and it frustrates me that their precious babies have to suffer from their mistakes. I am a very verbal person and don't have a problem saying my thoughts so I feel like it would be hard to keep

them to myself, but I would have to. I mostly watched nurses feed babies and change their diapers. One baby was going through withdrawl because her mother used drugs while pregnant and this

caused her skin to be super sensitive. She has horrible super red diaper rash and they had to put this speical light on her to help get rid of it. I felt so bad because it looked like the worse rug burn I've ever seen. The second day I was there I followed a nurse who was in charge of this week old boy. He came from a normal healthy family and was a healthy new born and went home with his family after birth. But, for some reason he wasn't haveing an bowels which a baby is supposed to have one within the first 48 hours of being born. His stomach was extremely swollen. I watched a doctor give him an enima and flush him out and some stool came out, but not very much. Finally, they realized he had what is called hershbergers disease. This is when the lower part of your large intestine has no nerve endings so it can't tell you when you need to have a bowel or to push the

stool down to the rectum, causing constant constipation. Often if is found and treated in newborns. This baby was planned to have surgery to cut out intenstine that doesn't have nerves and just pull down the normal part and he'll be able to live a regular life. He will be more difficult to potty train, but can basically live a normal life. He will though have frequent diharrea his whole life, but that is

better than constantly being constipated. I enjoyed my time in the NICU because obviously how can you not love the most precious beings on earth? But, I do not exactly think it's my passion.

Rotation 13: CICU

For this rotation I went to the CICU at St. Francis. I'd already been to

the CICU at St. Jo's.. a lot of it is people come here who have gone

into cardiac arrest, or respitory stress, just really anything really

serious. When I was here my nurse had one patient who had a

hip replacement a few months ago and just wasn't the same

since and he had been having a super hard time breathing. He ate some pudding and was coughing like crazy because it kept getting all stuck in his escophogus (sp?)

so the nurse had to hurry and stick this tube down his mouth

and suction it out.. it was crazzzzzy! Anyways, that's pretty much all that I saw, I like this unit

a lot and could see myself working in it one day.

Mentor Forms

Cover Letter

03 October 2011   Jill Brown (316) 210-0291 jillb100@yahoo.com St. Gianna Health Academy Student 607 Partridge Ln Derby, KS 67037   Krista Thacker, Talent Sourcing Manager Via Christi Hospital 929 N. St. Francis Wichita, KS 67214   Dear Krista Thacker,   I am pursuing a career as a Registered Nurse. Enclosed is my resume for your review.   I am currently attended classes for the St. Gianna Health Academy at Via Christi Hospital which has helped me realized that I truly do

what to pursue a career in nursing. All my life I have been involved in sports, mainly soccer, volleyball, and tennis. Along with being an athlete comes injuries. I have suffered many injuries and have had the experience of being around many nurses. I love how doctors diagnose the issue and map out the plan for treatment, but I love how the nurse is by your side the whole time and going through it with you. I want to help someone who needs someone by their side by being a nurse.

  I would excel in nursing because I have always had a passion helping others; whether it be coaching a little league soccer team or

volunteering at the Lord’s Diner. Helping and assisting others has always been easy and enjoyable for me.   I feel that I would be a valuable asset to your company.   Sincerely,       Jill Brown

Resume Jill Brown 607 Partridge Ln Derby, KS 67037 Phone: (316) 210-0291 Email: jillb100@yahoo.com   Objective Strong willed, patient, kind, reliable, and punctual. Experience     2011 Wheat State PizzaDerby, KS Waitress Waited on customers, took orders, and attended to their needs. Occasionally would work as a cook preparing the food. Maintenance – cleaning the bathroom, lobby, salad bar, and kitchen.   2010-2011Rock River Rapids Derby Aquatic Park Derby, KS Lifeguard Watched patrons to ensure their safety. Maintained the facilities such as bathrooms, lockers, and Suggested new products that increased earnings by 23%.   2009-2010 Oakwood Valley Home Owner Association Derby, KS Lifeguard Watched over patrons to ensure safety. Tested the pool and ensured that it was properly taken care of. Maintenance – clean the facility and its grounds, bathroom and club house. Education 2011- Present Newman University Wichita, KS Medical Terminology Course Career Options Course 2011-Present St. Gianna Health Academy Via Christi Wichita, KS Will finish in December 2011. Standing with a 3.5 GPA 2008-Present Kapaun Mt. Carmel Catholic High School Wichita, KS Will be graduating in Spring of 2012. Standing with a 3.0 GPA. Interests Volunteer for A Better Choice, tennis, running baking, and reading.   

Reference Page

Jill Brown 607 Partridge Ln Derby, KS 67037 Phone: (316) 210-0291 Email: jillb100@yahoo.com         EMPLOYMENT Michael Lindal – Concessions Manager REFERENCES SMG Savor Intrust Bank Arena 500 E Waterman Street Wichita, KS 67202 (316) 440-9000           Kathy Zech – Aquatic Facilities Coordinator Rock River Rapids Derby Aquatic Park 1900 E. James Street Derby, KS 67037 (316) 788-3781           Chelsea Hopkins – Customer Service Manager Wheat State Pizza 236 W Greenway Street Derby, KS 67037 316) 295-2200  

Careers of Interest

Respitory Therapy Assistant - The entry level job that I am intested in is being a respitory therapist. Respitory therapists are responsible for diagnosing, treating, and caring for patients with breathing issues/problems. Schooling for respitory therapy are offered mostly at any secondary schools along with any medical schools. The course work included in the schooling includes microbiology, pateient assessment, and cardiopulmonary resuscitation. Once you have graduated from school you will receive a license. No speical requirements are needed to work as a respitory therapist except that you of course need to have a license and experience is always favored. Respitory therapy interests me because as a young child I had asthma and had to do breathing treatments once a week so I know what I can be like to have breathing problems, and I feel like I could be very good with dealing with children who also have the same issues.

Certified Nurses Assitant - The entry level job that I am interested in would have to be a CNA. CNA stands for certified nurses assistant. A CNA’s job requirements depeding on where they can work can be observing residents, taking care of resident’s personl hygiene, toileting residents, emptying catheter bags, feeding residents, making beds, transporting residents to different areas of the facility, and monitoring vital signs of residents. The average pay is anywhere between $9.50 to $12.00 per hour. The education required to become a CNA are offered at healthcare facilities and community colleges. No previous healthcare experience is required. I am very interested in becoming a CNA because I plan on being a registered nurse and I feel that being a CNA will give me a headstart on my journey of becoming a nurse.

Continued…

Occupational Therapy Assistant - The third career field I am interested in is occupational therapy assistant. Ocupational therapists help injured patients with re-learning daily life tasks that include motor skills. The ususal hourly wage is $20. The schooling required to become an occupational therapist assistant is an associate degree which can be taken as a community college or technical college. Once you finish school you have to complete 16 weeks of course work in a community or clinical setting. You do not need any certain requirements but those who have a highschool diploma are definitely more wanted. I think being an occupational therapist assistant would really suit me well because I think that I am a very patient person which I know you need a lot of patience to help someone re-learn life skills.

Nursing - The fourth career field that I am interested in is nursing. The main career I am looking into right now is Nursing. I would love to be a registered nurse. Registered nurses job requirements are to take care of the patients overall health and actually make up the majority of healthy care industry. The wage for nurses vary from state to state. Usually starting salary is around $50,000. The schooling required to becom to beome a RN is completeing a bachelor’s degree or some associate degree programs. Most university or community colleges off nursing school.

Once you have graduated from a nursing program you are required to obtain licensure by passing a special test. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Nurses with a bachelor degree have a greater chance of advancement in nursing than those with an associates degree. The requirments to become a nurse are of course a bachelor’s degree and work experience is always favored. I would love to be a nurse because I think that it is a job that has endless opportunities. I could work in a hospital, or a physicians office, or maybe even be a school nurse when I am older. I always have the chance to go back to school and advance in my career.

Physicians Assistant - The fifth and final career that I am interested in would have to be a physician’s assistant. Physicians asisstants are allowed to practice medecine under a physicians supervision. PA’s also act as first or secondary assistants in major surgeries. A lot of physician assistants jobs vary depending on the facility they are working in. But, in som rural areas physician assistants are the primary care takers. The salary for physician assistants can start at $86,214. The schooling required to become a PA is called a physician assistant program. There is usually at least one in every state and can be anywhere from 3 to 4 years long. After completing school you will need to pass the National Commission on Certification of Physician Assistants (NCCPA) and once you’ve passed you will need to complete a residency in a hospital and need to keep at least 100 years of on going education to pass a recertification test every 6 years. I would like to be physician’s assistant, but I have heard that it can be very hard to get into a program. I am of course going to strive to get into a program, but if not I will most likely become a Nurse.

Lecture Reflection: Dr. Troilo

Mark TroiloDr. Troilo was one of the more inspiring speakers that I have heard. He told

us to ask ourselves if we want to go into medicine because of the money/status or because we really want to help people. Not many others speakers spoke about the

morals of medicine and I loved that he did.Dr. Troilo spoke to us about why he loves dentistry so much. He said he

can set your own hours, be your own boss, and go on vacations. Family is very important to him and he always knew he wanted to spend as much time as possible with his family and dentistry has allowed him to do so. He does have the occasional emergency call or late night run, but other than that he gets to spend plenty of time

with his family.Schooling to become a dentist can be very hard. You have to have four

years of undergraduate school and then get accepted into a dental school. There you will be spending about 40 hours a week studying and working. Dr. Troilo

attended Bishop Carroll High School, Newman University, and Creighton dental School.

Two major types of dentistry now a days are cosmetic dentistry and your regular small dentist offices. Dr. Troilo runs his own office. He sees a numerous

amount of patients every day from small children to grown adults. Where as with cosmetic dentistry you really only see 2 or 3 patients a day. It’s not very interactive.

There are also negatives to dentistry as well. Dentistry has one of the highest divorce rates, most suicide, alcohol and drug abuse. But, Dr. Troilo says you can avoid these if you do one thing. That is to put God first. He spoke to us about putting God first, family second, and your career third. I really loved Dr. Trolio’s

speech and if I were to ever work in dentistry I would love to work for him.

Lecture Reflection: Clint Stucky

Clint Stucky Occupational Therapy is on the rise everywhere in the United State and can help

someone go from completely dependent to independent. Clint Stucky was the speaker for this subject at Newman University. He showed us a lot and shared a lot of

information about a career in Occupational Therapy. Newman is one of the leading schools for occupational therapy. It requires you to

have prerequisite courses finished and once you have then you can apply to the program. It’s about a 20 month long program. About 30 students are accepted into the program each year. There they will learn the skills and knowledge to help others who

can not help themselves. There are so many fields that Occupational Therapy Assistants can work in. The

three major fields are geriatrics, pediatrics, and psychology. Geriatrics is the care for the elderly. This field is in great demands for Occupational Therapy Assistants.

Occupational Therapy Assistants can help the elderly stay dependent for as long as they can. They can show them how to put their socks on after they’ve had a hip

replacement, or even how to button their shirt without hurting their arthritic hands. Occupational Therapy Assistants can also help children who have not developed

thoroughly on hand-eye-coordination. For instance, if a child is having a hard time writing with a regular pencil, they can show them techniques or utensils to use that can

help them. I think Occupational Therapy Assistant could be a very interesting and rewarding

career and could definitely see myself working as one some day. I hope to be a nurse, but I think some occupation therapy knowledge would come in great use in nursing as

well.

 

Lecture Reflection: Carissa Coleman

I was really happy when I found out that we were going to have a psychologist as a guest speaker. I’ve always been really interested in

psychology because it’s such an interesting type of medicine. I learned a lot from this speaker and really did get a lot of questions answered.

There are mainly two types of psychologist. There are clinical psychologists who work with individuals and families. They really try to

help people with their issues and work through things. While clinical psychologists work with communities and really work with prevention. They try to make sure that things don’t happen. They promote healthy

lifestyles, well-being, and growth as a community.The speaker that came was a clinical psychologist. She works

in nursing homes and really tries to decrease the use of elder speak. Elder speak is when you talk loudly, slower, and use words such as

“honey” and “sweetie” to elderly people. This makes the patient feel inferior and can make them refuse treatment. A lot of time people forget that a patients is actually a person and they just want to get the task at

hand done. But, if we can reduce that then we can have happier patients and happier workers.

Clinical psychologists can also do research. They can research and come up with ways to better train people to do their job better. This is something I never knew. I learned a lot from this speaker and I really am thankful that she came. I think psychology really is in a lot of jobs

because people are in everything.

Lecture Reflection: Dr. Crook

During this speaker I was absent because I had school retreat to go on. But, I am a little disappointed that I missed this speaker, because she sounds very interesting.

Fortunately though I was able to copy someone’s notes, she went to Newman University for her undergraduate degree and eventually went to University of Kansas School of Medecine. She went on to be a resident at Via Christi St. Joseph Hospital In

1993 she started working for LakePoint Family Physicians. She now specializes in Natural Fertility Medical Consulting.

Natural Family Planning wasn’t created specifically for Catholics, but it does follow all of the Catholic teachings. It is a way to achieve or avoid pregnancy in a natural way that allows God to be in the picture. It is safe for everyone, has no

negative side effects, and is completely cost free. There are two different forms of NFP. One is Systematic Natural Family

Planning, which uses a woman’s signs of fertility to determine when she fertile in her times of her cycle. The second is Ecological breastfeeding Natural Family Planning.

This is when a couple spaces their children 2 year apart so it gives the woman 2 years to breast feed.

Anyone can use NFP, not just Catholics. It is 99% effective and couples that use it actually have a lower divorce rate. Natural Family Planning is definitely

something I would like to use when I am married because of all the positives side effects I have heard about it.

   

Lecture Reflection: Dr. Singh

I was excited to meet the teacher who will be instructing my Career Options course at Newman University. I am glad that I got to learn a little bit about him and the course he will be teaching. I am

excited to listen to all the different speakers whom we will be listening to. I think it’s neat that we will be listening to different teachers each

week because that keeps the class more exciting. Dr. Singh told us about how he was from the tropics in India

and had never seen the desert before. He said he went to Arizona and saw some sort of plant grow formality. He said he spent almost 2 year on trying to figure out how this plant grew in some formality. I really thought that was neat. That he is that interested in science to be so

dedicated to research and learning new things. Dr. Singh also spoke to us about all the career options there are

in the medical field. I was excited to hear this because that is why I am in St. Gianna Health Academy, to learn about my options for ultimately

life. All of the speakers are from some sort of medical field and are experts at what they do.

I feel blessed to be able to attend a class as great as this class. Newman University is such a refined school and I look forward to

learning and expanding my knowledge on all subjects pertaining to the medical field.

My Future

I am enrolled at Fort Hays State

University. I plan on majoring in Nursing.

I hope that one day I can work in a

hospital environment and help other less

fortunate than I. I pray and thank God

every day for the blessings he has given

me and I look forward to the future with

an open heart and open mind.

Final Reflection

I am truly so very thankful for this experience. Not only has it cofirmed my interest in nursing, but it has made me posotive that it the career path I want to take. There were some great days, and some days that I wasn’t to thrilled about. But, I loved all of them regardless. I learned things and saw things in this class that I wouldn’t have anywhere else. I wish that every highschooler could have this same experience and would highly suggest it to any of them that have the chance!