When you get a nursing degree and pass the NCLEX, it is the key that opens many doors. This is both a blessing and a curse because I am interested in many nursing specialties. This is great to be able to have so many options yet sometimes overwhelming or daunting to know which route to take. These areas include but are not limited to the emergency department, pediatrics, flight nursing and more. For the purpose of this assignment, I will speak specifically to emergency room nursing. 

My interest in the ER started a couple years ago when I shadowed my local fire department’s ambulance service. What excites me about practicing in an emergency environment is the fast pace, the rush of adrenaline, being seen as capable and following your gut instincts. Above all else what sparks my interest in the emergency room is being seen as someone others always feel safe around and in any situation can always help no matter the emergency. In my personal life I’m often referred to as the “mom” friend. Need a bandaid? I have 2 in my wallet. Spilled a glass of water? I have a towel on it before half the table realizes something even spilled. This translates directly over to how I see myself professionally. What sparks me about emergency room nursing is the responsibility of being on the top of my game and coming prepared to any situation others can depend on you for.

There is a significant amount that I want to know about this speciality. What is the history behind how it began? What is the process and inter collaboration among healthcare professionals to get someone from their home to the ambulance to the ER then off to another unit then to home. I want to know about research within this field and how to make the work that I do alleviate and expedite the process for other professionals.

I have multiple assumptions about evidenced-based practice. One of these assumptions is that evidenced based practice only comes from articles written by people too high up on the education chain that I will never be able to relate to them. This is an old assumption of mine that is not valid. However, where it stems from does have some logical components. In my late years of high school and early years of college any time we had to write a research paper it had to be peer reviewed, published within the past 10 years, and all of the criteria that come from the library’s recommendations. However, I felt left out and underrepresented reading so many articles from people with their Doctorates, or multiple masters degrees. How could these people ever relate to me as the reader? Now I know this is not the case. The people writing these papers based them off of clinical trials. They were all in my shoes at one point sitting in biology classes and using high school lockers. Evidence based practice is far more than literature reviews from people all around the world with impressive degrees. It includes clinical based expertise, patient preferences and so many other factors. 

What I learn in this course I intend to apply to my other courses through the classroom and in clinical settings. There is a balance between art and science and this is how I intend to apply what I learn in this course to the other settings this year through the logic behind the order of how we help patients. Ultimately, everything I learn during my college degree will help me grow in my career and personal life. In an internship I had this summer, my supervisor at Planned Parenthood would say “what is said here, stays here. What is learned here, leaves here”. This means that through HIPAA we would keep confidentiality, yet through our learned experiences we would break down stigma and be empathetic with others even outside of our roles as interns. Learning in this course will help my future practice in this sense. Throwing my assumptions and bias aside to look at evidence based practice for a more cohesive and holistic approach among other health professionals in the face of helping our patients and work environment.