As an ICU nurse who is Black, white, and Japanese, I thrive on celebrating our increasingly diversified workplace and relating well to people from all backgrounds or social classes. The operating room is the center of my world because helping my patients as an ICU nurse is my service to my community and humanity. Day after day, preparing patients for surgery, especially during the most challenging recovery days, is fundamental to my professional identity. After nursing and family, I give much of myself to my church, where I serve the Lord as a musician.
For some time now, to the extent to which I have had the opportunity to do so, which is every day in ICU, I have been observing, watching, and imitating CRNAs; after the patient and the surgeon, I see the CRNA as the most critical person in the room. I am set on becoming a CRNA and look forward to decades of dedication to Nurse Anesthesia. I crave the responsibility of becoming a CRNA and look forward to a professional life giving my all. I have two years of experience as a nurse, 1.5 years in cardiac ICU, and have attended to patients with heart failure, shock, IABP, titrating vasoactive agents, etc. The more critically ill the patient, the more I enjoy caring for them. I feel a keen sense of accomplishment and humbleness that sick patients trust me to help them get better. Every day I learn how to catch warning signs sooner than before, and I find this enormously exciting, working in a field with a steep learning curve and endless possibilities for enhancing patient care. I have progressed rapidly in my time management skills and am more patient and compassionate daily.
I am now highly skilled in treating patients with life-threatening heart conditions, including heart attacks, irregular heartbeats, heart failure, and other cardiac diagnoses. I am assigned from 1 to 3 patients depending on the level of care they require. I now know a great deal about Cardiovascular Surgery and Cardiac ICU care, including rhythm interpretation, hemodynamics, airway management, pain management, medication management, safety precautions, patient/family education and support, and initiation of the rehabilitation process.
I am a strong candidate because I have risen to the occasion and accomplished everything I have set my mind to. Friends and colleagues describe me as dependable and persistent. Ten years from now, I want to be well established as a CRNA, working towards fulfilling leadership roles in my hospital. I love our ICU's vast diversity of people, cases, and treatment. It pleases me to have fully mastered the technology, monitors, and other mechanical ventilation devices; I admire how our CRNAs manage their patients comprehensively, from hemodynamic adjustments to airway support. I also crave the heightened responsibility and autonomy of the CRNA, performing at the highest level of commitment and achievement possible. Nurse Anesthesia also appeals to me because of professional opportunities, including the VA, military, ambulatory surgery centers, trauma centers, obstetrics, and rural areas.
I have grown most comfortable in the presence of stressed, scared, angry, sad, and tired people, a skilled communicator with a steady personality, I never get ruffled, and teamwork is my forte. Mainly when serious problems arise - UTIs, and central line infections, I attempt to learn ways to prevent these issues in the first place. In the face of each new challenge, I am scanning for service recovery tools and performing a root cause analysis (RCA) in my mind, looking at incidents as problems that are often systemic. I observe closely what was done well to imitate it while constantly searching for ways to still be better.
