Yaidelyn Alonso SLS1125: Matos 4/20/12 Nurses: “Caring Today For A Healthier Tomorrow” Growing up in a house hold of medical personnel, such as my mother and my aunt and other close relatives has really inspired me to become a Nurse Practitioner, but most of all my inspiration has come due to the death of my father. I want to help patients who may have false hope, who may think that there’s nothing anyone can do, I want to give patients hope, and I will devote my life to make a difference in the medical field.

Although it won’t be easy, I know there will be obstacles I have to overcome, I think anything is possible if you persevere and if you commit yourself to do something that you love. At the end of the day you made at least one person’s life more enjoyable and filled them with hope, that’s what I’ll be thinking every night before I lay my head on my pillow. A Nurse Practitioner is a registered nurse with advanced training in diagnosing and treating illnesses. Nurse Practitioners prescribe medication which usually RN’s cannot do, as well as treat illnesses, and administer physical exams.

The difference between an NP and a physician is that they focus on prevention, wellness and education. To be more specific Nurse Practitioners may specialize in either Neonatal Care with new born and baby’s or Geriatric Health, Adult Health, Oncology, Family Health and Psychiatric/Mental Health. Personally I love trauma centers and the Emergency Room, I’m quick on my feet and I do not like standing around, I like a job that challenges me and keeps me occupied.

As a Nurse Practitioner you can sub-specialize in different areas and lately I’ve been very interested in Oncology. To be very brief my father passed away due to cancer in his liver, I want to help and provide my utmost help to those with cancer like his, I want to make someone’s day a little brighter no matter how sick they really feel. I don’t just want to be a healthcare personnel I want to be the difference in someone’s life, I want patients to have faith in me because I won’t fail to care to there every need.

In order to become an NP there’s certain qualifications you need to abide by and of course you first must finish you AA and your bachelors in Registered Nursing. As a current student in Miami Dade College I’ve researched and spoke with counselors that have guided me into the classes I must take to even get into the nursing program. Such as the basics chemistry and human growth and development, as well as Anatomy 1 and Anatomy 2, it’s not just taking the classes but about passing them with extraordinary grades and graduate with your AA and a really good GPA.

After graduating with my AA I plan to transfer to FIU and further my studies, they have a great Nursing program, as soon as I graduate with my bachelors degree I will continue to get my masters and broaden my knowledge in my studies. To be a nurse practitioner, you need to have a graduate degree, such as a Master of Science in Nursing (MSN) or Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP). The current minimum education needed to work as a Nurse Practitioner is a MSN degree, which takes 3-4 years to complete, depending on your specialty.

Many colleges and universities prefer you have a Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) for entry into this graduate program, while other schools allow a bachelor's degree in another field if you are a registered nurse. In further detail In order to become an oncology nurse specialist, I will need to learn specific cancer care skills through coursework, clinical practice or continuing education. After gaining enough knowledge and on-the-job experience, I then can take an exam to become an Oncology Certified Nurse.

To become an oncology nurse practitioner, I will also need to complete a Master of Science in Nursing (MSN) degree, typically obtained through a 2-year program of graduate study. As an oncology nurse practitioner, I will need at least 500 hours of supervised clinical practice in oncology to be eligible to take the certification examination to become an Advanced Oncology Certified Nurse Practitioner (AOCNP). Certification is required in many states such as Florida. As with all nursing careers, the demand for oncology nurses practitioner is expected to increase significantly over the next ten years.

This is especially true because the vast majority of cancers are diagnosed in people over 55, making oncology nurses critically necessary! The median expected salary for a typical Nurse Practitioner in the United States is $90,531. Nursing is an art: and if it is to be made an art, It requires an exclusive devotion as hard a preparation, as any painter's or sculptor's work; for what is the having to do with dead canvas or dead marble, compared with having to do with the living body, the temple of God's spirit? It is one of the Fine Arts: I had almost said, the finest of Fine Arts. - Florence Nightingale