Future Goal

My name is Rebecca Anansa Moore.  I am a freshman at New York City of Technology College.  I am currently majoring in liberal arts, but I am planning to change my major to nursing.  I want to become a psychiatric RN.   This is the best career for me, because I love giving people advice, it would be a job I like to do, and the salary would be appropriate for me to take care of myself.  In this essay, I will do these things in this order: provide a background about my career and its context, supporting evidence for my thesis statement, the preparation for my career, a conclusion, and finally a list of cited.

According to New York City College of Technology, (City Tech) Catalog 2014-2015, it stated that, it is going to prepare me “to become members of the health team in health service agencies, clinics, community and long term care agencies and hospitals. It also stated that “The nursing program at New York City College of Technology bases its curriculum on Watson’s philosophy and theory of human caring in nursing.” The program teaches “students to care for clients by providing a supportive, protective and/or corrective environment, with attention to the client’s physical, emotional, socio-cultural and spiritual condition.”(City tech 1)  The catalog 2014-2015 shows the classes that I should take and how my grades should be; it also teaches how I should treat my patients.

I want to be a psychiatric RN, that’s why I chose the article “Issues influencing psychiatric nurse retention during the first year of employment: a case analysis” which gives me a sense of the job I want to do in the future. It stated that “retention of nurses in the work force is a universal concern. But the recruitment and retention of nurses in psychiatric care settings is particularly difficult given the complexities and challenges of mental health care.” (Page 49) I like a little challenge when working with people, it helps me know them more and study how they are, just how a psychiatric nurse do.

Now that I gave you a little background information about my career, I am now going to expand on my reasons for why my career is the best job for me. First reason I said my career is the best job for me is, because I love giving people advice, I’m really good at giving people advice. People will always come to me for advice about anything, and the advice I give helps them.  In the a book Critical care nursing it says that psychiatric nurses “teach patients families about the patient’s condition, and how to reach in certain scenarios and how to deal with challenges that go along with psychiatric disorders.” This relates to what I do when people tell me their problems, and what I do to help them.

My second reason it will be a job I will enjoy doing. This career has the things I like doing when I help people. This is a job that will make me happy not miserable. It will be a job I look forward to every day. I want to make people lives better and make a change in it. In the Book Professional Nursing supports my reason; it stated that “a career in psychiatric nursing provides an opportunity for compassionate people to make a significant difference in the lives of those who suffer from mental illness. The care that these professionals provide helps patients ward off disability, poverty, social isolation and other complications associated with these conditions. In many cases, psychiatric nurses see their patients recover enough to return to their homes, jobs, families, and the comforts to their everyday lives.”

The third reason this career is the best choice for me is, because the amount of money I will get paid. According to “Bureau of Labor Statics” psychiatric RN gets paid $65, 470 per year and makes $31.48 per hour.” That’s in 2012, in 2014 it went up, but I couldn’t really find information about their 2014 salary. That’s a reasonable amount of money for me. I could afford all the things I want in life, the things I need to pay for, and not worry about having a bad job that don’t give me enough money.  In life you have to have a good job and make a lot of money to survive and be happy.

City tech will help prepare for my career because of the classes and information giving to me for my major.  Two classes that I am taking from liberal arts are needed for the nursing program so I am still on target.  I find that really helpful, the liberal arts program offers some nursing classes.   Since many students do not know what to major in, the liberal arts program helps you to decide your mind with the different classes offered.  Like I stated before in my second paragraph the 2014 and 2015 career catalog “prepares students to become members of the health team in health services agencies, clinics, community and long term care agencies and hospitals.” When I look around the nursing department, I saw a room that looked just like a hospital with dummy dolls.  I find that really helpful, because they are preparing you and making you practice on dolls in a hospital setting, so you can have an experience about what nurses do in a hospital.

To learn more about my major and what I have to do to be a nurse, I did a email interview to Professor Garofalo.  I asked her questions about the nursing TEAS exam and the Nclex exams. One of the questions I asked was “In order for me to be a nurse do I have to pass the Nclex exam first in order for me to get a job?  Do you take the Nclex exam after your associate degree?” Professor Garofalo responded saying “after you complete and pass a nursing program, either an AAS or a BS program you are eligible to take the NCLEX exam. You will not be able to get a job as a registered nurse without passing the Nclex and then obtaining a NY license.” As you can see those two exams are very important in the nursing field. I need to take the TEAS exam in order to get into the nursing program and I need to take the Nclex exam to become a license nurse. Those two exams are hard but I know I can do it.

In conclusion I cannot wait to get in the nursing program at city tech.  I know this field is hard and tiring, but if I want something in life, I’m going to get it.  I’m happy that the nursing field has so much variety.  Now I can mix psychology and nursing together and be a psychiatric nurse instead of a psychiatrist.  The recommendations I can make for others who are interested in my field is to talk to someone who works within the program or even a student within the program that can share their experience and prepare you for what you may be looking forward to in the program.   Do a lot of research on the school website about the program. Also always check the nursing department Bulletin board, it has a lot of information and tells you when you should send your application. Since nursing has so much variety it’s a very competitive field, because you can get a job quicker in that field. If you really want to work in the nursing field and want to major in nursing you have to be very dedicated and serious, because the nursing department has only limited amount of seats in the nursing program. Don’t waste your money and time.

 

Work cited

New York City College of Technology College catalog for 2014-2015. 2014.PDF.17.Nov.2015.

Bureau of Labor Statistics.US Department of Labor. “Occupational Outlook Handbook.” 2014-2015 Edition. Psychartir RN.  13 Sept. 2014. Web. 24 Nov. 2014

Karlowicz Karen and  Ternus Mona. “ Issues influencing psychiatric nurse retention during the first year of employment: a case analysis”  Journal of nursing management 19 Dec. 2007:49-58. Print.

Garofalo, Miss.  Email interview. 1 Dec. 2014

Moore, Rebecca. “Nursing department” Flickr. 6 Dec 2014. Web. 6 Dec 2014

Moore, Rebecca. “Nursing” Flickr. 6 Dec 2014. Web. 6 Dec 2014

Moore, Rebecca. “Bulletin Board” Flickr. 6 Dec 2014. Web. 6 Dec 2014

Chitty, Kay,  and Black Beth Professional Nursing. New York: Saunders, 2011. Print

Sole, Mary Klein, Deborah, and Moseley Marthe Critical Care nursing. New York: Elsevier, 2013. Print