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Exploring City Tech’s Nursing at City Tech and a Career in Nursing by Mei Na Chen

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            Hi! My name is Mei Na Chen. I am a student at the New York City College of Technology who is reflecting on my major and thinking ahead to enter a specific career field. The major that I intend to pursue is Nursing and the specific career field in Nursing that I want to enter is a Registered Nursing Program. I have a huge passion for helping people that needs to be helped and to give hope to others. I have faith in myself that I will become the best nurse anyone could ever be in my own opinion. The reasons why I intend in becoming a nurse are that there is a great demand for nurses in the present, nurses have good pay, and last but not least, nurses also have flexible schedules and you can work your way up.

            The major that I intend to pursue is Nursing, but the career that I want in the nursing program is to be a registered nurse. Registered nurses usually train at hospitals where nurses care for, educate, and enhance the lives of patient’s every day. They will eventually learn the basis of caring for people with both short and long term effects, and how to treat their situations. They will also learn on how to examine the patients because that is the first step to everything. “Nursing majors train to care for sick and disabled patients to disable their health.” This major is offered in both the associates and bachelors. I am trying to aim for the Bachelors which is 4 years in school. After graduation, there are many options in this major. When you pass the Nursing Program License test, you will be an eligible registered nurse and then can start applying to different hospitals. You can start work right away. Your jobs can be a registered nurse (RN), head nurse, practical nurse, etc. The specific thing that I want to do at City Tech is to gain some experience and get my degree in the nursing program. I might transfer to Hunter or Stonybrook because I want the Bachelor’s degree and City Tech only offers the Associates degree.

            One reason why I intend on becoming a nurse is because of the high demand for nurses in the present day. According to Jean Gray, “As recruitment and retention rates improve at the most successful trusts, there will be a knock-on effect throughout the service, with new nurses having to accept perhaps their second or third choice of employee.” This means that more and more people are going to be getting their jobs as a nurse and that other nurses will eventually have to accept them and cooperate with them because the demand in this job will increase dramatically. She also states that we won’t be able to see unemployment in this particular major which is a good thing. All the credit goes to the government for attracting more nurses because they have been campaigning and doing stuff to help us get more nurses. Campaigns like Harold Shipman are rare but demand a serious amount of people.

            The second reason why I intend on becoming a nurse is because nurses get good pay. When I went back to visit my teachers at my high school, Eleanor Roosevelt High School located on 411 E 76th Street, I had a conversation with the secretary. She told me that her daughter was working as a registered nurse and that her pay was really good. She encouraged me in becoming a nurse because her daughter only works 3 days a week and gets paid for the entire week even on her day off. When I heard that I was surprised because I never knew that you could get paid even when you weren’t working. Furthermore, I did some research and this is what I found out. I found out that the median annual wage for registered nurses are $65,570 in May 2012. The wages also depend on where you work. For example, if you work for the Government, your annual wage would be $68,540, if you work for hospitals, your annual wage would be $67,210, if you work for home healthcare services, your annual wage would be $62,090, if you work for nursing residential facilities, your annual wage would be $58,830, and if you work for offices of physicians, your annual salary would be $58,420. These are the top options of places you might work in after you graduate college and get your license as a registered nurse. These different jobs are all good choices.

            The last reason why I want to be a registered nurse is because of the flexible schedule and the way you can work your way up. First off, being able to have a flexible schedule is the best because then you can decide when you want to work and make your own schedule. I think that if I were to make my schedule right now, I would probably work night shift because I am not a morning person and I always end up being late. I like being up at night because I feel like I am more focused and on task. Having a flexible schedule also benefits you if you want to work your way up. For example, if you want to study at the same time as work as a nurse, you can do that because of the flexible schedule. You can work on one hand and study into becoming whatever you want on the other hand. This is why nursing is a perfect job for me.

            By going to the New York City College of Technology, City Tech will help further my knowledge and skills on how to become a better nurse. City Tech will do this by having me major in liberal arts first and then moving me on to become a nurse. In the course catalog in City Tech, it shows me all of the classes that I have to take and the amount of credits that I will need in order for me to be able to sign up for the nursing program. The course catalog is a very helpful place in my opinion because it tells you everything you need to know about your major and how you would be able to achieve your goals.

       In conclusion, if you want to become a nurse like I do, I recommend that you do a little bit of research like I did on nursing. I think that the course catalog was a huge help into my understanding because I didn’t know that I had to take that many classes and I didn’t know how much credits I needed for the nursing program. I also recommend doing some internship at hospitals and other clinical work to gain some experience and to make sure that this is the job you want for your future. I hope that you make the right decision and love your job and mostly have fun.

Introduction

In this project, I had the time to think about how my thoughts would effect me in my future success. I noticed that most of my thoughts were either about fitness, homework, food, sleep, and work. After I finished this project, I learned more about myself and how the things I do will eventually affect my future.

Thinking in Writing

7:00am – Ugh I’m so tired, I don’t want to go to lab.

7:30am – I’m so hungry…YES ! I got lucky charms

8:00am – OMG I’M GOING TO BE LATE FOR CLASS !

8:30am – Yay made it just in time for class.

11:00am – Finally done for the day.

11:30am – How much homework do I have? Let me check on Blackboard.

12:00pm – No more homework. Time for gym !

2:30pm – Yuck I’m so sweaty it’s so nasty. Ugh I need to shower ASAP.

3:30pm- Time to nap before work.

5:30pm – Ohno ! I have to get ready for work

6:00pm – Work time SO excited…not

12:30am – OMG finally done with work, I’m so tired.

Thinking Visually

pudding

These are puddings inside cute jars from my workplace Pomme Les. They’re very yummy !

shoes

These are Brand New Nike Freeruns 4.0 that I got for the gym.

blink

This is the location of my gym membership, Blink Noho.

homework

These are all the notes, homework, and class notes that I had to use to study for my Biology Exam #1.

Thinking Rhetorically and Reflectively

Have you ever stopped and wondered about how your thoughts in one day can affect your future personal, academic, and professional life? Well, they can. My name is Mei Na Chen and for the past few days, I have been working on a project called, “Project 1: Writing the Brain.” The main purpose for this project is to find a unity of thought or one approach and write about it. However, there are multiple steps you have to take in order to complete this project. The first step is to keep track of your thoughts for one day; when you wake up to when you go to sleep. You have to jot down your thoughts for every half an hour. The second step is to take pictures of things that represent your day of thought and then decide which three are your most meaningful ones. And finally, the last step is to combine everything you have done and write an essay explaining how your day of thoughts and pictures represent you. And yes, I am on the last step, writing my essay. In my essay, I am going to explain how pictures of school work, Blink Fitness, and Pomme Les will affect my future personal, academic, and professional life. I argue that my current thoughts are focused on important things that will eventually lead to my future success in my personal, academic, and professional life.

I argue that my current thoughts are focused on important things like school work, which will eventually lead to my future success in my academic life. Throughout the years of education that I’ve had; starting from Pre-Kindergarten to High School I’ve learned a lot about doing work in school and out of school. I’ve learned that if you don’t do work or study, you wouldn’t be able to learn anything compared to the other kids who actually study and does work. For example, in my freshman year of high school, I thought that I didn’t need to study for my tests and guess what happened…I failed them. After learning how failing your tests affects your grade, I started to study and do work in and out of school. I learned my lesson after my GPA dropped. I also get reminded every single day that doing good in school will give you a better future by my parents. Due to the fact that they immigrated here from China, they want whats best for me, and that is for me to get good grades in school which will lead to a good job and a better future. They always remind me to do my work and not go partying. It gets kind of annoying sometimes  but I know its for the success of my future. As you can see in my thoughts of the day, I started thinking about school work and any projects or tests I have to do. That is because I have this thing where I am more focused in the morning when I wake up than in the afternoon or night time when you’re supposed to do homework. In my opinion, I think that it is better to finish work earlier than later because I tend to forget things I have to finish sometimes. I also get distracted easily by things like television. Anyways, I think that focusing more on school work right now will benefit my future because if I do good and get a high GPA, then I will eventually get a good job that pays well. This also means that I have to take care of my health in order to focus more on school.

I also argue that my current thoughts are focused on important things like Blink Fitness, which will eventually lead to my future success in my personal life. Even though school work is important, I also think that making sure that you are healthy also plays a huge role in your future success. If you’re not focused while at school, what is the point of even going to school? Being able to concentrate and focus on your work helps you because you are able to actually learn something. You wouldn’t be able to learn anything if you are tired and fall asleep during class or get distracted easily. That is why I work out at a gym called, “Blink Fitness Gym.” I think that this place helps me better my concentration because exercising helps wake you up and that is actually true. I used to nap everyday after I get home from school up until it’s time for dinner, but that stopped when I joined Blink Fitness. I go there everyday in the afternoon and exercise for at least 2 hours and then go home. My mind is more focused and ready to work the next day which is a good thing because I usually fall asleep in class when it gets boring. Anyways, Blink Fitness will benefit to y future success because if I am healthy, I can do anything good and not get lazy. Health is a huge part of success.

Finally, I argue that my current thoughts are focused on important things like Pomme Les, which will eventually lead to my success in my professional life. I think this because work is work. I think that it is better to gain more experience when you are young because in the future, you might need these experiences to help you get hired. You will meet new people everywhere in your workplace, which will then build your connections. The more connections you have, the easier it is to find a job. And the more connections you have, you will also have a lot of useful references which are needed in most job interviews because they want to know what type or kind of person you are. It is better to make a good first impression because then they will most likely hire you and it is important you give them good references, people who you are close to and people who know you more than you know yourself. That is because if you give them a reference who you just met and they say something wrong, then that would affect the result of if you get hired or not.  In my opinion, I think that I’ve had a lot of experience throughout my high school years. I think that it is because I needed money to buy lunch and hang out with my friends so I started to tell myself I had to work because I didn’t want to depend on my parents to give me money. I feel bad every time I spend their money because they both worked hard for it. I’ve tutored in afterschool programs, worked in doctor offices, workforces, and some dessert places. Right now I am tutoring and working at a dessert place. Anyways, I think that work right now will eventually benefit my future success in my professional life because I am gaining more and more experience every time I work which is a good thing because my experiences are helpful to me.

Although school work, Blink Fitness, and Pomme Les all are a huge part of my future success, there are other things that benefit my future success. For example, my family. Without them, I wouldn’t have become who I am today, and without them telling me what is wrong and what is right, I would’ve ended up somewhere else. I’ve grown to learn about important things like what to do and what not to do because of them. Because they are much older than me, they have more experience so I tend to listen to them more often. I have faith and confidence in myself for my future success. I think that I am going on the right path; the path that will lead me to the future that I deserve.