A Look Inside the Life of a Nurse

Growing up in a family full of medical professionals has made health and wellness a priority of mine. After an unfortunate family event this week, my sister who’s a nurse came and visited from LA. I jumped on the opportunity to ask her a couple questions about her career.

I began by asking her the most basic of all questions. How did she decide to pursue nursing?

“Sophomore year of high school I decided to become a nurse. It was a gut reaction, it just came to me. I didn’t question it. I had a friend who had a multitude of medical problems, and I realized that the biggest difference i could make in someone’s life like that was becoming a nurse...They spend the most time with the patient, so they really create that close connection,” Hayley said.

Then we got a little more in depth. I asked her about what her typical day looks like.

“With oncology, the specific type of oncology I work with is 3rd or 4th line treatments or clinical trials. This essentially means that it’s the patients last chance at living a full life. For many patients walking in, we know the best we can give them is 10-15 years and for other patients we hope to give them a lifetime... But at times it can be difficult bc you can recognize when a treatment does or doesn’t work, and many of our patients are what you call “frequent flyers” whom we create a personal relationship with, and they create a personal relationship with us too”.

Next I asked a little more about those personal relationships.

“Having personal relationships means being more involved in their life than just their cancer treatments. I know the ins and outs of their lives, and they know the ins and outs of mine. One of my patients-- we talk about her fiance, and another we talk about his daughter. We have to be involved in serious decisions, like DNR [do not resuscitate] or decisions as simple cutting their hair. We can make calls as to whether or not a patient should continue treatment or not, and what their life looks like after treatment,” Hayley said.

Lastly, I asked why health and wellness was important to her.

“Health and wellness is important to me because it can be preventative of diseases which can cause much emotional and physical turmoil”.

Having a family in the medical field is great for a multitude of reasons, one of which being that they can help me stay on top of my health-- but I don’t have to do any of the dirty work.

Xo,

Sarah