My Intent to Be a Nurse Practitioner Coming from a third world country where there aren’t many opportunities for work and funding for education, proceding to nursing school was a grand opportunity. The privilege to attend a government subsidized school where top students in the region compete to get into the program that allowed only 60 students per year was indeed a blessing. As clinical rotations began, what was once considered a mere opportunity evolved into a true passion for caring as I truly love and enjoy nursing and helping people. In 1993, I completed my Bachelor’s degree in Nursing in the Philippines where I began my career as a medical-surgical nurse. Migrating into this country in 1995 was the catalyst to the nurse …show more content…
In all my experiences as a nurse, I’ve realized the importance of communication, providing holistic care to an individual and empowering them with the knowledge to manage their health. When an illness strikes a person, it affects not just his body, but also his mind and spirit. The art of communication is invaluable to patient interaction and establishing a therapeutic nurse-patient relationship, that facilitate coping mechanisms for patients, moreover it prepared myself as a nurse to meet their individual needs. Furthermore, there is at the moment an insurmountable demand for survivorship care as a result of the advancement in technology and medicine, which made living beyond life expectancy possible for increasingly more people. Living after cancer treatment is not free of complications as there are acute and chronic side effects of treatment that requires constant monitoring and attention, and this information spurred me to shift my focus from palliative to survivorship care. The knowledge that I have attained now and my background in patient navigation will help me as a future oncology nurse practitioner, to manage the complex needs of cancer survivorship. I will be able to support my patient’s transition into their new way of life as effective transition management can translate into less hospitalization, lower health care cost and less physical, emotional, spiritual, social and financial stress to patients and their support system. Hope comes in many forms other than with the cure, it comes with control, relief, comfort; to a dying patient, it could mean living another day with their loved ones and