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Ashley HerringtonUWRTArnoldSeptember 10, 2014

Literacy Narrative

Call lights are going off everywhere. My lima bean colored scrubs are soaking wet from

the lady that just pulled me into the shower with her and the man that puked on me earlier. This

day is not going exactly how I wanted it to. “It’s a full moon tonight you know?” one CNA says

to another. That makes it all clear. There’s a myth that full moons make the residents crazy and

hard to deal with. It’s true. I have never been so tired in my life and I have only been here for a

little over an hour. Showers usually take almost my entire four-hour shift, but today I finished

them in an hour and a half. I still have an hour and I have completed all my assigned tasks.

Despite still smelling of vomit, I am happy standing with the residents after an exhausting day. I

have worked all of my high school career to be standing in this spot and I doubted every choice I

had made. “Hey good looking” comes from behind me. I turn around and Mildred is sitting there

in her wheelchair waiting for our daily conversation. Seeing her brightens my day. After a day

from hell I still managed to get my duties done and spend time with the residents. I realize that

maybe the lady that told me I would never make it was wrong. Maybe this is exactly what I am

supposed to be doing.

I have loved hospitals ever since I was a young child. It’s an understatement to say that I

am accident-prone and find myself in doctors’ offices, emergency rooms, and urgent care centers

more than most people do their whole life. Watching doctors and nurses fix my cuts, broken

bones, and sickness captivates me. I see people with large veins and the first thing that comes to

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mind is how easy it would be to feel their pulse or insert an IV. Unfortunately, it’s frowned upon

to walk up to a total stranger and ask to feel their pulse. I realized my love for nursing in 2008

when my sister became violently ill. That’s where it had all started.

I sat there comforting my sister as she went through another crohns attack. Cold sweats,

vomiting, and pain controls her life. Sierra is almost six foot and weighs only ninety pounds. She

hasn’t had a day where she wasn’t sick for about a year. Crohns disease causes inflammation of

the intestines and the development of ulcers that bleed internally. The combination of the two

causes her to vomit constantly during a flare. After months of not being able to eat solid food she

went into surgery to have a foot and a half of her small intestine removed. The hospital gave her

the wrong medication and she bled internally. Because of the excessive loss of blood her body

went into shock and she lost consciousness. Blood transfusions and the work of the hospital staff

saved my sisters life. When she came home with a complete recovery I knew exactly what I

wanted to do with my life.

I had just moved from a tiny little town to Lake Norman High School. I’m only a little

sophomore and a transfer, which means I get last choice in classes. I got stuck in the stupidest

classes. What even is biomedical technology? I now know that it’s the application of technology

to the medical world, but at that moment I was frustrated and annoyed at the pointless classes I

was in. That class was actually the gateway to my future. Mrs. Russ was my first sponsor of

literacy. She opened up numerous doors for me to pursue my dream. She told me about a

program our school offered to graduate as a certified nursing assistant. With her help and support

I was accepted into nursing fundamentals at the Career Academy and Technical School, which is

a very selective program.

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I walked in on the first day of nursing fundamentals nervous and afraid. What if this

wasn’t what I was supposed to be doing? What if I’m just wasting my time? The class only had

eight people, which made me even more nervous. That few amount of people meant that

everything I did would be noticed. The eight of us were completely different. I didn’t know how

we would have enough teamwork and support to make it through the semester. As time went on

these seven other girls became my best friends. They encouraged me and supported me to do

things I had never imagined I could do. In a way these girls became a sponsor of literacy for me

as well. As our clinical time came near we stuck together to complete what we knew would be

the hardest month of our lives.

“Do you want to practice vitals?” a nurse said from a distance. Vitals are easy I would

much rather do that than give showers. “Of course” I say. “I am giving medication off of these.

So they have to be very accurate.” she responds. It’s only my second day at clinicals, why would

she possibly trust me to take vitals? How am I competent enough to do that? I’m freaking out,

but I gather the stethoscope, thermometer, and sphygmomanometer. I walk into room 255 and

there she was. The meanest and most bitter patient I had come in contact with. Everything was

going great, but then it was time for blood pressure. The hardest vital there was, especially if the

patient was overweight and elderly. Check and check. I’m on my fourth time doing blood

pressure and still cannot hear a thing. I know I’m hurting her but I don’t have a choice. In the

middle of taking her blood pressure for the fourth time she rips it off. “You will never be a nurse.

You’re not going anywhere in life so you should just go apply to McDonalds and stop wasting

your time” she yells. Instantly tears stream down my face. How could anyone be so mean? She

starts calling me explicit names and told me to get out of her room this instant. From this

moment on I decided I would do whatever I could to prove her wrong.

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Any chance I was given I volunteered to practice vital signs. Another sponsor of literacy

was my nursing fundamentals teacher Mrs. Rogers. She encouraged me with everything I did.

She quickly became my favorite teacher and we developed a bond I had never had with a

teacher. After many hours of in class lectures and hands on practice of skills we had reached the

point we had been waiting for. The North Carolina Nurse Aide Test. Preparing for this test had

consumed for life months. It was the beginning or the end to my nursing career. The day of the

test was the most stressful day of my life. I had worked so hard for this and suddenly I didn’t

want to finish. Standing in front of the evaluator while you completed the skills was shear agony.

Getting that piece of paper that had said I was officially a certified nursing assistant was the best

day of my life. I worked incredibly hard to get here and could not have done it without the love

and support of Mrs. Rogers, Mrs. Russ, and my nursing fundamentals girls.

Becoming literate in nursing as a certified nursing assistant was a rough road with many

obstacles. I had to study hard and practice skills daily. I have made a lot of progress but I am not

completely there yet. In the nursing career there’s always more to learn and improve on. Even

though I am literate in a section of the healthcare world there is so much more to learn. I hope to

grow and mature into the best nurse I can be, always pushing myself towards further and

improved literacy.