Personal Narrative: A Career As A Nurse Practitioner

It starts during pregnancy and they promote newborn screening and education to medical professionals as well as women and the public about the best way to practice for a healthy safe pregnancy.

Ever since a sample of Henrietta Lacks’ tissue was taken from her, without permission, the world of medicine has evolved, and multiple discoveries have been made. From the polio vaccine to figuring out how many chromosomes each human holds, HeLa cells have had some involvement. But all of this research came from a result of a violation to the medical code of ethics. The question of whether or not all research and findings that were a result of a violation of the medical code of ethics should be destroyed, has become very difficult to answer as we make more and more advances in the medical field. Personally, I believe that the way Henrietta’s cells were collected was a violation, however destroying all of the findings from it would be more detrimental to society than beneficial. The field of medicine has come this far and to take it all back could be everyone at risk. However, I don’t believe a violation to the medical code of ethics should be okay. Any research from the present, or in other words, any research that has not changed modern medicine enormously, like HeLa, should be destroyed.

The person who I was assigned for my black history month paper was Estelle Massey Osborne. She was born on May 3, 1901 in Palestine, Texas. She was one of eleven brothers and sisters. At first, Estelle went to school for teaching. She studied at Prairie View State College for her teaching degree. After two years of schooling, she received her certificate and began teaching at a public-school. Osborne’s lifelong dream of being a teacher was short lived, due to an act of violence that almost ended her life.

I started my health care career as a nursing assistant at the young age of 16 years-old perusing the dream of one day becoming a nurse. At that time, I really had no idea what I was getting myself into and what it meant to be in the health care. I have been able to touch and impact so many different people’s lives throughout the last 6 years from patients and residents to their family members. Sometimes not even realizing that I was changing someone’s life. Although I’ve helped hundreds of people there is one person that will I will always remember.

Thomas Kidner was a popular occupational therapy advocate, in Canada, in the early nineteenth century. I chose him as I was interested in that he, as an architect, designed the workshops where his rehabilitation center resided. He worked with disabled soldiers from World War I and sufferers of tuberculosis. The patients there would work on projects before going back to normal work. If I could go back in time, I would like to ask him how he became interested in TB and rehabilitation aspect of WWI. Since he was an architect, it seemed like a big jump to a medical field. He would probably respond that he became interested while he was teaching in Canada and as a influence of a war stricken world. I believe that he would be ecstatic about all

It was unthinkable for someone to contract polio if they were born in the 1960s or later in America. To that generation and after, polio was just another fleeting disease. People born before this time period are reminded how frightening the disease was, which debilitated thousands of people. The spread of polio could not seem to be stopped until a vaccine was found. Polio: An American Story by David M. Oshinsky describes the stories of how polio was triumphed. Polio impacted the United States by affecting the lifestyle of people, attracting the attention of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and by influencing scientists to investigate and experiment to find the cure for the deadly disease.

A recent study by the National Health Performance Authority has confirmed that vaccination rates in Mullumbimby are lower than that of South Sudan.

Does saving the human race from extinction matter if you did not get permission to take the materials necessary? When an African American women had her cells stolen without her consent she had no knowledge as to how she was going to benefit the world, let alone the science industry. This woman is Henrietta Lacks. Her cells and her legacy will never be forgotten throughout the world. In The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Rebecca Skloot presents the scientific progression of HeLa cells with study cases, such as the study of viruses and the development of the polio vaccine, in order to prove to the reader that HeLa was beneficial towards science and was not illegal in any ethical way.

HeLa cells were discovered over sixty years ago. HeLa cells have become the foundation to many modern vaccines and have been used in scientific research since its discovery. If one were to step into a cell culture lab anywhere in the world and open its freezers, there would be millions of HeLa cells in small vials behind its doors. As much of a remarkable discovery as they may be, many fail to recognize their origin. HeLa cells were not a creation made by man in a lab, but a discovery found inside a woman. A woman, named Henrietta Lacks.

The Civil War was a vital event that occurred in America’s historical consciousness and in order to understand the medical aspect of the war, first defining exactly what the war was about is fundamental. According to Dixon, the Civil War transpired in 1861-1865 and it was essentially about the “uncompromising differences between the free and slave states over the power of the national government to prohibit slavery in the territories that had not yet become states.” Significant battles occurred in Chickamauga, Shiloh in Tennessee, Fredericksburg in Virginia, and Antietam in Maryland, Gettysburg in Pennsylvania, and Atlanta in Georgia. Moreover, how did the Civil War impacted medicine raised important points to be considered such as the disease-causing

Polio: An American Story written by David Oshinsky highlights the journey to the discovery of a vaccine which would finally put an end to the once mysterious disease, Poliomyelitis. The journey begins in Otter Valley, Vermont, as it was the first Polio epidemic to be documented in the United States. Unknowingly, it would take years after the first epidemic in 1894 to find a solution for this frightening illness. The disease dates back to ancient time, with cases describing the victims to be left with disfigured limbs and some eventually to be paralyzed. Oshinsky identifies that the disease appeared in three phases: endemic, which occurs in a sporadically within a group of people, epidemic, in which it affected many people and spread rapidly,

Conflict between individual good and the common good is at the core of this issue; hence it is really important to note that California seems to set the trends that the rest of the country has a tendency to follow. Of course the common good is always defined by the State, or the group of usually power hungry people who have gained control of the helm of Government. The United States has a responsibility of preventing illnesses and death, but not at the cost of our freedom to choose what is best for our family and individual needs. Of course the individual’s decision should be a well informed and educated one not a choice the state should make for us, but to help guide us in the right direction to make a confident choice. Vaccinations are felt to be one our healthiest actions. However, a moral dilemma lies in the balance of personal autonomy and choice versus protection of the risk of the entire population. During public emergencies such as an epidemic, of course vaccines should be mandated for mankind, but otherwise the decision should be a personal

Nursing, and everything that it entails, cannot be easily described in just one simple word or phrase. It goes beyond the meaning of a profession and the stereotypical definition of treating the ill. Nursing is the “protection, promotion, and optimization of health and abilities, prevention of illness and injury, alleviation of suffering through the diagnosis and treatment of human response, and advocacy in the care of individuals, families, communities, and populations” (American Nurses Association, 2010, p. 1). Therefore, it is a career that requires dedication, passion, critical thinking, and knowledge. It demands commitment and an understanding of its core values and concepts, as well as the nurse’s own personal philosophy and principles.

Once the child recovered from the cowpox disease, Jenner then tried to infect the child with smallpox, but the young man proved to be immune. “It seemed that this attempt at vaccination had worked. But Jenner had to work on for two more years before his discovery was considered sufficiently tested by the medical profession to permit widespread introduction.” (Alexander, 2003). Beginning in 1831 and ending in 1835, due to increasing vaccination, smallpox deaths were down to one in a thousand. The year of 1853 deemed obligatory for all children born after the first of August to receive routine immunizations. By 1898, one hundred years after Edward Jenner’s unveiling of the vaccine, smallpox in London had fallen dramatically – to one in every 100,000 (less than 50 people per

Modern medicine provides people with the ability to protect themselves from the world’s most fatal diseases. Merely a century ago, it was not uncommon for a child to die as a result of diseases such as polio, pertussis, and tuberculosis. Today, it is highly unlikely for a person to contract these diseases, let alone die from them. However, refusal of vaccinations has been increasing throughout the years due to the anti-vaccination movement. This movement declares mandatory vaccines unconstitutional and vaccinations overall as the cause of autism. Unfortunately, the anti-vaccination movement is becoming increasingly popular due to individuals’ unfounded fears and imagined consequences associated with the idea of purposely inserting a disease into one’s body. However, despite one’s beliefs, vaccines are essential not only to a person’s well-being, but to the health of those around them. Mandatory vaccinations do not cause autism; rather, they save lives while upholding values of