Most individuals spend the majority of their adult lives working. It’s important that people enjoy the career they choose. The best job I have had, though I have had only two, would have to be my current one. I work as a Nursing Care Partner at Sentara Leigh Hospital in the Labor and Delivery unit. I recently started this job and I love it. As a Care Partner, I am essentially a Registered Nurse’s Assistant. Care Partner’s have different responsibilities on different units of the hospital. In the Labor and Delivery unit, Care Partners do a variety of things: get rooms ready for new labor patients, attend all deliveries, run tests on cord blood, give baby baths, and assist with patient care for mothers and newborn babies. I became a Care Partner after completing an eight-month class at Sentara School of Health Professions during my senior year of High School. The course consisted of five months of classroom instruction and three months of clinicals.
The things I have experienced since I started this job have been very exciting. My first shift, I witnessed two births. Since then, I have learned many new things pertaining to the care of my patients. I have always loved babies and thought of the birth process as a miraculous thing. Now I have the privilege to witness and take part in it and to actually get paid for it; it seems too good to be true.
I am attending Community College to obtain my prerequisites for nursing school. I plan to become a Registered Nurse. I will attend Sentara’s BSN program to accomplish this. I have not chosen the field I may specialize in but I do know I would like to continue to work with babies or children.
While being a Care Partner is a rewarding job, it is not easy. I am on my feet most of the time. I work the night shift, 11:00 pm to 7:00 am, and it seems either I am sleeping to prepare for work or recovering from it. I am also realistic enough to know that not all labor and deliveries end happily. When that happens, I am certain I will grieve along with the family and it will have a devastating impact on me but I will get through it. After all, part of the life cycle is also death, even if it comes too early. To be able to see the miracle of birth and to help patients in the hospital is a rewarding job.
Image source found here
