Interview Contact Information: 1-877-Mda-6789 Date Interviewed: November

¶ … Interview

Contact information: 1-877-MDA-6789

Date interviewed: November 8, 2012

Company name: MD Anderson Cancer Center

Highest degree earned: LPN

College or University where the degree was earned: Houston Community College

What is your title and what are your main responsibilities?

I am a nurse. My main responsibilities are: measuring vital signs, administering medications, keeping the patient clean, handling wound care, maintaining patient records, and observing the patient.

What are some of the specific skills you need in order to perform your job?

The biggest skill I need is the ability to communicate with my patients. Through communication I can learn if they are in pain, if they have any needs, and assess their conditions. I also need a thorough understanding of biology and anatomy.

Describe what you do during a typical day?

During a typical day I work on a specific floor and am in charge of handling a set number of patients. For those patients, I am their duty nurse. I check in with each of them at the beginning of my shift, review their charts, and check on their condition. I administer medications when they are due, handle patient hygiene, and make sure that the patients are comfortable. I check and make sure that wounds are dressed appropriately. If there are any issues with the patient's condition, I contact either a doctor or a head nurse.

4. What other jobs have you held that might have helped prepare you for this position?

This was actually my first real job.

5. Do you have people who work for you, and what do they do?

No.

6. What is one of the most challenging things about the work you do?

The lack of respect from some doctors and RNs in the hospital. The patients can get abusive, but their time on the floor is limited. It is much more difficult to deal with supervisors who look down on LVNs.

7. Why is time management important to you, and what time management tips could you suggest?

Patient care has to be efficient without seeming impersonal; therefore, I try to engage the patients when I enter the room, so that I do not seem as if I am hurrying to leave. If the patient clearly needs more specific, personal attention, but I have duties I need to attend to in other rooms, I explain that I have to take care of other patients, but come back to them.

8. How do you balance your family, job, work, and leisure time?

I am single and I work a regular later day-shift. Because I do not start work until noon, I am able to take care of errands during the morning, and I still have sufficient leisure time to pursue my personal life.

9. What advice would you give to someone interested in this career?

I like being a nurse, but a LVN's career options are limited. If you have adequate resources and time, I would suggest pursuing an RN.

10. With regard to building a professional network, how necessary is a network? What are some ways to go about building that network?

I think it is important to build strong work relationships with your peers and supervisors. Because the demand for LVNs is so high, I have not found it necessary to build a network in the way someone in a lower-demand field might.

11. Do you intend to stay in this career?

I do intend to stay in the medical field, but I think I would actually like to become an RN, and eventually a nurse practitioner.

Reflection:

I chose Stacey Clark because she is the most basic- level professional that I know working in my chosen field. When preparing for the interview, I asked myself if I thought that I would be content stopping at an entry-level professional position or if I would want to continue my education so that I could enter with a greater potential for promotion. Even after the interview, combined with what I know about the entry-level salary of an LVN, I am not certain if more education and the sacrifices that necessarily entails are worthwhile when combined with my personal goals. As a result, I am not sure how my candidate's position relates to my own personal career interests. I prepared for this interview by contemplating what I would want to know that was not included in the interview questions. I decided that my biggest question was whether she viewed LVN as a terminating point or a beginning point.