Stephanie Winters

Explore UT FS 301

November 27, 2006

Leadership in the Health Care System

My dream and passion is to become a registered nurse with a Masters diploma of both Business Administration and Nursing. Since my surgery two summers ago, I have realized that nursing is the perfect profession for me because nurses are the people who never stop caring and are always there to help, as shown in this video. I am thrilled and honored to have the opportunity to become a University of Texas Nursing graduate. By becoming a registered nurse with an MBA, I will be able to help people not only at their bedside, but I will also be able to implement changes that will ultimately revolutionize the hospital experience. For example, by being a hospital manager I will be able to help enhance communication between healthcare professionals and patients, which would make the hospital experience less nerve-racking and stressful. I have designed a structured and unyielding plan for myself to reach this goal.

The first step, which I have already completed, is getting accepted into the nursing program at the University of Texas at Austin. The University of Texas has a highly ranked Nursing program and is unique because there is no medical school on its campus. The school offers a strict, demanding and competitive program for students to earn their registered nursing licenses. The University also offers a variety of highly competitive graduate programs for nursing students. In order to be accepted into the program, I had to work hard in high school to receive the highest grades and scores. I took multiple SAT tutoring courses and continually went for after-school homework help to ensure that I was doing the best I could in school. Only a limited amount of students were admitted due to the lack of nursing professors, which made my acceptance harder to achieve and more valuable. To make myself stand out from the other students applying, I went out of my way to make an appointment with the Dean of Nursing. Interviewing with the Dean showed how motivated I was to become a University of Texas School of Nursing student. To increase my chances of admittance, I volunteered at the local Retirement home called The Summit at Northwest Hills Assisted Living for over two hundred hours. By volunteering, I gained experience in the healthcare field and also more credentials to add to my resume. By doing well in school and participating in extracurricular activities, I achieved my goal of getting accepted as a pre-nursing student.

However, this does not guarantee a spot in the actual School of Nursing at the University of Texas; each pre-nursing student must reapply to the Nursing School during their sophomore year and be accepted into the upper-division program. Therefore, the next step on my path to my dream career is to enter upper division Nursing School. Unfortunately, due to a lack of teaching staff, only fifty to sixty percent of the students who apply get in the upper-division program. Students can reapply if they do not get in the first time; however, their chances do not increase. Students who are not admitted must change either majors or universities; this is one of the reasons why the Nursing School is so cutthroat. Each student is fighting for a place in the upper-division program and no one wants to help each other because they are afraid of jeopardizing their spot. My job right now is to focus in school so that I will be accepted into the upper-division program and not be forced to change majors or universities. Because the number of people in the program is so small, the application process is very competitive. In order to apply you must meet various criteria, one of which is community service. All students applying to upper-division nursing average fifty hours of community service in a healthcare environment. I started volunteering at the Children’s Hospital of Austin this summer and I currently have eighty hours, which is above average. I plan on continuing my volunteering this summer so I can exceed all expectations and hopefully have the most community service hours of all students. I am particularly grateful that students are required to have volunteer hours because it gives a good perspective into the nursing world and what jobs in the healthcare field are like. By volunteering at the Children’s Hospital of Austin, I am greatly increasing my chances of being accepted into the upper-division program.

I also plan on applying for a job as a Freshman Interest Group Seminar (FIG) mentor for fall of 2006. A FIG mentor co-facilitates a one-hour seminar once a week for a group of freshman students. They are responsible for organizing activities to help students transition into a college lifestyle. Mentors promote school spirit and share knowledge about the UT campus. They also advise and help freshman students form friendships by going out to dinner or lunch together. By becoming a FIG mentor, I will have a leadership position within the UT community, which is important when applying to the upper-division program because it shows that I am a responsible individual. Mentors also work one-on-one with UT faculty and staff, which will give me an opportunity to form professional relationships. Another benefit from becoming a FIG mentor is that I will achieve a Level One International Peer Mentor Certification as a result of training and mentoring experience. By volunteering and having a leadership position on campus, I will be able to prove to the upper-division admissions council that I am a dependable and dedicated student. I am working as hard as I can to achieve acceptance into the upper-division section of the Nursing School.

The third step to achieving my goal is getting through the upper-division program with a high grade point average. Once a student enters upper division, they don’t have to worry about being kicked out of the program as long as they maintain a “C” average. It is important to me to make the highest grade point average possible, so my chances of being accepted into a graduate school are better than others’. Throughout the two-year upper-division program, students study different aspects of nursing each semester so they can have a better idea of what specialty they prefer. One of my favorite and most anticipated semesters is when the students work in pediatrics because I love working with children. Volunteering over the summer at the Children’s Hospital of Austin gave me a chance to work one-on-one with kids in need of help. One child in particular caught my attention and made me realize that pediatrics is the nursing specialty that I want to pursue. The young girl had a painful infection in her tonsils and was waiting to get them removed. I helped prepare her for surgery and talked to her parents about the procedure. The experience of working with the young girl made me realize that I would enjoy working in a pediatric setting, which is why I am looking forward to that particular semester. Another exciting aspect of upper-division nursing is that in the last semester of the curriculum every student works in a Capstone Preceptorship internship. Capstone is a great program for students because it allows them to work in a real hospital environment and experience what life is like as a nurse. I am also looking forward to wearing the University of Texas scrubs during the upper-division program because they make me feel like I am a real nurse. When the UT Nursing students go to class at the hospital they are required to wear the burnt orange scrubs with white underneath if the weather is cold; I can’t wait to wear the scrubs. However, even though upper division is exciting, it is also supposed to be an exceedingly difficult and time-consuming program. Every time I walk into the Nursing building I see upper division students studying intensely in the library, which is the downside to being in such a competitive program. I am prepared to do my best and succeed in upper division Nursing School.

The next step on my journey is graduating from nursing school, taking the NCLEX, and getting accepted into a graduate school. The University of Texas offers a wide variety of nursing graduate programs including Holistic Adult Health Clinical Nurse Specialist, Nursing Systems, Family Nurse Practitioner, Pediatric Nurse Practitioner, etc. I am interested in applying for a Masters of Science in Nursing and Business Administration, which is a joint degree with the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas at Austin. This leads to two separate graduate degrees, one in Nursing and the other in Business Administration. The degree prepares students to be leaders and executives in modern healthcare systems. In this program, I will learn how to make appropriate financial decisions. The program is approximately three years long with each year switching back and forth from the Nursing School to the Business School, and combining the third year in both schools. Being accepted into this particular graduate program is imperative to me because it will allow me to pursue my dream job of having a position in hospital management. By becoming a hospital manager, I will be financially stable in my adult years and also have a flexible work schedule for when I want to start a family. When my children are in school, my job will be flexible enough to have the same hours as them, which is important to me as a mother. Because the steps to fulfilling my dream are so competitive and challenging, it is essential for me to do my best to get to this particular level in my education.

My ultimate dream in life is to have a job that I enjoy and will allow me to be self-sufficient so I can help support my family. Becoming a registered nurse with a Masters degree in both Business Administration and Nursing will enable me to achieve my goal. Nursing is a very unique profession; it requires both intelligence and heart. I feel as though I already have the heart for the career and now I need to learn the skills. It is imperative that I work diligently over the next few years because ultimately, the harder I work in college, the better off I will be later on in life. I love my major and I love being able to help people when they are in need. As Daniel Goleman once said, “gifted leadership occurs where heart and head – feeling and thought – meet. These are the two wings that allow a leader to soar.”⁶ My heart and head both agree that nursing is truly the right job for me. I whole-heartedly want to pursue my dream and I will work as hard as I can to succeed.

Word Count: 1797

Notes

1. “Nursing School – NUR,” University of Texas at Austin, 2005, http://www. utexas.edu/maps/main/buildings/nur.html.

2. “Patricia Carter, PhD, RN, CNS,” Faculty Web Pages The University of Texas at Austin School of Nursing, 2003, http://www.nur.utexas.edu/fachome/pcarter/ pcarter.html.

3. “Landau Scrub Set with University of Texas Logo,” Advcance Healthcare Shop, 2006, http://shop.advanceweb.com/ProductInfo.aspx?productid=2446.

4.“McCombs School of Business – CBA,” University of Texas at Austin, 2005, http://www.utexas.edu/maps/main/buildings/cba.html.

5. “The University of Texas at Austin,” Esteban Azagra, 2006, http://www.ce. utexas.edu/prof/maidment/grad/azagra/Welcome.htm.

6. Goleman, “Primal Leadership: Realizing the Power of Emotional Intelligence,” in Explore UT, ed. Jerome Bump. (Austin: Jenn’s Copy & Binding, 2006), 62.