I realized that I knew what my aptitude was all along—I just did not have the word to describe it. Meier describes aptitude as “a natural inclination or ability for something” (Meier 2010). My aptitude is my ability to help others without thinking of myself. I offer my help as second nature, and I do it without thinking or knowing that I am doing it.
When I look back on my experiences, however, I see this aptitude present in many of my day-to-day contacts with other people.
I am very lucky, because my passion matches so perfectly with my aptitude. Passion, as Meier says is “people…take a deep delight and pleasure in what they do; they simply love it” (Meier 2010). My passion is patient care because I believe that everyone who is suffering from a disease or illness deserves the best care that is available to them.
By pursuing a job in the nursing profession, I can ensure that at least my patients will receive above exceptional care. If I can make even the smallest difference in one of my patient’s life a day, I will be happy with my day.
What helped me find my passion in my time at URI was the opportunity that I was blessed with to volunteer at URI Emergency Medical Services. During my recruitment, I remember one of my Officers telling me that I am meeting patients on one of the worst days of my life.
He told me that these calls were not about me and my partners, but about that patient and about our crew doing everything in our power to make sure that our patient has the best experience we can provide them with. If we can’t make their day better for them, we at least have to make them feel like the human being they are—not just another patient.
Now, before every call I go on, I remind myself that this is my goal. It helps to center myself and to prepare myself to provide the best patient care that I and my partners are capable of. I am so thankful for my experience with URI Emergency Medical Services because without it, I never would have known that I had a passion for patient care and emergency medicine. Now, I know exactly what I want to do—to be an emergency room nurse.
When I started school at URI, my major was Civil Engineering and if someone ever told me that I was going to end up in the health care field I probably would have laughed. So many things have changed since then. I originally did not want to be a Health Studies major when I switched my majors. I want to go straight into nursing, but URI was not taking internal nursing transfers. For a while, I was bitter about the fact that I would have more schooling to do even after I had my bachelors degree.
I realized, however, that what I really had was a leg up. As my degree progressed, I realized that the knowledge I gained as a Health Studies major would be a huge asset to my future self as a nurse.
I will be able to be more empathetic towards people’s conditions because I know now that poor living conditions cause illness and disease, and I have studied it first hand. Although I don’t want a job directly in Health Studies, I realize how blessed I am to have had this experience. I will hold this knowledge for the rest of my career and for the rest of my life.
