Month: November 2015

I have recently started a position in the CTICU at Mount Sinai Hospital after two years on a medical surgical floor. The experience on my previous floor barely scratched the surface of what I need to know for cardiac surgery. The flow of cardiac and the ICU is a land and new language of it’s own.

I am so grateful to have this opportunity in the city that I love with people I care most about.

It’s been nine weeks or so… and I think this article describes what we do the best.

http://nursing.advanceweb.com/Regional-Articles/Regional-Guide/Affairs-of-the-Heart.aspx

It’s been two years or so that I’ve started working as a nurse. My dream was to work at UCLA Ronald Reagan Medical Center. Yes, in Los Angeles, California. I have resided in New York since I was 8 years old. I immigrated here with my family from Bangladesh in the year 2000. Before then, I lived in the Philippines where I was born.

So, why LA? Well, why not? Warm weather, beaches, an amazing teaching facility that is evidence-based driven and a strict control on nurse to patient ratios. It almost sounds like an undeniable life.

I met the recruiter of UCLA at an NSNA conventional in North Carolina the last semester of nursing school. I was starstruck, and my best friend from nursing school Anne Ju pushed me towards their table like a mother pushing her child to the first day of school. I became really close to the recruiting manager who proceeded to give me their newly published book “Prescription for Excellence.” Subsequently, a few days after my NCLEX UCLA called me and asked if I could fly out there for an interview. Ofcourse! A few days later they offered me a position into their new graduate residency in their Cardiothoracic Intensive Care Unit.

I turned them down. I cried hysterically when I got the acceptance phone call. I remember waiting in front of the computer at my uncle’s house in Hawthorne. I called my mother back in NY in tears and told her I got the job. She was ecstatic and offered to help ship all my stuff over. I cried at the thought that I would be 5 hours from home. Homeless, carless, driver license -less, and alone. How would I ever survive LA??? I decided I would spend a few years in New York first.. grow a tougher skin, get my drivers license, drive through NYC traffic, and spend time with my parents who were getting older and all of my best friends.

The importance of networking while you’re in nursing school cannot be emphasized enough. After I got landed back home in New York I called one of the old unit I did my medical surgical rotations on at Mount Sinai Hospital. I loved working on that unit because everyone just seemed to love their jobs. I called Nicole, one of the nurses I shadowed at clinicals. She just so happened to be the current interim manager. She offered me an interview and a job on her unit that week.

Hi my name is Jasmin Zaman and I have been a Registered Nurse for about two years and some change now. I graduated from Hunter College and before that I went to Brooklyn Technical High School. I initially had dreams of being a physician but deviated from the path shortly after taking a few pre-requisite classes in colleges. Well, you wanna know the real story?

I got locked out of registration. For anyone who has been to college, registration is no joke. I had priority registration as part of the Macaulay Honors Program but to my luck, I got locked out anyways. I forgot to sign up and take my math placement test. And ofcourse this is college and nobody reminds you to do things. By the time I would have taken the exam and got it cleared from my records, I would be left with really shitty professors  who give out the letter C’s and D’s as a habit or be missing a few pre-requisites I would need to apply to medical school. So I thought — why not a backup? Hunter had a prestigious nursing school that accepted 100 kids a year. Based on your GPA and an entrance exam (NLN)… So, I thought I would pursue this backup if and only if I get into Hunter’s program. Nothing else. If that didn’t work out I would always have medicine as a back up. Surely enough, a few hours spent on winter break focusing on the NLN exam allowed me an entrance into the Hunter Nursing program. And, there it was. I have never looked back ever since.

Ever heard the saying I didn’t choose nursing, it chose me. I can’t put into words how much the path to this profession has helped me grow and understand the people around me. It gave me a sense of purpose and meaning. I was meant to do this. And this is the only beginning. Welcome and follow me through my journey.