Taylor Martinez Medical Field

Daniel Johnson

Prof. Daniel Cryer

English 122

12 September 2018

Taylor Martinez: Caring for Others and the Medical Field

The medical field is a very broad term. It encompasses everything that has to do with health care. A few of the professions in this field are physician, registered nurse, dentist, pharmacist, therapist, and many more. To be successful in this field requires great communication skills, a solid sense of ethics, and amazing attention to detail.  However, the medical field is also very rewarding. It attracts really high quality people that have a great amount of respect for fellow people. People like Taylor are attracted to this field through the amazing feeling of helping someone, whether that be helping them feel better about themselves or literally saving their life.

As a child, Taylor always thought that she was going to get into dentistry when she got older, but that would be subject to change. Her mom had worked as a nurse and was a very good role model in her life. She looked up to her mom and was inspired by hearing stories of her helping people. “About five years ago, my mom fell down a set of stairs and needed assistance doing things,” Taylor told me. She says that this is the experience that made her realize her passion for taking care of people. I’m always interested by stories like this where people follow in their parent’s footsteps because I would never want to do that with my parents, a retirement consulter and an auto worker. It’s interesting seeing that inspiration that I’ve never felt. Since then, she has continued taking care of people by babysitting, working at an assisted living, and by currently working at a rehab establishment. One reason that she enjoys or feels rewarded by her job is that she sees people’s progress of getting better. It’s the same sort of feeling that she got while helping her mother and seeing her healing. Her mother’s injury was the large turning point that showed her the joy she gets from seeing people better themselves. Everyone enjoys seeing others get better, but I admire this of Taylor because she actually puts in the work to see it. Along with her work experience, she also has a good amount of education under her belt.

Taylor hasn’t gotten to where she is now for free. Taylor has a CNA(certified nursing assistant) certificate which she earned with two months of schooling. Typically, it takes longer to get, but she took an accelerated program so that she could get out into the field sooner. Taylor is also planning on getting a bachelor's degree in nursing. She has two of the four years done that are required to finish it, and doesn’t plan at the moment to go to any graduate school for a higher degree. I can relate to this; I just want to get out there instead of spending the rest of my life in grad school and then in student debt. She is thinking about finishing this degree at either Saint Louis University or Midamerica Nazarene University.

One idea that has fascinated Taylor for years is the performing deliveries. “When I was really little, my mom performed deliveries and would always come home with these stories about how beautiful it is ...  life being made,” Taylor explained. Along with nurturing people back to health, she is also interested in helping life come into this world with good health. This is really amazing of her. A lot of adults can speak on how beautiful the birth process is, but again Taylor is actually looking to put in the work to help people. On the other hand, She does not want to stay in the E.R. her whole life and constantly be in the fast pace style of it.

Another idea that has been floating around in her head is the idea of travel nursing. One of her educators in nursing first introduced this idea to her. A travel nurse is a nurse that goes around the country and fills in temporary spots in hospitals, clinics, etc. so that they don’t go through shortages of nurses. This allows the hospitals time to hire a good, permanent nurse. This is something that I’ve never even heard of, but it is a very smart thing to do. Hospitals having a lack of nurses is obviously a big problem and it’s cool that there is a nationwide system like this that gives relief to the hospitals and the people in them. However, Taylor doesn’t want to be moving all around the country for her entire life.

Taylor’s end goal would be to work her way up the ladder to either a stable job as a nurse manager, or a nurse practitioner. Being a nurse practitioner means that you are one step below a doctor. Being a doctor is way to much schooling and she’d rather just be slightly below a doctor’s level and only have to go to 4-6 years of college rather than the 8+ years that it takes to become a doctor. Taylor isn’t sure if she wants to pursue a NP(nurse practitioner) certificate or just jump out of education and start working her way up the ladder. Also, her end goal would not be in Kansas. She added that she would much rather live in Colorado, where her mother lives, or Florida. A lot of Kansans that I’ve talked to about future plans share this sentiment of making it out of this place, or moving on to better things; I feel the same way.

In my opinion, Taylor is what we need more of in society. She is an example of a person with a solid set of ethics and compassion. Every once and a while I find myself meeting people like this. I don’t even know Taylor on a very personal level, but I can tell that she is a really good person. This is also true for many people that go into the medical field, they really care about their fellow people enough to spend their whole life helping them. I wish I put half as much effort into being a good person as these types of people. There is so much hate in this world that has existed and always will, but at least there are people like this that challenge the the idea that humanity is corrupt.