Conclusion

Throughout this class I have learned many new and interesting ideas about writing as a health care professional.  As much as I wish I will never have to write again once I finish college, I know that is not the case.  Throughout my career I will be able to use the writing techniques I have learned this semester from this course.  The first thing that is going to help me once I finish college is how to write a professional resume and cover letter.  I have been practicing writing “fake” resumes since middle school, and cannot wait until I am finally able to create my professional resume for a nursing job.  Throughout my career I will be writing many documentations, e-mails, and maybe even creating presentations, all of which I have become more familiar with this semester.  It is important to know the correct way in order to get your information across in a professional manner.  I believe that this course was a necessary course before beginning my nursing sequence courses. 

Documentation

There are many different fields of health care in which you may end up working such as: nursing homes, doctor offices, hospitals, out-patient surgery offices, and many more.  In healthcare documentation of everything you do for a patient is very important in order for the patient to receive the best care.  Documentation is also important since it is a record of what you have accomplished for your employer to view.  Documentation is primarily done on a computer.  Different facilities may use a different program for documentation, but they are all similar.  It is important to make sure that your documentation is clear to others.  You should also use professional terminology within your documentations.  Documentation is also used for billing purposes, if there is no record of the services the patient has received, then insurance cannot bill for it.  Documentation of a patient leaves a long paper-trail of their previous medical history, medications that they are on, treatments they are receiving, and all other details of the patients’ medical needs.   Documentation is a very important process in which a health care provider will use from day to day.

I recently transferred to a new job, working in the Emergency Department.  I am still in my first month in my new position, but have already realized how important that my documentation is.  Before my first day on the floor I had to take a class on the EPIC documentation system that Carilion uses.  It is amazing to me how much information this system has on each patient.  Since I began on the floor, I have realized how necessary that my documentation along with everyone else involved in a patients care is.  I find myself checking EPIC in between every patients room to make sure that nothing new has come up that needs to be addressed.  I believe that my experience in my current job will be very helpful to me in my future as a nurse.

Finalizing a Paper

Once you have created a rough draft of your paper or presentation is important to thoroughly edit it.  Sometime you may have more than one rough draft, which is okay.  Before you finalize a draft you should make sure that you proofread it for typing and grammar errors.  Other than spelling and grammar mistakes it is also important to make sure that your point is clear to the reader and that your writing flows together well.  In order to avoid misspelled words, I use spell-check on my computer.  Although spell check is very helpful it is important to remember to read over your work many times in order to make sure spell check corrected the word you meant.  Another way to begin proofreading your work is to have someone else review it for you; they may see something that you have missed.  I really like to have someone else read my rough draft for me in order to give me constructive feedback.  While you are reviewing you work it is important to make sure the reader is going to understand what you are saying.  Once you have gone over your drafts a couple of times and made sure that your spelling and grammar is correct and that your paper flows you can begin your final draft.