Donner and Wheeler (2004) as vital in the contemporary healthcare environment.
Misty described her career path as moving her from military service as an Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) to a role as an LPN on a hospital burn unit. She began work at the Veterans Administration Hospital in Tucson, working on many units as needed; she then shifted tonight-time work in an interim care geriatric patient unit and then to full-time employment at a hospice as a staff nurse. She currently functions as the Palliative Care Coordinator (PCC) for the hospice, a position in which she supervises other RNs and other healthcare providers.
Misty stated that she was encouraged to improve her skills, knowledge and credentials by recognition of the chronic need for well-educated professional nurses. Weiss (2004 noted that the nursing shortage and the need for more advanced nursing skills combine to increase the demand for nurses prepared at the baccalaureate and Master's degree levels. Colleges and universities, said Weiss (2004), have responded to the influx of working nurses returning to school by offering more varied and flexible courses and scheduling. Many hospitals and other caregiving institutions also actively encourage their nursing staff to pursue ongoing education. Misty states that her own career development was very much facilitated by the need of her institution for a skilled PCC, a certification that she has obtained and that she is now also participating in a Baccalaureate Nursing Degree program to augment her existing RN and PCC certification.
Generally, as Hall, Waddell, Donner, and Wheeler (2004) note, health ca
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