Nursing is a very important part of the medical field.
Nurses provide compassionate care to all of their patients and attend to their needs. They work collaboratively with other medical professionals like doctors to care for the patients.
There are different kinds of nurses who specialize in different things.
The average salary for a nurse in the United States is around $93,000 per year.
In this segment of Career Callout, we sat down with Maricar Gomez, a nurse practitioner at the Cleveland Clinic specializing in thoracic surgery patients. Thoracic surgery is surgery on the chest.
She was inspired to become a nurse after observing her mother and cousins who worked as nurses. She admired their bravery, care, and nurturing habits and wanted to follow in their footsteps and take care of others.
Gomez went to college and got a nursing license. Even after graduation, nurses need to take continuing classes to stay up to date on the newest medicine and practices.
On a day-to-day basis, Gomez works to take care of patients recovering from chest surgery. When she comes into work, she reviews blood work, checks on the patient’s vital signs, visits the patients, and comes up with a plan on how to take care of that patient for the day. She and a team of other nurses and doctors treating the patient makes this care plan based on what is best for the patient and what the patient approves of.
Her favorite part of the job is the patients.
“It feels so good to help somebody, if they’re in pain or if they’re sick,” Gomez said. “You know what it feels like when you’re not feeling well, and if you can do something to make them feel better, that’s the best feeling in the world.”
Career Callouts featured in NewsDepth are funded by the Ohio Broadcast Media Commission.