I conducted my interview on Karlie Daughtry, Shock Trauma Nurse at the University of Maryland. Karlie has many degrees and qualifications including, a Bachelors of Science in Nursing, Trauma Certified Registered Nurse (TCRN), Moderate Sedation Certified Registered (CSRN), Clinical Nurse III (CN III), American Heart Association- Advanced Cardiovascular Life Support (ACLS) , American Heart Association, Basic Life Support (BSL), and Ultrasound IV Certified. She received her Bachelors of Science in Nursing from York College of Pennsylvania, in a four year program. She explained that she wanted a program that she could start her nursing education right away rather than later on in her college career. After graduation, she started working at University of Maryland, as part of University of Maryland’s Nurse Residency Program. She explained that this program consisted of 1 year of classes; 1 per month for new graduate nurses, and at the end of the program she then had to complete an evidence based practice project and do a poster presentation. Finally, at the end of the program she was promoted to a Clinical Nurse II. 

Karlie explained it was always a dream of hers to work in trauma ever since her field trip to the Maryland Shock Trauma Center. She stated “I made it a goal of mine that I would go to a 4 year nursing school, complete my education and be able to wear the infamous “pink scrubs”of a Shock Trauma Center.” She explained her excitement when she was able to work at Shock Trauma due to the fact that she would be working in a nationally ranked trauma center alongside some of the best trauma physicians in the world. While this was her dream job, she explained to me why she loved it so much and why it was so rewarding to her. She loved seeing the patient’s progress over the course of time. She explained that the recovery of her patients is long and eventful and full of highs and extreme lows. Usually she would be with these patients for up to 6 months, so she had the ability to build relationships with her patients. Her job plays a critical role in the progress of the trauma patients. 

The most challenging part of her job was losing a patient, which I expected to hear. She explained that it was one of the hardest things you will ever have to deal with during your career, especially your first code or loss. Many of her patients never fully recovered, many were left permanently disabled and or vented for the rest of their lives, which she said was also hard to see. Even with these hardships, Karlie stated “I would definitely recommend this job to an aspiring nurse.” She elaborated on how incredible and rewarding the trauma field is to learn in. She also stated “Trauma teaches you how to think quickly on your feet and how to holistically care for your patient. It teaches you incredible time management skills and great teamwork. I have never worked with a better team than in trauma.”

To gain a better understanding as to what Karlie has to do on a daily basis, I asked what responsibilities she is held accountable for. She replied by saying “she was responsible for a number of tasks.” Some of which included, administering the care for the trauma patient, diagnosis care planning, patient education, outcome evaluation, and more. While all of that sounded very overwhelming Karlie stated the key to all of this responsibility is “ To learn to work together as a team. You can’t do it all by yourself and it’s okay to ask for help or to ask questions when you don’t know something.”

With all this gathered information in mind, I wanted to know what the most surprising part of her job was. She explained that she was shocked about how rewarding it actually was. She mentioned that you will definitely have bad days that make you wonder why you chose nursing, but other days are incredibly rewarding because you feel as if you are truly making a difference. 

Lastly, I asked what her favorite memory was working in the Shock Trauma unit, she answered by saying that she could not exactly pinpoint her favorite memory. She definitely had a few favorite patients, she explained, but her coworkers were the ones who made it memorable. Working in this trauma department gave her incredible friends who could sympathize with a bad work day because of the loss of a patient. 

In conclusion, being a shock trauma nurse involves great responsibility, as Karlie informed us of. You will have people’s lives in your hands, literally. Although there will be hard days and sad days, Karlie reminds us of how rewarding it is to be a nurse.