Wang 1

Wang, Yu-Jhen (Cynthia)

ESL 33B
Project 2 final draft
20 October 2016

My Career
There are many careers in our society that satisfy every demand and every need.
Individuals work hard to fulfill the necessary tasks that require certain ability and skills. I
am majoring in Nursing at Pasadena City College, and I am planning to transfer to Cal State
LA. The reason I chose nursing as my future career is that my mother is a nurse. My mother
plays a big role in my life and influences my career decision-making. She used to bring me
to the hospital on the weekends when she worked in Taiwan. My mother loved her job and
had a passion to help others. I saw how she treated the patients and helped them satisfying
their needs. I was too young to help my mother, but I wished that I could contribute one day.
I told my mother about my career goal of becoming a nurse when I was in sixth
grade. I wanted to go to nursing school after I graduated from middle school, but my mother
suggested me to choose my career in college. When I was applying for college, I still wanted
to study Nursing. My mother told me not to do it because being nurse will be too stressed for
me. In addition, I could tell from our conversation that my mother wanted me to study
business. As a result, I realized that I could not find any interest or motivation in business
after I studied it. I knew I still wanted to become a nurse and help people in the future. My
parents ended up deciding to let me study in the United States because they believed that

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being a nurse in the United States could have higher salary and respect than in Taiwan. I
realized that I would consider my career decision-making based on the needs of the society.
Everyone must have a dream, but I was glad that my career goal was not only a
dream, but also very practical. Although my required courses of entering a nursing school
would be very challenging, I knew it was the process to succeed in my career. For example,
I am taking Anatomy class this semester and it is all about memorizing. There are a lot of
vocabulary words, which are used in medical field. I have never seen them before. I know
there is no short cut to get good grade unless I study hard. I spend a lot of time studying for
my major classes because they are the opportunities that I fought for. I believe that language
skills in the medical field are very important, especially when it comes to communication.
People who work in hospital have to understand what patients need and how the deal with
the emergency situations. Having a misunderstanding between doctors and nurses might
cause unpleasant results.
In a survey by Heart Research Associates, it shows that being able to communicate
effectively and working with others in team corporately are the top two of very important
skills in my career. People who decide to study Nursing as their major would need to
consider these skills. For example, doctors and nurses have responsibilities to take care of
patients lives. If they have difficulty in speaking and writing, they might not clarify
patients situation clearly or patients might misunderstand them; as a result, it is necessary to
develop these communication skills.
I am still halfway to my career goal. I know that being a nurse wont be easy, but I
have never regretted my decision. Although language skill that is required in nursing field
would be one of my challenges, I am willing to use any methods and positive attitude to

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overcome it. Through the interview, orientation, and certain health check, I enrolled to be a
volunteer in City of Hope Hospital. Being a volunteer in the hospital, I was able to practice
my communication skills and get familiar with the hospital system. I have done so much
research and asked people who work in hospital about my career, but I want to know more
specifically and explore wider in order to understand what my actual career is.
In my research, Discourse Community means a group of people who have the
same goals or purposes, and achieve these goals by communicating and discussing. These
discussions typically focus on the use and analysis of written communication (Key Concept
in ELT Discourse Community p.398). There are several educational ways to enter into the
nurse discourse community, such as two-year diploma program, associate or baccalaureate
degree, and other graduate school. After graduate, people who interested in becoming a
nurse must pass the test to be a Registered Nurse.
Due to my interest, I decided to interview Katrin Saputra, who is an occupational
therapist working in City of Hope. She went to USC for her undergraduate school. I met her
in my church. With her background and professional knowledge, she can answer my
questions. I asked her seven major questions and we discussed deeper by her answering each
question and sharing her experiences.
Katrin Saputra said that it would be a challenge if people want to become a
healthcare provider. First of all, she mentioned that being a healthcare provider is not easy
because this is the job that relate to peoples lives. Helping people with their most difficult
time, their life, and helping them find the independent back was healthcare providers
responsibilities and purposes. For example, in order to take care of patients, she has to
interrupt with patients, and clarify the works with patients. Also, paying attention on every

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patients situation and being aware that how much progress supposed to offer them are also
very important. She would write the documentation for every treatment so that patients can
read the notes and know their progress. She said that this job trains her to be more patient on
treatment because she could not push patients to listen and participate the activities. For
example, some patients might not want to follow the instruction, and keeping on saying
Come on or Oh men to express they are not willing to do it.
Secondly, being a healthcare provider has to be able to communicate with doctors,
nurses, and patients. Proper communication among professional healthcare providers is very
important because they have to work together in different departments to complete different
projects. For instance, all the therapists have to plan the care every week and do the monthly
reassessments to help doctors know each patients situations. They have meetings every
Tuesday to share experiences and successful stories in order to increase the serving quality.
Sometimes emails are the important bridge between hospital and social workers that can
send reports or evaluation to the government. English communication skills are also
necessary when she is working with patients because unclear conversation might lead to
misunderstand or mistake.
Lastly, healthcare providers are required to participate some online courses every
year to maintain her license valid. For example, after working in hospital for a long time,
people might forget some skills or information that they are supposed to have. Keeping
information and new knowledge updated and making sure that everyone is on the right track
by taking several courses is necessary for all the healthcare providers. This not only benefits
the patients, but also keeps the healthcare providers passionate about their jobs. In addition,
she would attend some professional conference to increase the knowledge and skills. People

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who attend the professional conference should be able to communicate with each other and
understand the provided information. Many people from different hospital would exchange
idea, concept, and experiences.
After having interview with Katrin Saputra, and doing some research about future
discourse community. I realized that nursing is not only a job that takes care of people, but
also a job that needs to communicate with others. I admired those people who working in
hospital have capacity of interaction with others clearly and organizing reports efficiently.
Besides my academic knowledge, having English communication skills is also important in
my future job. On my journal of leaning, I should do some changes for myself in order to
qualify my ideal job. As a result, I decided to improve my English communication skills by
being a volunteer in hospital and taking advantage of participating the meetings when I go to
church every weekend. Also, I am willing to attend schools workshops to build my basic
English foundation.
All in all, I was born in a Nursing-family that my aunts and my mother are nurses.
Because of these environments and influences, I decided to be a nurse as my future career.
After these consideration, I made the conclusion that I am a passionate person who has a
willing heart to help others. I would like to be one of the many people who always try their
best to help others and contribute to the society as much as possible. As responsible citizens,
we should give back to the society.

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Saputra, Katrin. (2016, October 2). Personal interview.
Borg, Erik. "Key Concept in ELT." ELT Journal Volume 57/4 (2003): 398-400.
Arnold, Elizabeth and Kathleen Boggs. Documentation in the Age of the Electronic Health
Record. Interpersonal Relationships: Professional Communication Skills For Nurses. Saint
Louis:Elsevier/Saunders, 2011. 490.
Gee, James Paul. Literacy, Discourse, and Linguistics. Writing about Writing: A College
Reader. By Elizabeth Wardle and Doug Downs. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, 2011. 482494.