Professional Activity Paper

Introduction

For my professional activity, I completed various American Heart Association Learning

courses, until I reached 8 credit hours of course work. Although many of the activities were

different, I chose them based on how they could relate to my love and future practice of critical

care/emergency nursing. Although they seem disconnect from each other, I saw them as relating

to different aspects of critical care. For example, maternal courses were chosen because if these

patients were present to the ER, slight changes and signs can be vital to not only the health of the

mother, but also the baby. Embolism and blocks of vessels in the body require quick response to

avoid further damage to patients, which is why I chose the ATTR amyloidosis and embolism

courses. And I also chose courses to help supplement my knowledge on fundamental tasks of

critical medicine, such as interpreting and measuring vitals correctly, and knowing rate and

rhythm for A-fib. The specific activities included emerging therapies for ATTR Amyloidosis,

guideline-directed treatment of VTE’s, Hypertensive disorders of Pregnancy, Measuring

accurately workshop, rhythm vs rate control in A-fib, Cardiovascular health in maternal patients,

and safe use of anticoagulation therapy for thromboembolisms.

Body

To start, I chose the courses about ATTR amyloidosis because I was interested in what

amyloidosis is, and how one protein (transthyretin) can cause a buildup of proteins to cause

nerve damage. This is valuable to me because of understanding what it is and how it presents,

especially since it shows similar symptoms to other conditions such as a MI or stroke. But in the

ER, seconds are vital to saving a patient, so being able to advocate that this may be ATTR
amyloidosis instead of something else, especially since it is less known, is vitally important.

Next, I was interested in treatment of venous thromboembolism (VTE)and safe use of

anticoagulation therapy because these are both issues one would see in a critical care/emergency

setting, which is where I want to work. These modules went into how to treat VTE’s, since some

treatments, such as clot busters, can cause a lot of dangerous side effects like internal bleeding.

This is related to anti-coagulation therapy, as it is in the same realm of treatment for similar

conditions. In emergency care, understanding these treatments is important now, because I would

not have time then to research it, as the window to treat certain conditions like strokes is very

narrow.

Next, I chose the hypertensive disorders of pregnancy and cardiovascular health in

maternal patients topics because I wanted to refresh my OB/L&D knowledge, but also these

patients are some of the most critical patients one could see, so understanding that knowledge in

depth is crucial. Many pregnant patients can present with dangerous hypertensive emergencies,

such as pre-eclampsia, and if there are issues with the cardiovascular system, then prefusion for

the mother and baby could be negatively affected. A nurse never knows what you may see in an

ICU/ER, so being prepared for my future career includes knowing how to care for

maternal/pregnant patients competently. Finally, I chose the measuring accurately workshop and

rhythm vs rate control in A-fib courses because these both relate to simply looking at vitals and

interpreting the information correctly, which is hugely important to watch highly critical patients.

If vitals (specifically blood pressure, which was what was covered in this course) are not

measured accurately, then diagnosis could be mis-diagnosed, which causes more harm to

patients. In a critical care setting, one mistake such as that could be fatal to my patients, so

honing my skills on this is crucial. And A-fib is something that I noticed is common in many
patients, so understanding the rate and rhythm of this can really help me care for my patient that

has it or monitor it in a safe way.

Conclusion

Overall, I chose all of these activities due to my goals of working in critical care and

emergency medicine. In these areas, a nurse will see a large variety of patients with many diverse

conditions and diagnosis. And not only that, but these patients can also be extremely critical, and

not understanding one facet of their condition could cause a sharp decline in their condition, and

even leading to death. That is why understanding patients in the maternal ward to

stroke/embolism/ ATTR Amyloidosis patients is extremely important, as although they don’t

seem related on a surface level, they are related in that they are critical patients that I may see in

my future career. Even fundamental concepts must be mastered, such as A-fib and vital

signs/measuring tools, which these courses taught me. I do not know when I will see these

conditions, or even if I will see some of them, but I am prepared to deal and treat my patients

with competency and knowledge if they do come in. So, thank you to American Heart

Association for creating these lifelong learning courses, as they will help me excel in my future

career of critical care and emergency medicine.