Journal 9- Madi Conrad

Part One: One research question that I had while reading was, On average how many people end up in the ICU in the U.S. a year? An ICU is an intensive care unit. One of the main things I found when researching this question was that every 2 years the amount of older age people increases by about 0.25. The most common result of people ending up in the ICU is also usually because of a lack of breath usually because of a heart attack. Most people are transferred from the emergency room to the ICU because of the long waiting times. The wait times can be over 5 hours to get into the ICU which can be even more life threatening than being transported directly to the ICU. It is believed that in the older population they are more likely to become sick recently which can cause them to become critically ill and end up in the ICU. Most patients who end up in the ICU to this day, are coming from the emergency departments.

This is a picture of what a usually ICU room would look like.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/05/130514212946.htm

Part Two: One theme that I largely saw throughout the book was that we as humans will not always find a job that we have a passion and drive for right away. The profile that had the largest impact on me in the book was ICU Nurse Michelle Alore on pages 138-141. This profile impacted me the most because I have never been able to understand how someone could work in the ICU because of how difficult it would be for me personally to see patient's in such critical conditions, and some hanging on to their last bit of life. I also was pulled into this profile largely because of the quote added towards the end of the profile. The quote explains how you have a drive for what your job otherwise it will feel as you are working for the rest of your life, 'You have to do what you want to do. This is the rest of your life-- you have to pick something that you're passionate about' (Isay 141).