Addie Aldridge

121 Tilton Drive

Mooresville, NC 28115
October 11, 2018

Dear Mr. Alburger,

My name is Addie Aldridge, and I am a junior at Pine Lake Prep. For my pride paper, I have
conducted research about nursing in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU). I have chosen this topic
because nursing interests me very much. I specifically chose the Trauma, Surgical, and Pediatric
ICU because of the atmosphere of the working environment. I also would enjoy caring for these
patients and engaging with them through the care that I would provide. I hope to learn more
about this profession by creating the pride paper and pride product. I also hope to gain an
understanding of whether this career would suit me and my interests well or not. I found
important information about the three specific ICU departments from the websites
Nursingjobs.com, Uofmhealth.org, Hospitalrecruiting.com. These particular sites helped me gain
more insightful information about these ICU departments, which led me to choose them based
off of my interests.

My interests still lie in all three different departs of the ICU I previously listed, but I am leaning
more towards either the Trauma or Pediatric ICU. My pride paper will include the most detailed
research that I find on the topics chosen. For instance, I will write about the daily responsibilities
of these different nurses, and their obligations to the patients that they care for. I will apply this
information to my paper by first introducing the main topic of my research and chosen career. I
will also give a brief history of the ICU and how I first became inspired to be an ICU nurse. I
will then branch off into the other departments I am interested in, showing why they interest me.
In the midst of writing the pride paper, I hope to learn much more about the profession I have
chosen to somewhat prepare me for the lessons that I will learn in college, in high school, and
during my mentoring hours.

Relating to mentoring hours, I do not currently have a mentor, but I do have some ideas in mind.
My father presently works at a clinic, but he used to work in the ICU at the University of
Kentucky for 11 years. I have talked to him about mentoring hours and he has friends in his
current job, and previous job, that he is currently talking to about my shadowing in the ICU. I
understand that there is almost no “hands-on” activity that I could participate in while
shadowing, but I can learn very much from observing ICU nurses going through their day to day
agendas.
I have read Pine Lake’s ethics guide and understand that plagiarism, either intentional or
unintentional, will result in a zero on my paper.

Sincerely,
Addie Aldridge