Reflective Letter 1:
Dear Marlen,
This is the first class of my college career that I have had to write a piece of works that was of my own original thought involving research. My senior year of high school was my last “research” paper. However, it was more like a lit review. I have enjoyed working on this research paper and having your curriculum to guide me through the process. This class is a difficult for me sometimes tho.
I have had a hard time keeping up with the work involved in this class. However, becuase of the outline I know what I need to have done by a certain point within the semester. This eliminates some of the stress from writing this paper because as long as I do what the syllabus says and keep up with the work I can get done what needs to get done.
I have had a difficult time with how much of this course is computer based. There have been several times when my computer would not let me get the work done that needed to be done. Only once has wordpress deleted my work, but it happened and that sucked. My wireless in my apartment is really bad. I think that if I had better internet service it would be less stressful finishing what needs to be done for this class.
Until this class, I had never looked up any part of the writing process on the internet. The information on the web about the writing process is so helpful and gives a different view as to how to approach the writing process. Although this class is difficult I enjoy the idea that at the end of this semester I will have a 15 page piece of works that will encompass everything that I have worked on so far.
Thank you,
Your Friend,
Andrea 
Reflective Letter 2:
Dear Marlen,
I have had a very long semester this spring of 2010. On top of having nursing clinicals and the dreaded microbiology class, I enrolled in your research writing class. The journey was very long but I created what I believe to be the best piece of research that I could ever produce in one semester. I also lossed my fear of writing papers because after a fifteen page paper, a two page one is nothing.
Thank you for your guidance through this entire course. You are a great role model for academia and I enjoyed your class. Also, Thank you for ripping me a new one when my paper wasn’t quite up to par. It needed it. I believe that if I had not taken your course I wouldn’t have learned anything new about the research writing process.
I am forever thankful that I took your class. I have Research Utilization for Nursing next semester and I know I am prepared for the class.
Thank you So much for everything,
Andrea
p.s. Thank you for the bed set… We’ll get it in June
Letter to Editor:
Andrea Chandler
103 Jenks St.
Brookville Pa., 15825
814-715-3030
Managing Editor
mlewishunstiger@chcm.com
Date: May 4, 2010
Dear Marty Lewis-Hunstiger,
My name is Andrea Nicole Chandler. I am a sophomore nursing student at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. Before I started nursing school I began to work at an assisted living facility in a rural town in Pennsylvania. I worked there as a direct caregiver and a mobile caregiver. That experience inspired me to write an autoethnography on the importance of higher educated caregivers in assisted living facilities.
Throughout my nursing clinicals I have noticed a great deal of differences in the care giving techniques taught in assisted living facilities compared to those taught in my nursing program. My nursing classes focus on patient centered care whereas the assisted living facility focused on task oriented care. In my experience, staff of assisted living facilities are undereducated and do not reflect evidence based practices. I researched the care that is necessary to provide quality care in assisted living facilities and then compared these qualities to what I have experienced.
It is important for assisted living facilities to hire more higher educated caregivers so that care in the facility is patient centered. Higher educated caregivers also think critically and will cut costs to the facility and increase the quality of the care. Also, if assisted living facilities would hire registered nurses, these nurses would help to make the licensed practical nurses on staff into expert ones.
Thank you for taking the time to read my article. I hope that my article can expose some of the downfalls in assisted living facilities. I also hope that this article will demonstrate the importance of higher educated caregivers in the assisted living facility.
Sincerely,
Andrea N. Chandler
