Third Week of Nursing School

October 5^th, 2012

To My Third Week of Nursing School,

            Wow…I’m already 25% done with the first semester of nursing school! I find it crazy how fast time has flown by. School is beginning to become more and more hectic and it’s hard keeping all of our assignments and exams for each class in check. Most of the students are anxious about next week’s pathophysiology exam and the feeling is extremely contagious. I’m constantly re-compiling a list    of what is due just to make sure that I don’t miss anything. I’m not sure if this is my stress shining through or if I’m just trying to avoid the inevitable of studying for pathophysiology. I swear that my stress level skyrockets whenever I open that book.

            Anyways, since I talked about my second off-campus clinical already I figured I would address some thoughts that came to mind yesterday in my Professional Nursing class. I felt that the whole discussion about the heart of nursing was too over the top and unrealistic. In theory, the concepts covered may sound wonderful, but in practice it is very difficult to uphold that mindset. I do agree though that every patient that comes in is another opportunity to meet someone new and another opportunity for me to make an impact on the patient/resident and vice versa. When discussing this topic, I thought back to a couple months ago when I was still attending my nursing aide clinicals. I remember many of the residents’ faces and remember the names of exactly four individuals who I will probably remember for the rest of my life. In a time span of a month, I became attached to these four residents, more than I had ever expected. For example, there was a resident that I was assigned to one morning who was known to curse out anyone who would try and give him a bed bath or shower. After performing the task, I disregarded all the rumors I had heard. Sure, the resident was “difficult” but by thoroughly explaining to the resident what I was going to do to help him with every step of the way, he became noticeably calmer and stopped cursing. After completing my task the patient said “Am I all straightened out now?” and apologized and thanked me for my help. That “difficult” patient was by far my favorite patient to deal with and in fact I frequently asked if I could work with him. I constantly wonder how the residents in that nursing home are doing, and whether they are still going strong. I believe it is going to take some getting used to, this whole meeting and leaving patients that we have the honor of coming into contact with.

Goodbye Third Week of Nursing School,

Clos3tGirlyGirl