do you remember when I wrote about my first year of
nursing school as part of the
whirlwind update in may?
{Nursing School 101. + Nursing School 201.}well, hold on because i'm unpacking my 3rd semester for you today...
(I know I've been writing about it all along, but just humor me here)
a per tradition, here is the stack of textbooks that i've been pouring through over the past 5 months. i had a
whopping 7 classes this semester:
Nursing History & Health Policy
Community Health & Home Care Nursing Didactic
Community Health & Home Care Nursing Clinical
Maternity Nursing Didactic
Maternity Nursing Clinical
Pediatric Nursing Didactic
Pediatric Nursing Clinical
It was a busy one, folks... yet amazing in so many ways...
- Pediatric Nursing -oh, pediatric nursing. i loved it. as you may remember, i was placed on the children's cancer unit at primary childrens hospital here in Salt Lake. i was so nervous about working with kids with cancer, but ended up falling in love with it. Even though parts were incredibly heart breaking, it was also incredibly beautiful to see kids gain victory over terrible diseases. i learned so much about the different dynamics of working with kiddos, it's definitely not as romantic as you might think. i can really see myself working here someday... praying for lots of job openings in may!
highlight: watching an 8-year old cancer survivor ring the bell of hope in celebration of his last chemotherapy treatment. there are no words for what this did to my heart.
- Maternity Nursing -let's just say that i was happy to survive this one. maternity nursing is just not my thing. out of all of the grotesque things i've seen in school, i've never felt like i was going to pass out until this rotation... that being said, i still cried every time I saw a birth take place. it is one of the most beautiful mysteries in life, and i am so thankful for the amazing maternity nurses out there. i'm just not one of them.
highlight: watching my first in-person delivery, such a crazy mix of emotions, but it was so incredibly beautiful to watch a new little life enter the world.
- Community Health Nursing -my public health rotation was definitely unique. i was placed with the burn center at the university of utah hospital. i did something different every week, from the outpatient clinic to the ICU and community education to wound care. i pretty much saw the full spectrum of burn care, and let me tell you, it is crazy intense! i think that suffering a serious burn injury is one of the most painful things that i've watched patients go through. i sat in on a burn support group and it was so apparent that the scars were much deeper that what was seen on the outside, there was a huge psychosocial piece to this type of nursing and i really enjoyed that. but hearing people scream out in pain for hours at a time is just too hard on my little heart. i really enjoyed my time here and learned a TON, but i definitely don't see myself going into burn nursing.
highlight: witnessing a man take his first steps after months of rehabilitation post burn injury. He took about 5 steps, then sat down and wept. I sat down with him and cried a few tears too.------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
my experiences this semester were broad and full, and i think they grew me a lot, both as a nurse and a person. it's great to know that i'm exactly where i'm supposed to be... for so long i've been frustrated just wanting to be done with school, but this semester i came to a place where i realized that i am here, right now, for a reason that's bigger than simply being finished someday. how 'bout that ladies and gents, by the 5th year of college i finally have some perspective :) haha. really though, what is notoriously known as the hardest semester of nursing school was one of my best. i was still busy, but was rarely stressed and had a lot better balance in my life. i don't quite know how, but i really believe that God gave me his strength and changed my heart towards school. i also think that my
little project in cultivating thankfulness has guarded my heart from being consumed by pessimism and bad moods (which is so easy to do when you're in school). overall, this was a stellar semester and i'm so grateful for the things i was able to walk through in it.
thank you, lord, for walking with me through the past 5 months! i would have been consumed without you.
