Impacting Lives!

This past week, I finished the fall semester with my clinical group. I have worked with these students both in the classroom, lab and now in the clinical arena for the entire semester. As a clinical instructor, I am not sure that you really ever realize the impact you have on a student until you see the difference in what they have become.

Case in point are my initial freshmen students. These folks (most of them) were as green as green can come. Each having their own background and their own personal reason for wanting to join the ranks as a registered nurse. My quest, to teach them how to become registered nurses.

As we entered the clinical environment, I came to realize that these guys and girls had a great deal of anxiety. I thought anxiety was good, because it keeps you on your toes and helps you to question everything, making a mistake a lot harder to come by. After the first rotation, I could see that these students were going to need to some hard love! That is what they got. Hard love. My expectation of their knowledge growth was predictable. They knew I wanted them to learn and they worked hard to do what was needed to demonstrate their growth.

As the semester ended this week and I held my last clinical day with these young men and women, I was thrilled to be a part and to witness their knowledge growth. They had finished out their first semester and were successful. Each had developed strength, confidence, but more importantly, their passion to care for people became stronger.

I salute you guys - you know who you are and say thank you for making this last semester one of my best!

They asked me to publish this "ODE" that I wrote them for their last day - so here is the "ODE" as requested.

An Ode to the
Student Nurse

Fundamentals, sciences and labs galore
I am a student nurse and I know there is lots more
I work and I slave to know all this stuff and
Go to the bedside and lose it fast enough!

The teacher, he’s great and helps me a lot,
But when he asks why, I stand there in shock

Does he not know, does he not care,
I am a nursing student and I am aware!
Ask me those questions, I’ll tell you I know
But the truth is, I am buried in oh no!

Room 235 and 236 are assigned to me,
teacher comes down the hall to tell me they are all in pee
Luis is shoutin, help me in here
The patient is squirting, it looks like yellow beer.

Todd comes a running with Amanda aside,
Paige and Landon have on their stride.
They’re working sir, exclaims Mike with a grin,
As he barrels past with the hairs on his chin.

Tammy’s a smiling, she got quite the laugh
As she sees all the students quickly run past.
She shouts Hey Teacher, you need me there too,
Only to find that her patient is blue.

Autonomic Dysreflexia she shouts to the crowd,
But she knew it already and was real proud!
Bravo to you and all of your cronnies,
The nurses love you and they are not phonies.

Stephanie just stands there gathering it all in,
Oh these silly students, she says with a grin.
They will all learn, they will all know
That nursing is something you pace as you go.
No running is needed and no shouting galore,
Simply walk to the patient and clean the pee up off the floor.

This class is almost over and it all about to end,
I know I’ve learned a lot and Teacher has been my friend
Today I sit and ponder the fate of my career,
I wonder to myself, was that really beer?