Week 3 Reflections

      This past week has only confirmed my thoughts on pursuing a nursing career. I really enjoyed lab this week and I feel like our lab group is getting a lot closer. It's nice to know that everyone is on the same page and that we can all share in feeling nervous about clinicals, but so excited at the same time. 

      I was definitely feeling jittery when I woke up at 5 am on Friday, probably a combination of the time of day and anxiety about what I was going to do. I'll admit I was slightly nervous to take the blood pressure of an older lady because I did not want to do it so slowly as to take away feeling in her arm or too fast that I couldn't get an accurate reading. However, neither of these fears actually came true. I was happy to find out  a little later in the day that when the actual nurse took my patient's blood pressure with the automatic cuff that the results matched mine exactly! I am really thankful that my patient was easy to talk to and I enjoyed listening to all of her stories. During our clinical I kept thinking how I wouldn't want to do anything else (career wise) than providing care for people through nursing. I think having the clinical experience so early in our program is a huge blessing as well. It gives us a chance to practice everything we are learning on a real level. It is also great encouragement when I don't feel like studying for the midterm! I know in order to get to my destination I must study and learn all that I can. I will try to remember this when I get stressed and feel overwhelmed...

      I love knowing that everything I learn I will be able to use. I love wearing my scrubs and I love getting to brighten someone's day. I'm not sure which area of nursing I will end up in, but there is definitely something special about caring for those who don't have much longer to live and knowing that you have this opportunity to spend that time with them.