I came into the Bon Secours nursing program as a certified nurse assistant (CNA) with a

couple months experience working in a hospital. I was just getting the hang of patient care and

how the healthcare field worked when nursing school started. My sophomore semester required

me to re-think how I learned information, studied, and tested. I experienced difficulty combining

my new nursing knowledge with the ability to answer NCLEX style questions because it was

such a different way of thinking. I realized that nursing isn’t just learning skills and disease

processes; it also requires great emotional fortitude and the ability to learn an entirely new

language. I learned the basics of assessing a patient but still felt like I needed to frequently stop

and think about what I was going to do next. My clinical experience that first semester felt really

easy because it was essentially performing the same tasks that I had been doing at work as a

CNA.

By the time I was in my first semester of junior year I felt more confident in my ability to

understand and apply the information that was being taught. The tests felt less like a cognitive

marathon because I was learning to isolate the pertinent information and think like a nurse.

Without realizing it I found myself becoming more proficient with understanding and speaking

like a healthcare professional. I no longer needed to look up every word in a physician’s note

because I was beginning to retain terminology as well as understand how different disease

processes interacted. I loved my classes because I felt like I was finally receiving practical

information that would form the basis of my nursing knowledge. One of the main reasons I

wanted to be a nurse was because I love learning and I knew that the nursing field requires

lifelong learning and constant curiosity. The classes my Junior 1 semester piqued my curiosity

and opened my eyes to how vast the medical world can be. My clinical experiences challenged

me in ways that I hadn’t felt the previous semester because I was learning how to assess real
patients with real problems. I found medication administration to be a daunting challenge since it

was one of the more invasive and irreversible actions that I could perform.

My Junior 2 semester felt like a continuation of my Junior 1 semester but with

increasingly specialized information. I was already beginning to feel the urge to graduate and

learn from true hands-on experiences. It was this semester that I also began to feel burned out

and exhausted from the constant barrage of information and assignments. I really relied on my

study group as a support system and a motivator to keep going. My Junior 2 semester is when the

COVID-19 pandemic hit and kicked us out of the College and clinical. Instead of questioning my

decision to enter the healthcare field, the suffering and fear caused by the pandemic strengthened

my resolve to graduate and become a nurse. I wanted nothing more than to be on the front lines

with the other nurses during that hard time.

Although we would never go back to classes in person, I was lucky enough to continue

my clinical experience during my Senior 1 semester. I was never excited about senior year

because I knew that we would be taking specialty classes such as pediatrics and maternity

nursing which was never my interest. My Senior 1 semester represented a difficult time for me as

well because I felt that I was getting very little practical experience which was the part that I

enjoyed most. This is also the reason that I love my Senior 2 semester so incredibly much. Not

only are we back in the hospital but I also got to complete my immersion on a critical care unit

which has been my dream since before I started nursing school. It was this semester that I felt the

most tangible change in my knowledge and skills. The beginning of my immersion experience

made me feel like I knew absolutely nothing and how no idea how to be a nurse. I thought

clinicals had prepared me for what a nurse does on a daily basis but I realized that I had

essentially no clue as to the true responsibilities of a nurse. That first day felt like a culture shock
but by the end of my immersion hours I truly understood what being a nurse looked like and

even felt like I was on my way to becoming one.

I realize there is significant room for growth in just about every area of my nursing

practice. I feel that the most important aspects are my time management skills and knowing

when to talk to physicians. I believe that I have a really strong base of knowledge and skills with

which to start my nursing career and only time and experience can bolster their growth.