It is crazy to think that I am in my final semester of nursing school ever.

It seems like I

just started yesterday and didn't know anything about those scary IV pumps. Now I feel as if I

have a solid understanding of nursing and what it means to me. I am very grateful for this

opportunity I was given to expand my knowledge and even create friendships that will last a long

time. I am happy I was able to be a part of one organization and that is the college ambassador. I

was able to give tours to new students and I was able to help with the buddy program too. This

program was the reason why I ended up joining the college ambassador, because when I was a

new student my big buddy was very helpful and gave me great tips on how to study and how to

survive nursing school. I will say nursing school was the hardest part of my life if I am being

honest. Now only was I in nursing school, but I also started right when the pandemic of covid

started. This was honestly the worst time to start nursing school in history I feel like. We were

not able to come to college much and we were suggested to study online and not in person.

Nursing school was hard enough, but doing it alone was even harder. Unfortunately, there was

nothing we could do about it and we just had to ride the coivd wave.

I came into nursing wanting to start in critical care or even the emergency department. As

we were allowed to get more clinicals I found out that ortho and med surg units were not for me

and that is okay because everyone is different. It all changed when I was in my junior semester

and I had an observation in the ICU of St Francis, and I fell in love with the unit and the feel of

the rush of having critical patients and helping them become better hopefully. As I walked out of

that observation, I knew I was meant for critical care units and I applied to that same unit to be a

tech and I got the position. Fast forward to this semester my manager came up to me one shift

and asked if I saw myself being a nurse on this unit and I replied yes of course. He then extended

a full-time position to me and my dreams were made true that day. I will be starting there this
summer in July. I can't wait to see where this door leads me because I have so many goals, I want

to meet in my nursing career. I even got my clinical immersion in this unit and I was able to get a

taste of how it will be when I become a real nurse in this unit. I was able to help with rounds,

give meds to my patients, and even learn how to treat sedated and intubated patients properly. I

could go on and on how this experience really helped my confidence but that would take way too

long.

I feel like I have grown in my time management skills and ability to multitask with my

assigned patients. With having two very critical patients I had to learn fast how to manage my

time to make sure they both were taken care of. With my immersion my preceptor made sure to

share all her tips and tricks on how to cluster your care so you can always have time to chart

everything you have been doing. I was told you need to do the most important things first and

then assess what the patient needs at this moment. Being in the ICU you have to have

immaculate multitasking skills because you never know what will happen to your patient. I have

gotten better at being able to multitask on certain things to give me more time to have legit

patient care.

With graduating and entering a specialty unit I am very nervous entering this position. I

know I will get over these fears, but I also know I have a lot of growth I need to happen before I

start working alone. I know I need to learn more about signs and symptoms that would alert me

that my patient's condition has worsened or gotten better. I also know that my time management

skills can also become better. I would find myself catching up on charting so many times in my

immersion. So, I know that would be very helpful so I don't have to stay late to catch up on my

charting. I need to also get more comfortable with talking with doctors because I do have a fear
of them right now because I am a new grad nurse. I know it will take some time to make these

stronger, but I am up for the challenge.

I still cannot believe that I will be graduating this semester and soon enough I will be a

real nurse and taking care of patients. I will say it was not easy at all. There were many late

nights and tears shed over the past two years, but it was all worth it because I know I was called

to be a nurse. I cannot wait to graduate in a few weeks and actually begin my nursing career

journey. I know it won't be easy, but I know I can do all things through Christ who gives me

strength.