Nursing Student Online Journal

G. Rodriguez is a second year nursing student at Gavilan Community College nursing school. Her program is three years long. She completed the math and science pre-requisites before starting the program. During her first year she spent time on clinical rotations on the medical-surgical floor in three different hospitals in the south bay area. This year, she is focusing on the mother-baby unit for half of the semester, and then she’ll complete the semester back in the medical-surgical unit.

Even though she is busy with volunteer work and her nursing education, she agreed to share some of her experiences. We’ll post new journal entries twice a month during this school year.

Ms. Rodriguez can’t wait to be a nurse and hopes her journal will provide encouragement for anyone considering a career in nursing.

Journal Entry: March 31, 2005

Part of the pediatric rotation includes a couple of days at the child development center located on campus in Gilroy. We spend a few days with the preschoolers, a day with the toddlers and infants. I have never been in a daycare, and I’m surprised I made it through the day. I don’t remember the last time I played with Playdo for so long making pretend objects yet enjoying it completely. Observing normal devlopment in preschoolers, toddlers, and infants is our main objective. We pick one or two kids and record their height, wieght, and vitals. The atmosphere is so different at the daycare than in the hospital, it makes it hard to believe that children can become so ill. I think this was the most enjoyable time I have spent with children. I was able to play games with them while I differentiated their ages and developmental stages. Their energy level is amazing, I could not believe how exhausted I was at the end of the day.

In lecture we have been learning about congenital and aquired diseases for children, how important immunizations are, and our role as nurses in caring for ill children. Even though we all work and have other classes to worry about, along with clinicals we had a lot of studying to do for our 120 question midterm that covers about 20 chapters.

We were all hanging in there knowing that spring break was right around the corner. We also began plans for our up coming graduation. This semester is already half-way done, and soon we will all be nurses.