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: November 17, 2004

I'm happy to say that the midterm was a challenge, but I managed to pass it with a decent B. When studying for tests that cover half of the semester, it's harder to focus on just one thing. It is best to study basic concepts of disease processes, nursing assessments and interventions. I was really nervous when the 150-question test was in front of me, but as I read every question, the more confident I became. In nursing school, they want you to refine your critical thinking skills to solve problems, because when you are in the hospital dealing with each individual patient every situation will be different. As a nurse you need to know the facts, and understand a disease yet be able to use your expertise to solve the problem.

We haven't been able to go to the hospital for our medical-surgical rotation due to various reasons, but we have been meeting at school for practice. During this time we review different procedures that we perform in the hospital with real patients. In class we have dummies, models and real equipment that we use to practice with. This time we practiced inserting Foley catheters, naso-gastric tubes, and injections with different types of needles. We already learned these techniques last year, but the saying "practice makes perfect" really does apply to nursing. Sterile technique (used in catheterization) is a very important skill, that can save a patient from further infection if done correctly. It is also very easy to insert a naso-gastric tube into a dummy that won’t gag, or complain rather than a sick patient.