Until We Meet Again May God Hold You in the Palm of His Hand Tattoo
In that location's something special about Saint Anselm College nurses. While the qualities that make upwardly this unique grouping of people are often intangible, these selected nurse pinning essays from the class of 2019 get to the heart of what it truly means to be a nurse from Saint Anselm Higher. For those unfamiliar with the pinning anniversary, it celebrates the seniors' completion of the highly respected and rigorous nursing plan. The pivot symbolizes our nurses' preparedness to serve as a compassionate caregiver. When this year began, none of us knew how much the earth would need our nurses now more than always before. And while this year'due south pinning ceremony was unable to take identify in person, our nursing students from the course of 2020 have traded their student training scrubs for professional ones, doing what they do best: caring for others.
Mollie Mannion, R.N. '19
Medical-Surgical Floor
Boston Medical Middle, Boston, Mass.
A plow of the page, a knock on the door, a pick.
When I retrieve near my time in nursing school, I call up of it as a volume—and no, I am not talking almost Medical-Surgical Nursing: Assessment and Direction of Clinical Problems by Lewis, Bucher and Harding (2017). Although I did carry that one around campus and read information technology often (I highly recommend it, by the way), I'm thinking of a volume that tells a story.
Often when nosotros read storybooks, we want to skip to the stop, to the part where everything comes together and, in most cases, a happy ending is accomplished. There is no uncertainty that during nursing school there were times when we wanted to skim through the pages equally quickly equally possible to get to the and just because we thought those capacity were too difficult. I tin can't help only recollect what a shame this would have been. For the true dazzler of books is pages that might be a lilliputian crumpled and possibly even accept some tears from laughing too hard (or crying), the characters you meet, and the varying lessons in each chapter. I am certain at that place may have been a few paper cuts along the way, simply I am here to remind you lot that you should be proud because you chose to go through each affiliate (both adept and bad) of your personal nursing schoolhouse story and make information technology your ain.
Like all books, the story can sometimes have a tedious outset; however, none of you were fooled. For you were just too smart for that, knowing that the introduction is a crucial part to pay attention to, a foundation. Thus, you chose to go to our Tuesday/Thursday 8 a.m., two-and-a-half-hour lecture freshman year with Professor Welch where we learned the patient is a person start. Nosotros learned Swanson's Theory of Caring and that knowing, doing for, enabling, maintaining belief, and being with the patient during a most difficult time in their life tin can accept the biggest impact.
"In Fundamentals of Nursing nosotros learned the beauty of empathy and the significance in recognizing the humanity in others."
—Mollie Mannion, R.N. '19
Moreover, in Fundamentals of Nursing we learned the beauty of empathy and the significance in recognizing the humanity in others. During this form, nosotros chose to wear a brief (a big diaper) on a hot September mean solar day (all day), and to sit and spoon-feed and be fed by our lab partners so that we could put ourselves in our patient's shoes. I laugh thinking almost going to my non-nursing classes with my cursory bunching out of my pants, simply at the same fourth dimension I smile at just how lucky I am to be a part of a programme that emphasizes empathy and dearest.
The story continued and our lives became filled with clinical hours with new opportunities, choices, and pages to turn. We learned to recognize important lab values, perform the head-to-toe assessment, and synthesize the varying components of our patient's story. Nosotros made a choice each time nosotros went into the hospital, knocked on the door and said, "Hullo, I am going to exist your student nurse today." Backside each door was a new character who would impact our lives forever, whether we knew it or not.
Reflecting on the Saint A's nursing school journey, I am reminded of a quotation from Father Mathias during a senior retreat. "If yous carpe diem (Latin for seize the day), you will nunc dimittis (be dismissed)," he said. Elaborating, he explained if you make the choice to seize each mean solar day, you lot will have those 'aha' moments in life where you feel then connected to the moment you are in and at peace with what you are doing in life that you are able to say "Now I tin exist dismissed, Lord."
I realize I am turning the very final folio of an important book in my life. I thank you all for beingness a part of my personal nursing storybook. You each hold a special identify in my centre. I wait forward to starting the adjacent book in my series of life and feel so blessed to take my Saint A'southward nursing school volume engrained in my center and my listen to always look dorsum on.
Alexi Stathis, R.N. '19
Pediatric Onolocgy Clincal Nurse
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center,
Pediatric Oncology, New York, N.Y.
What does it mean to be a nurse?
Professor Welch asked us that question on the offset day of our kickoff existent nursing class: Introduction to Professional person Nursing. A few of us attempted to answer it, suggesting it involved beingness caring or helping people, but what none of united states knew was that only time and experience could show u.s.a. what it truly means to exist a nurse.
Every bit nosotros sit down hither today in our white uniforms and white caps, it feels incommunicable that we have made it this far. We all knew later freshmen year biochem this was non going to exist an easy journey, but looking back information technology was well worth it.
Sophomore yr, our nursing career actually took off because nosotros got our stethoscopes and learned how to accept vital signs. Shortly later, we put on our scrubs for the first time, got our hands blessed, and entered into our kickoff geriatric clinical rotation. At that point, we notwithstanding couldn't process the fact that we were allowed to collaborate with real people instead of simply using our mannequin "Annie," who couldn't be hurt by our mistakes.
After fumbling with the blood pressure cuffs and performing our ten-minute caput-to-toe assessments, nosotros quickly began to realize nursing was not merely about completing tasks. We began building rapport with our patients, listening to them tell stories almost when they were our age or about their grandchildren. We learned a lot about patients, but I'd say we learned more about life.
Equally nosotros moved on to med surg, nosotros started applying more disquisitional thinking skills and started thinking more like a healthcare professional person: analyzing the patient'due south history with our assessments, recognizing abnormal lab values, making nursing diagnoses and coming upwards with interventions. But more importantly, we connected our focus on patient-centered care.
My very first med surg patient was a 52-yr-old gentleman. I was receiving the report from the nurse when she informed me he had merely learned he had cancer with a poor prognosis. My heart sank and I stood trying to heed to the rest of what she was saying, but my listen was defenseless on that important detail. For someone who talks a lot, I had no idea what I was supposed to say to him.
Only I went in and I began past introducing myself. As I took his vital signs, I noticed he had a tattoo. After a cursory exchange regarding the tattoo, he went on and shared many memories and life experiences with me. What was supposed to be me taking vital signs for 5 minutes turned into an 60 minutes-long conversation. After, I realized I witnessed immediate this man reflect on his entire life. I saw what it was like to be at the terminate of your life and have regrets.
When I was leaving, he thanked me for listening and said, "You actually have no idea how much it meant and how much I appreciate y'all talking to me."
We all take had experiences similar this. Nosotros may have heard unlike stories, but nosotros've experienced like overwhelming emotions. We all accept had those days—when it all starts to experience a little too much. And for every hard moment nosotros've experienced, nosotros have a hundred incredible moments that remind usa why we chose nursing as a profession. It's the experiences we have had here, at Saint Anselm College, that volition shape u.s. into the nurses we will become.
" For every difficult moment we've experienced, we have a hundred incredible moments that remind united states of america why nosotros chose nursing as a profession."
—Alexi Stathis, R.N. '19
We never could have made it this far without the support from our professors, our friends, our family unit. We are forever grateful for everything you have done for u.s..
Finally, nosotros never could have made information technology this far without each other. We accept all grown and so much throughout these four years and I am so proud to be a office of the Saint Anselm Nursing Class of 2019. And at present (senior year) I know we all take the respond to the question: What does it mean to be a nurse?
Cecilia Mercadante, B.South.Due north., R.Due north. '19
Medical/Surgical Orthopedics, iii Garrison
Wentworth-Douglass Hospital, Dover, N.H.
High schoolhouse. College. Get a job.
That's the trajectory that was expected of all of united states of america sitting hither. High schoolhouse prepares yous for college. College prepares you for the existent earth. And in the real world, you need to go a chore.
I thought, when I first came to nursing school, that my path was every bit articulate as this, maybe even easy. Information technology was simple; I would go to college and so get a job as a nurse.
What I've since discovered is nursing is not an easy path. None of united states could have estimated the number of hours spent studying, reading, researching and writing papers, doing practise NCLEX-mode questions, projects, and learning to treat patients in labs and clinicals. We've spent an exhausting four years learning everything there is to know about the human torso. All of this has been in grooming for when we walk off this campus, pass the NCLEX (fingers crossed, on the commencement endeavor in 75 questions) and become a job every bit a nurse.
The 2nd misconception I had when I started school was thinking that nursing would be simply a job. Honestly, if nursing was just a job, no i would exercise it. Nursing schoolhouse has been challenging, and from what I've seen in clinical, nursing is ofttimes draining and exhausting as well. So why are nosotros here?
"Perhaps in all the stress and hard work, you've institute pregnant, fulfillment and beauty in this work."
—Cecilia Mercadante, B.S.N., R.Northward. '19
Maybe y'all are here considering y'all come from a long line of nurses, and you were inspired to exist similar them. Maybe y'all had an ill family unit member or friend, and the nurses cared for you equally much as they did for your loved one. Perhaps yous needed to be cared for yourself, and at present you tin do that for others. Or maybe, similar me, you just had a feeling. And now, in all the stress and hard piece of work, you've found meaning, fulfillment and dazzler in this work.
Whatever the reason, i thing is clear. After four years of lectures, studying, and thousands of NCLEX practice questions, nosotros aren't here to go a job equally a nurse. We are here to get nurses. I don't fully understand what that means yet, and maybe I never will, but I believe condign a nurse means we have responsibilities, both to ourselves and to those we care for.
Offset, it means nosotros should deed this out in all parts of our lives. To start, we need to take care of ourselves. Being kind to ourselves may exist the best way we tin give of ourselves to others.
Second, being a nurse means remembering this is not merely a science, but an art. Looking at my peers, I see qualified, intelligent and compassionate nurses who are all gear up for this work, but it is essential we remember our care goes beyond the physical. Over our fourth dimension at St. A's we have learned this well; from dancing in the halls with residents of the nursing homes, to practicing therapeutic communication with our med surg patients, to property the easily of loved ones in the ICU, to cheering on a mother as she enters some other hour of labor, to finding artistic means to reach vulnerable populations in Manchester or fifty-fifty Costa rica. And I could continue. Our patients' most important needs are often not physiological, but social, emotional, psychological or spiritual. When we begin working in a couple of months, I can imagine we will be overwhelmed with the science because in that location is so much to understand. In the midst of that, we have the responsibility to detect moments to practice nursing every bit an fine art.
Lastly, my promise is that we never treat this work as just a task.
When we feel burned out or exhausted, or that this profession we have chosen is becoming a series of tasks to accomplish, we should take a moment to remember those answers. Yous chose this for a reason; you put in all this fourth dimension and piece of work for a reason. And whatsoever that reason is, it boils down to the same thing: Today we are pinned; we practice not become qualified for a job. Today symbolizes that being a nurse is role of who we are.
Hashemite kingdom of jordan Ezekiel, R.N. 'nineteen
Emergency Department
Elliot Hospital, Manchester, N.H.
Walt Disney once said "all of our dreams can come true if we accept the courage to pursue them." For those of us sitting here in white, today celebrates a dream we had as children and chased to achieve. This chase was non easy. Sometimes information technology felt similar a sprint. Sometimes like the last 2 miles of a marathon. Sometimes like the mile-run you had to do in gym grade as a kid. Regardless, today those of the states who are existence pinned, and those who we love and take helped us through the challenges of nursing schoolhouse can all gloat as we approach the finish line together.
I recollect choosing to attend Saint Anselm College considering information technology seemed like the place where I could keep to be involved in many of the things I liked to practise in high school, in add-on to studying a subject I was passionate virtually: nursing. In one of our first nursing lectures, Professor Welch told us how throughout the years we would grow every bit nurses and our ideology backside why we wanted to become nurses and influence others would alter as we grew. I realized I was surrounded by students who seemed to know exactly why they wanted to be nurses and what specialty they wanted to pursue. I, however, had absolutely no idea why I wanted to be a nurse. Of course, there were e'er the general ideas such every bit "I like helping people," but I felt similar it had to exist then much more than that.
Our nursing instructors taught us the importance of holistic intendance and building patient connections. I thought it sounded wholesome, only integrating this along with all of the other things we were supposed to remember seemed overwhelming.
During 1 clinical day, I was caring for a woman recovering from a stroke. The woman would not speak but cried often. During morning care, I started humming and singing softly to her, and I saw her optics change in the manner that she looked at me. They were soft and gentle, and I could tell she did non desire me to stop. I continued singing, this time a piddling louder, and after she began singing with me equally best she could.
The nurses on the floor told me they had not gotten a word out of her for months, and hither she was spending the afternoon sitting in her chair singing with me. I knew correct then what it meant to be a holistic nurse, and I saw what calorie-free a small gesture could bring to someone. Now I knew why I wanted to be a nurse.
" I knew right then what it meant to be a holistic nurse, and I saw what low-cal a small gesture could bring to someone."
—Hashemite kingdom of jordan Ezekiel, R.N. '19
Along with the high moments during nursing school accept been those when we question ourselves—is this actually what I want to be doing? I just got beneath a 70 percent, am I going to recover?
Am I going to exist able to handle the responsibility of having the lives of others in my hands? Sometimes there have been moments where we wanted to cry and quit rather than submit two case studies, study for anatomy applied, write a research paper, take a patho exam, get to 16 hours of clinical, do a VSIM, 2 ATIs, and two more exams all in i week. But we didn't quit. And we should exist proud.
Aside from graduation and finals, today is one of the last days we will spend together as the Nursing Form of 2019. Whatever path we choose to pursue from here, may we always retrieve our dwelling on the Hilltop and the many blessings it brought the states, and our loved ones. Let united states say a special thank-y'all today to our instructors and professors who guided us over the years and believed in our capabilities through our lowest and highest moments. Let usa give our parents an extra big hug for ever being on the other end of the telephone when we needed to cry, for cheering united states on all the way, and for being here today jubilant in our future. Nosotros could not have done it solitary.
I wish yous all nothing but grace, forcefulness and happiness as we close out this chapter and begin a new i.
Valerie Pauer, R.Due north. '19
Cardiovasular Surgical Unit of measurement
Catholic Medical Centre, Manchester, N.H.
Today, nosotros are gathered over again in the Abbey church building, just every bit we were two years agone for the Blessing of the Easily, a ceremony that marked the first of our journey to become Saint Anselm nurses.
We have grown and then much as nursing students as well as individuals during our time on the Hilltop. As students, we have caused an immense corporeality of knowledge through the successful completion of the highly respected and rigorous nursing plan here at Saint Anselm.
While this pinning ceremony commemorates the cease of our journey as Saint Anselm nursing students, it also marks the beginning of our tenure as Saint Anselm nurses—which brings up the question: What is a Saint Anselm nurse?
It is difficult to draw what sets a Saint Anselm nurse apart inside the nursing profession. Countless times, when I have talked to patients, members of the community or other healthcare professionals, I have received an outpouring of compliments and praise regarding the excellence of Saint Anselm nurses. I have heard comments such equally "I love Saint Anselm nurses; Saint Anselm nurses are the all-time; I'm and so thankful to accept a Saint Anselm nurse taking intendance of me; I love hiring and working with Saint Anselm nurses." Yet it is oft hard for people to explain in words what makes Saint Anselm nurses so special. Every bit a student nurse, I often hear people say, "There is merely something nigh you." This is something that I myself have pondered, and I would like to share with y'all, in my ain words, my interpretation of the essence of a Saint Anselm nurse.
There is no doubt that Saint Anselm nurses are clinically competent, as evidenced by our rigorous curriculum and outstanding faculty who accept served equally extraordinary nurse office models for each one of us, both inside the classroom besides equally in clinical rotations. We all owe a special thanks to our kinesthesia who accept inspired us with their passion for and dedication to the nursing profession. The countless hours of nursing lectures, studying in groups with each other, completing ATI and Evolve quizzing, working through circuitous case studies, receiving 1-on-one assist from our professors, writing papers, and answering seemingly impossible "Select All That Apply" questions have prepared us well to master cognition needed to laissez passer the NCLEX and get registered nurses.
We are both competent and holistic nurses, as we are able to care for others at their nearly vulnerable times with thoughtfulness, pity, and humbleness. Our studies of the liberal arts accept not only instilled in united states a lifelong desire to pursue truth, but the liberal arts take likewise further cultivated the innate qualities that drew us to Saint Anselm in the beginning place. I consider these qualities to be strength, backbone, wisdom, patience, pity and agreement. Information technology is these qualities that set Saint Anselm nurses autonomously.
Our scrubs will no longer be embellished with the SAC logo, and our multiple I.D. badges will not identify us every bit Saint Anselm Nursing Students, and we will no longer innovate ourselves as "Hi, my name is Valerie, and I am a Saint Anselm educatee nurse who will be helping to take intendance of you today." Equally we move beyond the Hilltop, however, and become out into the world to fulfill our private roles equally registered nurses, our identity every bit Saint Anselm nurses will forever exist demonstrated past the compassion, strength, agreement, wisdom and patience that guides the way we volition care for our patients. Our unique Anselmian identity will exist evident through our power to demonstrate strength, courage and organized religion in the most trying times in our careers. The cultivation of these qualities is a quintessential element of the identity of a Saint Anselm nurse, and it is what makes Saint Anselm nurses so special.
"Our unique Anselmian identity will exist evident through our ability to demonstrate strength, backbone and faith in the well-nigh trying times in our careers."
—Valerie Pauer, R.N. 'nineteen
In closing, to the Nursing Form of 2019: Permit the Saint Anselm College nursing pins we receive today serve every bit everlasting reminders of our duties to faithfully serve God and humbly care for our fellow men through our calling to the sacred profession of nursing.
Congratulations and best wishes to all my fellow Anselmian nurses. Until we see over again, may God hold you in the palm of His manus. Give thanks you and God bless you all.
Source: https://www.anselm.edu/portraits-magazine/i-am-nurse
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