Reflection

         My first semester of nursing school has taught me several things. While I expected nursing school to be challenging, it was more challenging than I was expecting. I started my university experience in another program: teacher education. In my first year of university, I took a human physiology course and thoroughly enjoyed it.  I had always considered nursing as a career path, and this course showed me that this kind of content excited me. I had a friend who was in the nursing program, and after expressing my interest in the program, she encouraged me to apply. I chose to apply to the nursing program for this year, and I was accepted.

When comparing the workload of my teacher education program to the workload of the nursing program, the nursing program has a substantially higher workload. The first few weeks of the program were a major adjustment as I attempted to navigate a new workload and a new job in Trent recruitment and admissions. Through attempting to navigate this workload, I believe that my time management and critical thinking improved as I tried to find the best ways to prioritize my time. I believe that this workload is designed to get nursing students accustomed to making timely decisions and learning what to prioritize. Learning time management and prioritization plays a key role in effective nursing care in the clinical setting, allowing you to make informed decisions in short amounts of time (Vizeshfar et al., 2022). Assignments in this program can be confusing and can leave a lot up to interpretation. Having trustworthy, responsible peers to bounce ideas off of is incredibly helpful. I believe that, in this way, the program prepares nursing students to work in a team and collaborate with others. I believe that collaboration is one of the most important skills in nursing. Morley & Cashell (2017) explain how good collaboration leads to improved health outcomes and enhanced decision-making. Overall, the setup and the workload of this program indirectly prepare students for working as a nurse not just through skills but also through values.

As described in my belief statement, I believe that advocacy, authenticity, responsibility and compassion are the most important aspects of nursing care and I believe that this program teaches you all of them.  First, the program teaches advocacy by getting you to advocate for yourself. There are many challenging aspects to the program and everyone needs support at some point. Whether it be getting questions answered, asking for feedback for improvement on future assignments, or getting support for a difficult topic, students learn how to advocate for the support they need to get them through difficult parts of the program.

The program also teaches authenticity by providing authentic role models. As mentioned in my core value statement for authenticity, I believe that authenticity encompasses having open communication. The professors, and seminar leaders in the nursing program are incredibly authentic.  They encourage open communication and honesty and this helps to build relationships. By having mentors who radiate authenticity, we learn the importance of this trait and can implement it into our own nursing care.

Responsibility is taught as we learn to meet multiple deadlines for assignments and as we meet the requirements of the NARs to attend clinical.  We also learn responsibility as we receive feedback on assignments and labs and take accountability for making improvements to meet learning goals. The concept of responsibility is complex and Ghasemi et al. (2018) suggest that educational, personal, and professional factors lead to the emergence of responsibility in nursing students. Therefore, our classes, professors, peers, and clinicals prepare us for the level of responsibility necessary to be effective nurses.

Compassion is taught as we learn about the social determinants of health and how having compassion and treating everyone with equal care and respect will increase health outcomes. Overall, this program prepares students for a future in nursing care by building the skills and values needed to be an effective nurse. I am incredibly grateful to be one of the students learning these skills and values and look forward to continuing my learning and accumulation of nursing knowledge.