My name is Maylyn, and I am a first-year student at Trent University’s Collaborative Nursing Program. I am a 2020 Registered Practical Nursing Program graduate from Durham College. My goal has always been to become a Registered Nurse, however, like many people, COVID-19 delayed my plans.

While I waited for post-secondary schools to open up to in-class programs again, I have been working as an RPN for the last four years. I started my healthcare profession as a community PSW after completing the first year RPN program. Once I graduated,  got a job at a family physician/urgent care clinic as an RPN. Eventually, I started working on a medicine unit in a hospital, and I just transferred to a more specialized unit within the hospital, hemodialysis.

While working on the medicine unit, I had the pleasure of working with some amazing nurses, some of whom are also in this program currently upgrading from RPN to RN as well. They motivated me to take this next step and pursue furthering my education as I had originally planned before the pandemic. During my time on the medicine unit, I eventually became a preceptor to a few RPN students. I enjoyed mentoring them so much that it has since made me consider becoming a teacher within the nursing profession. I am not sure if I would prefer to be a professor in a classroom, in a skills lab, or a clinical instructor, but I do know that over the next four years at Trent, I will be putting great thought into this.

My goal is to graduate with honours. Return to either medicine or perhaps the emergency room (I did my RPN consolidation in an ER), to brush up on a variety of nursing skills for a few years. Afterwards, I hope to go back to dialysis full-time, and eventually work as a teacher once I have around 10+ years experience in nursing. Whether that be through post-secondary or as a clinical practice leader within the hospital. I have been thoroughly enjoying learning and sharing the knowledge I have gained, and hope to be able to continue down this path as time goes on.

This learning journey will be greatly beneficial to use as a tool to reflect on at the end of my studies when I try to pursue a career in teaching. I am quite excited to see the chapters get filled over the years to come.