You’ve seen all the girls (and guys) walking around campus with maroon scrubs on, stethoscopes around their necks, and most likely, coffee in hand. This is just a typical morning for a BC nursing student. While some people are learning in the classroom what they will be doing in their future jobs, CSON (Connell School of Nursing) students practice their future jobs twice a week. At clinical, nurses help deliver babies and give shots on a daily basis. Nurses get to be a part of everything that goes on in the hospital.
As a junior in CSON, I realize that a lot of students do not know how many roles nurses fulfill. Whether working in a hospital as a registered nurse (RN) or getting your Ph.D to become a Doctor of Nursing Practice, nurses can do anything from hanging IVs to researching the different care tactics when caring for a stroke patient. You can even choose to see a nurse practitioner for your yearly check-up instead of a doctor if you want.
But what does it really mean to be a nurse? It doesn’t mean we just take vital signs and administer meds. We are the ones who care for the patient all hours of the day, who advocate for ethical care when the patient cannot, and who teach the patient how to lead a healthy lifestyle. Treating the whole patient is exactly what the Connell School of Nursing has taught me, along with my fellow CSON-ers.
To all those freshmen out there who don’t know if nursing is for you, think about this: nursing can fit a variety of different interests. If you can’t decide if you want to be in Lynch or CSON, combine both and become a nurse educator. If CSOM and CSON both look appealing, look into becoming a nurse entrepreneur. There are so many different things you can do with nursing. If you have to, combine all of your interests! We participate in so many activities when not in class, such as singing in a capella groups, being on a dance team, working at the Plex, or writing for Her Campus BC. See, we do have lives outside of nursing!
One of the questions that I always get though is, are there any guys in nursing? The answer is yes! When you think CSON, you probably picture a class in Cushing filled with girls hanging out in scrubs. However, if you went into a CSON class, you will see male nurses do exist at BC. There are a record amount of nine “murses” in the freshmen class!
“At first being one of the only guys in nursing was intimidating,” said Gio Trilleras. “But all the girls were really welcoming and embraced the idea. It has been the same in all of my clinicals as well. I chose nursing after working for a couple months as the greeter to Dean Gennaro’s office. Everyone in Cushing was always smiling and happy, while everyone in Higgins (I was a Physics major at the time) looked occupied and stressed. I figured that the faculty and staff in Cushing must be doing something right with their professions.”
I think I can speak for my classmates when I say that CSON student love what they are going to do in the future. When we are setting that alarm for 5:30 am or helping a patient learn to talk, we do it because we want to help someone else. To all of us, nursing is a work of heart. So our message to you is be nice to us, we may be your nurse someday.
Photo Source:
http://bcm.bc.edu/issues/winter_2010/features/rookies.html
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