Consolidating 4 Years of Education

My first week in my final semester of 4th year has been so exciting! I have been very busy coordinating all the coming events of the next 4 months including, consolidation, Grad clothing, grad events, and applying for my first RN position. (Luckily I am working with two awesome ladies for Grad events!). Planning Ahead; that was the theme of the week because my classmates and I are all going to be scattered in our consolidation placements for the next 2 months and will not get to come together until our final classes in March! We are entering the workplace as independent, knowledgeable and accountable professionals and we have worked hard to earn each of those adjectives. My education in nursing has been so rich in growth and seeing all my classmates grow with me has really been a great experience. When I went in to that last set of exams I was really amazed at how far we had come since first year. I remember feeling scared and nervous because I wasn't sure if I had studied properly or feeling overwhelmed by the content, often underestimating myself; but studying for my last finals I found that we were all thinking like nurses. We could sort through a complex case study, thinking critically and prioritizing the different factors with educated reasoning. I saw everyone do it, using the tools we have learned like pros! No one can do multiple choice like a nursing student!

As busy as this week has been I have found myself starting to put the pieces of the puzzle together. Things keep falling in to place in my head. I have an idea where I want to be in 6 months, in 1 year, in 5 years! I know it will change but I know what I want to feel when I look at my life and my career and that is a sense of peace, achievement and excitement. I am looking forward to my consolidation because I know it will help form me in to the nurse that I need to be to be successful. I love nursing because I have the ability to help people through times that seem out of their control, I get to help them take control and I get to learn about people and the amazing ways they live their lives.

And with that I am going to ice my shoulder because I got my seasonal flu shot today and (for the first time in my life) the injection site is sore, haha.

But I will leave you with this:

How far you go in life depends on your being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving, and tolerant of the weak and the strong - because someday you will have been all of these.

-George Washington Carver