Thoughts On My First Six Months Of Nursing School

Yesterday was one of those unexpected, happy days that you never want to end.

After a drizzly, cold Saturday the sixty degree sunshine with clear blue skies on Sunday was absolutely amazing.

I didn’t get home until 2am on Saturday and after a night of delicious Italian food + too much red wine I was suprised when I woke up feeling pretty good considering these nights don’t happen often and I definitely don’t have the resilience of my 21 year old self. I made a cup of coffee and bowl of pumpkin blueberry oats topped with all kinds of butters (fav breakfast lately) and tried to piece my life together for the week.

And then around 1, I went for a 4 mile jog on my favorite running path. It was one of those runs where you don’t wear a watch or listen to music and you’re so happy you’re nearly skipping. You know those “this is the best day ever” kind of runs? That was it.

The weather was so beautiful you couldn’t be inside so my friend Nancy texted me for lunch plans and we decided to pick up WF hot bar and sit in Union Square. I love this girl and I love WF- it was the happiest of Sunday afternoons.

After lunch I met my roommates at church and then after church swung by Trader Joes for a few groceries on my way home.

Y’all, when you’re in and out of TJs in 30 minutes in this city it’s a GOOD DAY.

And eating awesome food makes me happy. Really though, food can bring so much joy when it’s shared with people you love.

And the night wrapped up by chatting with momma Coale (she comes next weekend!) and watching an episode of Orange is the New Black.

Tomorrow is week two of our pediatric rotation and I can’t wait for Wednesday and Thursday when we’re back in the hospital. I was excited to hear you guys want to hear more about school, I’m happy to share bits and pieces as the year progresses!

I actually didn’t think I’d love peds as much as I do. My passion has always been young women, but after caring for kids this past week my heart wanted to explode. That’s what I love about this program, is that we’re exposed to such a diverse patient population. My first rotation was in psychiatry at Cornell hospital on the Upper East Side. I initially thought I’d really enjoy psych, but after 5 weeks I knew it wasn’t for me. I love the medical, hands on part of nursing and this wasn’t that. But it was very eye opening. I work primarily with eating disorder clients as an RD so I’ve had that exposure to psychiatry, but I’ve never worked so closely with mental illness as a whole. Schizophrenia, severe depression (so much so, you can’t physically move and you’ve had multiple suicide attempts), bi-polar disorder, severe anxiety and personality disorders and many other conditions. It was very eye opening and a huge learning experience that I’m so grateful to have had and to have had my psych rotation first. Psychiatry is all about the therapeutic relationship and communication and it’s not really “medical” at all. It taught me a ton that I’ll be applying to my RD and nursing practice forever.

Now, I’m in pediatrics on a med/surg floor at CHONY, the large children’s hospital of New York. It feels good to be back in scrubs and taking vitals and doing the hands on nursing care that I love. I feel like we learn so much every week because the program is accelerated and we’re in class for long blocks at a time. I’m super excited to see what this rotation will bring!

And with that, have a fabulous week!