Final Analysis

If you were to tell me 5 years ago that in December 2015 I would be on my way to becoming a
BSN prepared nurse, I would not have believed you. Unlike some of my classmates, I did not always
know I wanted to be a nurse. Through being a translator at free clinics I had been exposed to nursing but
never thought about it as a career path. In a little over a month I will be a nurse on paper but a big part of
me becoming a nurse is not based on my pending degree and completion of the state boards. Truly
becoming a nurse goes beyond what the professors and the books can teach you. The growth of my
knowledge, skills and attitudes have definitely been interesting to reflect on through this program and is
just the beginning of what is yet to come in my nursing career.
Like many of my classmates, perusing a BSN at Bon Secours Memorial College of Nursing
(BSMCON) is my second degree. So needless to say, I went into the program with an inflated sense of
academic confidence as to how hard obtaining this degree would actually be. To say the initial
introduction to nursing classes was humbling would be an understatement. I went from being an A
student to barely being able to get a B on assignments. Grasping the concept that there are always
multiple answers however I needed to pick the best answer was a foreign notion to me. I also was not
prepared for the answer to the majority of my questions to not be so black and white and for the answer
to always start with the phrase, it depends. Trying to tackle writing papers in, what was unfamilliar to
me at the time, APA format was no easy feat either. From a clinical standpoint in those initial years of
the program, I remember being so excited to go into the hospital setting since I had never actually
worked in a hospital. I remember when taking a manual blood pressure was such an intimidating task
and where taking blood sugars were the highlight of my clinical days. Those initial set of nursing classes
really prepared me to try to start thinking critically and getting a basic understanding of what the nursing
profession was all about. Yet at this point I still dont think I really grasped what being a nurse was

really about as I was trying to get accommodated to this new way of thinking and getting over the fact
that I was no longer this A student, in this nursing program, that I had known myself to be in the past.
What I perceived as challenging in those initial years of the nursing program proved to be
nothing when I was introduced to something known as my junior year. Not only was there a
significantly increased course load, but the material got harder when being introduced to the basic
concepts of medical-surgical nursing, the concept of informatics of nursing, and pathopharmacology in
conjunction with disease processes. While still maintaining my status as a B student and absorbing
what I could in class, I felt that this period in the program was one in which I began to flourish
clinically. Part of being comfortable in the clinical setting was due to the fact at this point in the
program, I had been in a tech position for a little under a year in an ED which exposed me to many
things before I was taught them in the classroom setting. During this timeframe I felt that I learned more
from my clinical experiences and was able to recall my interventions or what I observed in efforts to
remember material for class. In reflecting, this was a pivotal year where everything was starting to come
together however I didnt recognize that is what was happening at the time. While I felt like I knew
nothing, in retrospect I knew a lot more than I realized. It was during this time frame where I felt I was
starting to truly develop the skills to think like a nurse, truly visualize and utilize what I learned in the
classroom and slowly moved towards honing other nursing skills that cant necessarily be taught.
Textbooks and teachers cant teach you how to naturally establish nursing presence, how to build a
rapport with your patient, or when to dig deeper when you sense something is off with a patient.
Alas I enterd my senior year. The first half was still as challenging like junior year but by this
time I had become accustomed to the hustle and bustle of the program. In comparison to junior year
where I felt my clinical skills were better than my academic skills (as defined by my grades), my senior
year is where I felt my academic skills caught up to my clinical skills. I had finally become that A

student that I remembered from my past. Also, while this semester was different in that it was almost
purely specialty classes (pediatrics and obstetrics), in clinical I felt I possessed the critical thinking skills
now to deal with just about any unfamiliar situation I encountered. I was now naturally starting to see
the whole picture and naturally starting to assess other aspects of the patient, separate from their disease
process. I remember in one clinical for paperwork we had to outline a number of nursing safety
interventions we did for the day. I remember going to my teacher being at a loss because I could only
identify a few. She pointed out to me all of the things that I was doing, as second nature, but I didnt
realize it. This was when I realized that there were many nursing skills I had learned through the
program that were now engrained in my own day to day nursing practice. I was now not only starting to
think like a nurse but to practice as one too.
As I enter into my last month of nursing school and prepare to enter the nursing field I recognize
that I still have many opportunities for growth. One of the things I love about nursing is that methods
and technologies are always changing. As a nurse I need to make sure I am staying up-to-date on best
practices and take continuing education classes to further grow my own knowledge base and how to
provide the best care to my patients. I also need to continue to hone those unteachable skills that are so
valuable to nursing practice. I also need to make a conscious effort to identify mentors to stay connected
with professionally and personally since nursing is not practiced alone in a bubble. The thought of
stepping out into the real (nursing) world is a bit scary to think about but I am confident that
BSMCON has prepared me and my life experiences have all been leading up to this point where I can
finally call myself a nurse and embody what being a nurse truly means.