Similar to the history course I took during my first semester of my freshman year, this was another class that I considered a “college wake up call.” Just like my history class, this was one of the hardest classes that I have taken up until now (the summer going into my Junior year). What made this class so difficult for me was the change from recall based questioning to application based questioning on the exams. With application based questioning, one needs to be able to recall the pertinent information related to the problem/scenario and apply other information into the scenario to decide what the best course of action for the problem. This was difficult for me because I often thought about many different ways the situation could progress and unfold. This would lead me to coming to the conclusion of multiple test answers on the test. This was the first nursing class I decided to enhance to receive honors credit upon successful completion of the course.
I started to fall behind early along in the class. This required me to take a long look at myself and reevaluate how I approached studying. Clearly this class was different and would need me to step up to the challenge. This class was very fast paced. It covered over wide arrays of content and the students were expected to retain this information over the course of the whole semester. The professor I had for this class was very organized, motivated, and inspiring. She was very accommodating and very understanding when I requested to meet with the professor weekly to go over the weekly assessments. To help be proactive in my studying, I attended tutoring sessions for the class every week and even organized my own study group for the class. Upon going to the tutoring sessions, creating the study groups with other fellow students, and taking my study requirements more seriously positively affected my work ethic and grade.
Although the material was very difficult to grasp and understand, the material was very interesting! I am very interested in the over mechanics and processes of the body. Learning about the body is a passion of mine, so kicking in my study habits into high gear was easier for this class than it has for other classes. The material learned in this class directly correlated with what I encountered in the clinical field during my clinical rotations. Taking this class more seriously had never felt more impactful and needed.
For the enhancement project, my partners and I decided to focus on COVID-19. At the time, COVID was still fairly new within the area, however, enough research had been conducted for us to conduct our own research. We decided to give our class a complete analysis of COVID-19. Using handouts that we created ourselves, we educated our class about the dangers of COVID, how easily it spreads, the pathophysiology of the virus, prevention strategies, and vulnerable populations. We truly believe that in order to be effective nurses, we must hold ourselves to a higher standard and be educated on recent changing medical standards.
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1Pu0vAPwdeiMEdx7JGVs9uy5Dex4-HoCFqLKeMStrCPQ/edit?usp=sharing
Here is my presentation for my enhancement project! Hope you learn something new!
Overall this was a very rewarding class. Although it was one of the more objectively difficult classes I have taken at Longwood, I grew tremendously in this class.