This class was taken during the first semester of my sophomore year. This course was dedicated to teaching, understanding, and practicing the specific skills nurses are expected to be able to perform. Over the course of the semester we studied everything from how to wash hands correctly and changing beds, all the way to correctly administering medication and even IV catheterization. This was one of my favorite nursing classes to take because it was very goal oriented and filled with tactile learning.
In this course, the students were expected to complete an online activity AND assessment before they arrive to class to learn that skill. This online material served the purpose of teaching the the anatomy of the body, background information for the particular skill, and discuss the logic of why one would perform this skill/why it is important. Students would study this material and take notes during the reading because after the reading, we would be tested on what we just learned. (If you don’t know how to take good notes….this class will teach you. There is a lot of information being thrown at you that you need to be able to completely digest and understand quickly. Nursing is a very comprehensive field where you need to completely understand the body so you can help someone in need in any situation.) After you complete the quiz, you would show up to class. This is where you will physically practice the particular skill on a mannequin or your other classmates. I enjoy learning about the body, so I always took this time to pull the teacher aside and ask A LOT of questions I had about this topic.
The reason I said this class was very goal oriented is because we have 2-3 skills per week we need to learn, understand when/why we perform these skills, and how to physically perform them. Once you learn a skill in class, you have two weeks after that class period to perform the skill in front of an instructor to sign it off on your skills chart. This skills chart is a document that shows all the skills you will learn during your nursing courses at Longwood and there are certain skills you need to learn and sign off in each class. Because this class is only held twice a week and it is split between lecture and lab, the nursing department holds “open labs” for students to come in to practice skills to gain more experience and comfortability. It is here we work with student tutors or other instructors to become comfortable performing the skills. Open labs were held every week and students had no obligation to go. It is merely a time where one can come in to practice skills if they would like. Because nursing is so fast paced and information heavy, students were in open labs as much as possible (I was known to go twice a week AND go to tutoring hours for my nursing materials. Both are fantastic and I highly recommend going).
The fast paced nature of this class definitely surprised me. Out of necessity I learned to adapt pretty quickly to this course load, luckily. I even planned out a few hours each week to go to open labs to work on my skills and confidence. I would also reach out to my professors to see if I could come in after class just to ask random questions that I had. First going into this class, I had the mentality of “I need to completely dive into my studies. I will not have time to goof off with friends like I used to. I need to take this serious.” This class can become very difficult (if not taken seriously) but fortunately for me, I was able to put in some time for myself and my friends, outside of my studies. Don’t get me wrong, I spent countless nights staying up late studying my materials and spent endless hours in the library studying, but I was able to take a break every now and again for myself and treat myself.
Even though this class was very fast paced and difficult, I would consider this one of my easier classes because I spent so much time practicing my skills and building confidence. For any nursing majors who is about to take, if you take only one thing from this page take this: Take your education very seriously! There are no shortcuts to greatness. If you study just for the next quiz, you will not do well for the final practicum. Study as if your family member needs these skills performed on them and you were the only one who could. There will be a lot of information thrown at you and you will feel like your drowning at times. This class is challenging but NOT IMPOSSIBLE! Take every lesson seriously and you will thrive.