This was the beginning of my nursing intensive course load at Longwood University. It started in the first semester of my sophomore year. This was when everything ramped up!
This was my Nursing 210 class and it was here that we learned the different assessments for each specific body system that nurses need to conduct. Now, this sounds simple right? WRONG! This class was difficult! Me and many of my fellow classmates struggled in this class. Luckily for us, the Longwood nursing program has a strong “no man left behind” belief and attitude, so they were available/willing/wanting to help us learn and grow.
This class was a lecture style with a lab component. To prepare for the lecture portion of the class, the students are expected to have already read, taken notes, and understand the assigned reading for that specific unit. (In the nursing program, everything moves very fast. We go through a different unit every week). What this means is that if the students have a lecture on the Respiratory system on the 15th, then they need to read and take notes on the Respiratory System chapter of their textbook BEFORE that lecture begins. During the lectures, the students will be learning about the specific body systems, briefly discuss that particular assessment, and learn about health variations that may appear in the assessment/what you do in particular scenarios. They do this because later that week (or for me it was later that day) after their lecture class, they would go to their lab block. In the lab block, the students actually learn how to perform that assessment. The students breakout into partners, and they practice the assessments on each other.
I can honestly say, now that I have actually finished and passed this class, that I enjoyed every minute of it. While you’re in the thick of the woods, studying for multiple exams every week, memorizing acronyms to help you when you perform the skill, building positive relationships with your professors, sitting down and studying the books, it is very easy to get lost in the noise. This happened to me and a lot of my friends. This class became very challenging, very quickly. It’s fast paced and unforgiving sometimes. This class required a lot of outside time studying the textbook, looking ahead, rereading old chapters, and even reaching out to professors and students to help you study. This was a challenging class for me because it forced me to swallow my pride and face the fact that I would NOT do well if I did not ask for help. I was raised in the backwoods country of Virginia, where real men are the ones who take all of the hardships of their loved ones, put it on their backs, and keeps on moving forward, helping out everyone they cared about. Realizing, accepting, and actually telling someone that I couldn’t do something???
It was a hard decision for me to make to reach out to my advisors, professors, and friends to help me study. BUT I AM SO GLAD THAT I DID! As soon as I reached out to someone, so many doors opened up for me! The professors announced that there would be student tutoring three times a week, they announced that professors will sit down with you via zoom to go over tests and quizzes, and some of my friends actually reached out to tell me they felt the same way and wanted to form some study groups to help each other. By going to the study groups, I would keep the material fresh in my mind. The student tutors would actually explain the same material the professors went over in a more simple, and easier way to understand. They would stay back behind the study hour to tactilely practice the assessments with you and answer any questions you may have.
The material that we learned throughout the class was intriguing to me because we discussed the physiology of how certain factors can create certain problems for the body, how to live a healthy and fulfilled life, and how to help those around us if they are having issues. This was a difficult class, but I was able to learn how to adapt to it and succeed thanks to the help of the student tutors, the professors, and my friends.