UP's senior nursing majors see world outside classroom in clinicals, patients
By Melissa Nip
Molly Kahn wants to be a nurse. Like other seniors in the School of Nursing, she's read her share of textbooks and articles on biology, anatomy and physiology. And while her future nursing career will no doubt benefit from the intellectual rigor, it was the smile of a certain patient that reminded Kahn what nursing is really about: People.
Beginning the end of junior year and into senior year, UP nursing students are placed in clinics or other medical facilities where they get at least 720 hours of "real world" experience. Many nursing students see the "clinical rotations" as the culmination of their education at UP.
Kahn was placed at the Center for Medically Fragile Children at Portland Providence Medical Center, the only pediatric skilled nursing facility in the Northwest that provides round the clock care for children ranging from infancy to 21 years of age. Molly will never forget one of them, a child with cerebral palsy.
"One patient was special to me," Kahn said. "She would smile at me and make everything so much better."
Although "clinicals" can be stressful and overwhelming, many nursing students say they learn profound lessons in those settings.
Senior Bethany Neuhoff had an experience with a patient that made her realize how important it is to see the patient as a person, not just something that needs to be fixed. The patient, in her 80s, had heart failure. It was difficult to move her because of her excess weight and her oxygen mask was impeding her speech, Neuhoff said.
"You could see in her eyes how frustrated and uncomfortable she was," she said.
Neuhoff noticed another health care worker's indifferent attitude towards the patient. This made Neuhoff realize that she never wanted to treat her patients in such a way.
"This situation taught me to want the opposite for my career, to always see my patients as humans," Neuhoff said. "I should treat them with the same compassion that I would give if I was caring for my parents or grandparents."
Senior Jamie Sharp remembered a time when her attention to detail and thoroughness saved a patient's life.
Sharp was in the orthopedics unit. The patient, recovering from knee surgery. revealed to Sharp that her calf felt tender.
"She had the potential to have a clot in her leg," Sharp said. "So I talked to the nurse."
It turned out that the patient did, in fact, have a clot in her leg which had moved up into her lung, a dangerous and life-threatening situation.
Most students start out caring for one patient. Adjusting to two is often challenging for the nursing students.
"Moving up to having two patients instead of one was a big step," Sharp said.
Neuhoff also said it was a challenge balancing care between a critically ill patient and another patient, who would be discharged the next day.
"I was extremely overwhelmed with the increased workload of adding just one more patient to my care routine," Neuhoff said.
Both patients needed medications, full body assessments and help with hygiene and toileting.
"I was rushing around the entire day, trying to get stuff done, terrified I was going to forget something and kill someone," Neuhoff said.
Despite all the stress and chaos, the seniors don't regret the career they have chosen.
Kahn was thinking about becoming a veterinarian during her junior year. But after shadowing a veterinarian, she realized the job wasn't for her.
She saw animals getting euthanized because of the owner's wishes, when the animals could have been saved. Kahn realized that nursing was the right fit for her because she wanted to be able to take care of every patient to the best of her ability.
"I hated that I couldn't save the animal's life," Kahn said.
Neuhoff believes that nursing is the perfect fit because it involved the two passions in her life.
"I love the science of medicine and I love human beings," Neuhoff said. "I wanted to become a nurse so I could show the love of Christ to people in a tangible way. I couldn't see myself doing anything else."
