5 Things You Will Miss Once You Graduate From Nursing
Alas! You just finished your roller coaster ride from the nursing life! However, once you’re through with it, would it feel like you have accomplished so much that you tend to set aside the memories or rather keep on reminiscing about college life?
5 Things You Will Miss Once You Graduate From Nursing
1) Your Happy and Funny Buddies
The nursing life may have been full of 4 stressful years, but it was especially worth the stress because you had your friends who stayed with you for the ups and downs of your “I think I should study more than I sleep but I’m really sleepy right now” years. They were the ones who gave you so much to remember!
From the quick meetups to the graduation rites, who would have thought that you would make a perfect bunch of friends while getting molded into a professional nurse ready to provide holistic quality health care at the same time? It’s true that you’ll get that big sigh of relief once you graduate from this life and be proud of what you achieved, but accomplishment is the real reason behind your success – and your friends are included here.
2) Clinical Duties aka Sleep-Deprived-But-Worth-It-Days-And-Nights
Sure, you didn’t have to wake up at 4 or 5 in the morning to prep up or go home past 10 in the evening for hospital duties yet, but there are various other things that have truly made a major impact in your student nurse life. You were able to act as a team leader and assign patients to your co-student nurses, act as a patient advocate, exercise your critical thinking, improve your knowledge and skills while still possessing a good attitude, perform independent nursing roles, take care of various clients with different health conditions, be with and do the delivery and caring of neonates (newborn babies), be a frontliner in emergency situations, join the team in “code blue” situations, provide cardio-pulmonary resuscitation, administer medication, provide emotional support, and just be with your clients as an active listener, for example.
The real essence of becoming a full graduate nurse is not primarily based on graduating and receiving your diploma, but rather in finding the fulfillment and happiness in what you have done and what you have committed to do.
3) Your Thesis Soulmates
You must have uttered this at one point during your nursing student life: “I just wish this thesis would end right NOW!” However, that statement must have also helped you release your stress by going from one location to another, spending the rest of the day reading through related literature, being pre-occupied by figuring out how to squeeze in all of your student duties and thesis work, and being sleep deprived, and mentally and physically drained almost every day.
At the end of your thesis, this must have been your statement: “I have finally finished my thesis and I do not wish to experience it all over again! It’s a major stress.” However, you may also find yourself thinking, “I miss those days when I get to juggle all my tasks and still afford to enjoy the company of my thesis mates.”
4) Your Professors
Clinical Instructors served as your mentors. From teaching you the basics to the more specific nursing procedures, they never gave up on you, even on those days when you considered giving up on the nursing life altogether. They were always there to support you with your academics and your personal and student nurse life. You have not only built a student and professor relationship; you have made true friends, too. You may even consider some of them as your siblings. This is one of the most amazing thing that comes with a nursing student’s life.
On the other hand, though, you may have gotten used to relying on them to look after you during your daily duties. Now that you have graduated, you have to bid goodbye to that and know that you are more responsible of your own nursing actions now; that your clinical instructors might have to rely on your capabilities as an independent, skilful and knowledgeable nurse now.
5) Recreational Activities
Whether you preferred pulling out your rubber shoes and going for a jog at the oval, grabbing your earphones and just shutting the world out to daydream; meeting up with your friends to catch up, have coffee or milk tea, or watch the latest movies; getting pampered; heading to the gym; inviting your friends over for other activities; or strolling around; it was the perfect time to reflect on your goals and achievement in life. It was something worth your time and effort.
It wasn’t just about spending the rest of your days studying. It was also about balancing your academics and your recreational activities. It was something you could look back on fondly and say, “How I wish I could do these things all over again and just simply enjoy the moment while I’m still relaxed and free.”
What are your student nurse memories that you would definitely want to experience all over again?
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