Final Analysis

This nursing school experience has been a very long and hard journey. I started nursing school
before the covid-19 pandemic began. Everything was normal and we were attending class in person. My
first semester I learned the fundamentals of nursing and started creating my building blocks to my
nursing practice. I was extremely overwhelmed with this content and learning how to take nursing tests
properly. Over the semester I learned how to overcome test anxiety and started to learn the structure of
a typical nursing test. We began to look at NCLEX style questions to help prepare us for the rest of
nursing school and eventually our NCLEX after graduation. Second semester the COVID-19 lockdown
began and my nursing school experience became a lot different than most peoples. Everything became
online, from lectures to practicum to tests. This was a tough change for me because I have ADHD and
not being physically present in the lectures made it very tough for me to focus. It also brought about a
new level of accountability that I didn’t have to overcome before the change. I was a little discouraged
during this time because it took away my in-person practicum which was my favorite part of nursing
school. I learn the most by doing what I am learning, so it was a lot easier for me to comprehend
everything we were learning because I was able to apply it to my practice. After a year of online, we
were able to slowly start transitioning back into the college and back into the hospitals. Junior 1 and
Junior 2 semester we worked through the adult nursing science class part 1 and 2, which consisted of
the majority of the body systems and the disease processes that were linked to each of them. This was a
challenging two semesters because it was a ton of information to absorb and maintain. We also took
Pathopharmacology part 1 and part 2 with these two semesters. I think this was my most challenging
nursing school course because it was a lot of medications to both learn and understand. But, with
maximum effort I was able to overcome these two semesters and the struggle of learning them online.
Senior 1 semester I was able to get back into the hospital and begin applying what I learned in the
practicum setting. This semester was interesting because it was a mixture of pediatric practicum for the
first half of the semester and Maternity/OB practicum for the second half of the semester. I learned that
caring for kids is very different than caring for adults! I also learned that this specialty was not really
something that I was interested in practicing during my nursing career. The second half of the semester
was our maternity practicum which was very interesting. I have never experienced a live birth or a C-
section, but got to see both of those in person. The nursing knowledge is vastly different in these two
specialties than it is in most of the other floor nursing units. Finally, I arrived at senior 2 semesters, the
semester I am currently in. This semester has probably been my favorite semester in all of nursing
school due getting to experience my immersion. I was able to work on the Progressive Care Unit, where I
currently work as a patient care technician. This experience was so great because I got to take every
piece of nursing that I have learned up until this point and apply it to my nursing practice. I got the
chance to practice as a full student RN and be relatively autonomous in that practice. This was nice
because I got to build on my nursing confidence immensely and prove to myself that I was capable of
doing this as a career. There were times where I didn’t know how to do a procedure or something in the
nursing process and my preceptor walked me through it and made it a very educational experience. I
learned a lot of time management skills, proper patient education relating to medications and diagnosis,
a good nursing routine, proficiency in lab draws and placing IVs, critical thinking skills and putting
together the big picture, and how to give a proper report. I know that nursing as a career will require
lifelong continued education and I will constantly be improving on my practice. But, overall this nursing
school journey has been a great experience. It has had its ups and its downs, but I truly feel like I came
out of it with a good strong educational base to hit the ground running as a nurse.