TWU’s nursing family
When I first arrived on campus in September of 2008, I had no idea what I was in for. During Orientation Week, the nursing students had a mandatory meeting to be introduced to the faculty and staff of the School of Nursing. The first question that the Dean of Nursing asked to a group of about 50 freshman students was, “Did anybody in this room receive an email stating you were NOT in the nursing program this year?” Embarrassed and afraid that I was the only one who had received this email, I refused to raise my hand. When the meeting had finished, I stayed to talk with the professors to try and work out my situation.
Photo: Christie Wray
Sadly, I did not end up being accepted into the nursing program my first year at TWU. But I was desperate to be involved with the community and luckily I was placed in a nursing SOS group. I listened to the freshman nurses, and get a taste of what the nursing program had to offer.
Although this small group of students intrigued me to pursue my studies in nursing, it was the motivation I received from the professors that kept me shooting for my goal of getting into the program. Each time I had doubts, or didn’t do well in a class and further delayed my acceptance, I headed down to the School of Nursing to express my concern. And each time I expressed my concern, one specific faculty member would encourage me to keep up my efforts because my hard work was being noticed.
Whether it was my persistence in visiting the professors, or the effort I put in during my first year of studies, I made it into the nursing program that second time around.
The first day of classes was intense, to say the least. I kept asking myself, “What did I get into?” If anybody has heard that the nursing program is very difficult, I can confirm that it is challenging and time consuming but worth every minute of it. I could not imagine taking nursing anywhere else. The passion that each professor shows challenges me to not only be a better nurse, but a better person. Nursing care requires devotion, energy, preparation, and compassion which each faculty and staff member encompasses. It is through the nursing professors at TWU that each student nurse can walk away from a hospital bed realizing they are caring for a person first, and a diagnosis, second.
A box of Kleenex is a mandatory item in all the nursing professors’ offices. It is in these newly renovated spaces that students experience an open door policy, and are able to express what they have learned, what they are feeling, and how they are growing. The nursing program is limited to 50 students which, one way or another, turns a group of individuals into a united family trained in the art of caring.
Thank you to the wonderful professors in the School of Nursing, and welcome to all new faculty and staff. It is this team of hardworking individuals that influences the students in a positive way.
Kierra Obzera
Recent Comments