After three shifts of my hospital clinical for nursing school, I finally had a good day. After I picked my patient on Tuesday, I heard that she might be going home, but I didn’t have time to pick another one that day. Since I like to be prepared for the day, I made it a point to show up early on Wednesday just in case my patient had been discharged. Sure enough, she had been discharged. While flipping through the new admits, I saw that there was a lady in for suspected Crohn’s disease. My aunt, who is also my namesake, had Crohn’s disease, so I was very interested in learning more about this condition. I spoke with the patient, and she agreed to be my guinea pig for the day.

While doing her physical assessment, it came up that she worked in a hospital.

“That’s neat. What do you do, if you don’t mind me asking?”

“I’m a nurse. I graduated from the same school you are now attending 15 years ago.”

Oh no! As I new student (and someone who struggles with self-confidence), this could be a very.bad.thing. I was worried she would be critical and expect me to be further along with my skills. But, I took a deep breath, and continued with my assessment. When it came time to palpate the abdomen, I was very hesitant because Crohn’s disease targets the digestive system. She asked, “Do you mind if I give you some advice?” It turns out I wasn’t pressing hard enough. She was really kind about teaching me and it helped a great deal!

Since my patient was NPO (nothing by mouth) and we aren’t allowed to push IV meds yet, it looked like I wouldn’t be able to give any medications. However, as my shift was ending, the doctor ordered a one-time oral medication. After grabbing my instructor, we went to the patient’s room. I made the introductions, and my patient said, “She’s been really great today and such a sweetheart. She’s going to make a great nurse.” In front of my instructor! Then my instructor said, “She’s one of my brightest students. She does a great job!”

I’m not sure how I made it through the medication administration after that, because I was in a daze. It was awesome to hear the feedback, and really made me feel good about what I was doing.

Floating on the high of that positive affirmation, I didn’t even cuss the horrible traffic on the way home