daniel

Tuesday, April 15 - 6:38 PM:

Do you remember the One World Cafe? It was #11 on my top 10 places to study. Well, I am there now and it is just in true form this evening. Half price quesadillas and burritos and Led Zeppelin playing really, really loud. I opted out of the half price Mexican fare and went for their lemon pepper lentil soup and an order of chips and salsa with a side of their very, very tasty gaucamole. What more could a person ask for while studying psychiatric nursing? I think not much more, except, perhaps, for a finely hopped, ice cold tap beverage...but we won't go there.

Twenty days until final exam week of our second semester as of today and today it was beautiful outside, let me tell you. I was deeply challenged to remain focused on my studies as a gorgeous, blue sky spring day rolled past. After staying up way too late last night pursuing nursing externship opportunities I finally succumbed to a short nap in full sun on the lush berth of thick, green grass that some quad nestled in the back recesses of the Homewood campus of Johns Hopkins provided. It was...sublime.

Well, that is what this nursing student is doing in the face of psychiatric nursing exam #2 (Not to mention reviewing the appropriate drug therapy for anxiety, schizophrenia, ECT and OCD). Until we meet again, peace, hugs and luv nugs! 

Daniel 

Thursday, April 10 - 9:15 PM:

At the moment I am in my psychiatric nursing clinical rotation. What I can tell you is that I think psychiatric nursing is both great and terrible, heroic and sad. What do you do with someone who is no longer able to function or someone who is so depressed or is convinced that they hear voices or that people are living in the walls of their home or who might want to kill their neighbor or thinks their neighbor wants to kill them? What do you do? If they are silent, or shun you, or tell you to go away, or say the same thing over and over and over again, what do you do? I don’t like to think about it. I would rather not have to face it. I don’t know if I could day in and day out, week after week.

I am glad there are people who choose to think about it, who get up early in the morning to walk right up to it and face it, and care enough to have hope that the answers will come to these strangers who have lost their way. I am thankful there are people brave enough to try things that have never been tried, not absolutely blindly, even if they are pretty near blind, but making as educated a guess as anyone can honestly hope to make about which treatment or drug or procedure might work for so and so. The patients are interesting, but what surprised me the most is the fact that the doctors and especially the nurses are what fascinate me in psychiatric medicine, especially the ones who have been at it for a long, long time.

I think I may have finally come to understand a bit more why doctors dash in and out of patient’s rooms in a blink and why their handwriting is so awfully messy. Following them on rounds I was impressed to see how many people with complex histories they were considering and visiting.  Then I would sit with them as they sat down with colleagues for hours to discuss their patients and make treatment plans for them. Once decisions were reached one would feverishly scribble down the order on a paper chart while the resident pecked away at a computer documenting before a nurse would pick up the next piece of paper full of numbers, lab values and accounts of past events. All the while the clock ticked toward the next appointed time that everyone was supposed to be present for…another meeting, lunch, handing out medicines, that time promised to a family who is waiting to know what to do next with their father, the man in their lives who at one time had all of the answers for them. 

I gained a new respect for how much these people have to do in a morning before lunch, or in an afternoon before dinner, or at two in the morning before they try to take a cat-nap, not just the doctors, but a multidisciplinary team of doctors, residents, students, social workers and nurses…people who want to help people. They are dedicated to (some even obsessed with) solving the questions in people’s lives that most of us can’t or won’t deal with.  

Friday, March 14 - 10:49 AM:

I was walking to the west across North Charles Street in Charles (not the) Village the other day, right at the busy intersection of 33^rd. As much as I can I like to command my spirit to take note of the people around me, and sometimes this manner of being really pays off, as with the satisfying exchange of a heartfelt greeting with “all the fixins” like a smile and even eye contact. Well this day it really paid well to pay attention to my fellow human pedestrians because as I offered my greeting to someone headed in the opposite direction, not only did they give me the simple pleasure of that friendly gesture of eye contact and a big smile, but they emphatically pointed up to the sky behind me. I was compelled to comply with their suggestion and turned around to see one of the most vivid and breathtaking rainbows I have seen in quite awhile (Not the one pictured above, obviously; that one was in N. Virginia where we used to live). I glanced to see where the wonderful person who had shared this gorgeous vision with me had gone and found them standing a short distance gazing at the heavenly spectacle. They turned in my direction, I think in order to be sure that I had gotten the message. I gave a large and satisfied grin and a hearty thumbs-up and relished that moment which today seems painfully to arrive only so rarely – that moment when two perfect strangers can join, un-afraid, in the sincere appreciation of something beautiful.  

I thought you might like to hear about this. My experience on the corner of North Charles and 33^rd with the stranger and the rainbow makes me think of a day that right now seems so far away – graduation. The rainbow gives me hope for arriving at graduation and even that day when the NCLEX is a memory of yet another hurdle overcome in the journey of becoming a nurse.

One of the nice things about JHU SON is the mixture of students you will find here at various stages in the process of nursing education. At any given time you may find in the halls a student who is just one semester ahead of you or someone who is already a nurse and has practiced anywhere from a very short time in the profession to quite a long time and is now working on some form of an advanced degree in the field. These people also give folks like me hope that someday we will be nurses and we will be diligent to find yet more challenges to place in our way in order to stimulate more stress in our lives and in the lives of those who love us. More importantly, however, in so doing we will find more growth and an even greater ability to care for people who can’t care for themselves.

As we are learning here at JHU SON, those of us who are aspiring to become nurses are also aspiring to become a part of a health care system that is anything but a system and more of a collection of scattered and disjointed fragments that are about as effective in delivering “health care” as rush hour is at delivering the masses from their urban workshop cubicles to their suburban domiciles. Here at Hopkins we are continually being challenged to actually “think” about this so that we may not only become nurses but also active participants in finding a solution to such a mind boggling and monumental problem that is effecting us all. It is not just a campaign issue that will find its value only in the rhetoric of the election process and then go away. It is not a question that can be answered merely by choosing the right candidate for President. It is the sort of thing that can only hope to be addressed if it becomes and then remains important to lots and lots of people, nurses in particular.

I am realizing that there is so much more to becoming a nurse than a nametag with the letters “RN BSN” on it and four or five patients to look after every shift. Becoming a nurse perhaps ought to be viewed more like the privilege of becoming a citizen of a nation with all of its inherent rights and its responsibilities. In this context, consider these words of the Senator from Chicago, Illinois, Carl Schurz as he spoke about the American citizen in 1899 with my changes in parenthesis:

I confidently trust that the (nurses of today) will prove themselves…too wise not to detect the false pride or the dangerous ambitions or the selfish schemes which so often hide themselves under that deceptive cry of (false pride in the profession): (“ANA/NANDA/AMA, right or wrong!”). They will not fail to recognize that our dignity, our free institutions and the peace and welfare of this and coming generations of (nurses and their patients) will be secure only as we cling to the watchword of (true nursing practice): “Our  (profession) – when right to be kept right; when wrong to be put right.”    

Isn’t that what being a nurse is all about? 

The original qoute of Senator Schurz can be found in the book: The True Patriot by Eric Liu and Nick Hanauer, 2007: Seattle, Washington. www.truepat.org     

Tuesday, March 4, 2008 – 12:39 PM:

I just finished a bowl of Carma’s (Carma’s Café in Charles [not the] Village) delicious, homemade, Icelandic yogurt sprinkled with her truly authentic, handcrafted granola. This brings me to one of the more trivial injustices in life that I would like to discuss for a moment; and oh how I wish we were limited only to such injustices. I speak of the manner in which people so loosely and misleading use the term “granola.” It can be an outright slighting remark directed at people who live and act in certain ways, wearing a variety of brightly colored clothing made from all-natural fibers and who are wonderfully unconcerned with the fad hair fashions of the day. Sometimes it is an utterance of genuine and fond affection in reference to some the earthier and more socially engaged, environmentally conscious, metaphysically guided, Dr.Bronner’s soap using, and yes for some even patchouli and Birkenstock wearing folks among us. Of greater concern, however, is when people use the term “granola” in an attempt to describe some lame cereal product and pass it off as the genuine article. I say all of this to punctuate the following remark: Carma’s granola is the genuine article…it is indeed granola; and boy was it a treat to eat.

I am not writing to you today simply to discuss granola and all of its implications socially and politically, but to share with you some of my thoughts as we approach the spring break:

1. I am so proud of my fellow classmates. This thought resounds in my mind as I reflect this afternoon. I think it was six but it may have been seven of my friends here at JHU SON who scored 100% or higher on our second pathophysiology exam. Woo-hoo! I am studying with the best and the brightest and I am grateful for that.
2. A shout out to all of the great people who came to Accepted Students Day here at JHU SON! I met some (Indigo and her mother from Brattleboro, Vermont and a pleasant gentleman from New Jersey just to name a few) and was able to give a tour or two of the school and offer my recommendations on places in Baltimore to get really good food. I hope you decide to reside here for your nursing education.
3. I wanted to direct your attention to some of the rich history associated with Johns Hopkins University and Johns Hopkins Hospital. You may have heard of “The Four Doctors.” These are William H. Welch, William S. Halsted, William Osler and no, not another William, but rather Howard A. Kelly. These men were indeed great. Pioneers in medicine as we know it, they were also part of the original faculty here at the JHU School of Medicine. Have you ever heard, however, of Dr. Vivian Thomas? If you have, well done to you for paying attention to those little known heroes and giants of the human spirit who stand quietly in history’s back room. Men like Vivian Thomas deserve a place front and center. If you do not, you should know about this man and his story, a very large part of which took place right here in East Baltimore at Johns Hopkins Hospital. I even know where his portrait hangs in the Blalock Building here at the hospital. The movie telling his story is called, “Something the Lord Made” and I highly, highly recommend it.
4. Lastly, I want to say that life here at JHU SON is still wonderful, even in the midst of pharmacology and pathophysiology. As tough as these two classes are for some of us, it is all part and parcel of the experience and somehow, these professors are actually getting us to start thinking like a nurse! That is very exciting indeed I must tell you. 

Tuesday, February 19, 2008 – 6:28 AM:

TOP TEN PLACES TO STUDY…and other pieces of my mind:

1. The Reading Courts on the 4th Floor of the Bloomberg School of Public Health (our next door neighbor at JHU SON – it is very convenient). Just a great, great place to get some quality peace and quiet in a superb atmosphere with really nice desks and work lamps.

2. The 2nd floor café on the North end of the Bloomberg School of Public Health for those of us who sometimes need a lot of commotion in order to concentrate.

3. The 9th floor, Southeast corner of the Bloomberg School of Public Health which provides a place to concentrate as well as contemplate a birds-eye view of Baltimore and the inner harbor (not to mention all of the construction going on at Johns Hopkins Hospital.

Hmmm…I bet your wondering why I haven’t mentioned anywhere to study in the School of Nursing Building yet. Well, going out on a limb here I will say that the truth is…for me, personally, in consideration of my own, unique learning style, studying at the school of nursing has it’s own set of, shall we say, challenges. It is a beautiful building; really, I’m not just trying to make up for leaving them out of my top three picks of places to study. It is a wonderful place with top-notch facilities. The lecture halls are so comfy and hooked up with the latest technology, the practice labs are great, the place is always spotless and the people are simply the best. Perhaps that is why I find it so hard to study there…the great people I am always finding myself in the midst of. I can’t help spending most of my time at the SON talking to all of the excellent people who seem to be constantly circulating there. I get much more done in a place where I am a lot more anonymous. OK, and it does get a bit crowded at the JHU SON sometimes, but the word is that the school may be putting up another building in the near future. Don’t say you heard it here first. So, there are a few places at the SON building that are well worth spending time in to study.

4. One of these places is “The NIRC” (It has it’s usefulness in a pinch). I believe it stands for the Nursing Information Resource Center. It’s on the third floor and I have gotten a lot done there on many occasions. The outdoor courtyard is also a great reprieve from just being inside too damn long. Now, across town from the “East Baltimore Campus” of JHU (also known as the JHMI or Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions) we head northwest a bit, to…

5. The “Q Level” of the Milton S. Eisenhower Library on the main campus of Johns Hopkins known as “Homewood” in the place called “Charles Village”…only, don’t look for the village because as far as I can tell there isn’t one. But it is a safe and attractive part of Baltimore and the Homewood campus is certainly that traditional, classic University campus you would expect to find, with the beautiful quads and buildings, brick and cobble stone walkways and stately trees. It really is an impressive layout. Many nursing students find comfortable abodes in this neighborhood; you should check it out. As for the library, I really don’t like any other level of the library for the purpose of studying than the Q Level. You see, one morning I arrived earlier than I care to admit in order to concentrate and study. I may have been one of the only people there other than staff. The place was so quiet and I got very excited about the prospect of accomplishing much. I located a table by the large windows facing south on the main level just under Q Level and began to set up for a study session when I noticed this noise. I said to myself, “Self, I thought it was quiet here. What is going on?” I could not quite locate the source of the noise, so I gathered my things and relocated. Again, as I sat still there was this noise, I was sure of it. So I decided to investigate. I began to walk around the library listening very carefully for that sound that I was sure I was hearing. It would fade as I walked and then get louder, fade, and get louder again. I decided to stop right where I thought it was the loudest and just stand there until I could figure out what in the world was causing this awful sound that to me had now escalated to an intolerable racket! It was then that I looked straight up over my head and there it was: a small white object hanging from the ceiling with a mesh cover that faced to the floor. Out of the top of it I saw thin wires that ran down the ceiling off to some unknown destination. It was…a speaker. Not only was it a speaker, but it also dawned on me that it was not alone, there were many of these speakers and they all were placed almost directly over each study cubicle and table and what they were doing was producing white noise! They were ambient sound generators! Or perhaps more accurately they were ambient sound diffusers or distracters or mufflers, but when there was no other noise in the library, no background noise of hundreds of people trying to be quiet, these little buggers were simply deafening and driving me quite mad! So I left and have come to the conclusion that I will never be able to concentrate on any level of the Milton S. Eisenhower Library at Johns Hopkins University than the Q Level – where there are no background noise generators but only real, genuine background noises of people who are not trying to be quiet. And there is a coffee bar right there with plenty of tables to sit at, in a sea of wonderfully authentic ambient noise with which to guide my mind as I navigate these troubled waters of pharmacology and pathophysiology.

6. Carma’s Café in Charles Village (that’s not really a village). The address on Google maps says 3120 St. Paul Street, but it’s not on St. Paul Street at all, rather a few yards up E. 31st street to the west of St. Paul, but anyway. A great place to go and sit and enjoy great coffee and some of the best food in town. They also “unofficially” have wireless access…I will say no more. Two of the required tastings on their menu in my opinion, well three, are 1. The meatball rocket, 2. A pink Dalmatian (don’t worry, they do not serve alcohol…it’s just a great cookie), and 3. I think it is called a black bottom cupcake. It is most likely properly pronounced as the Baltimore Black-bottom Cupcake (I think it has its roots in Baltimore as a local specialty).

7. The BMA’s (Baltimore Museum of Art) sculpture garden, again in Charles (not the) Village. Weather permitting this is a beautiful and tranquil spot outdoors for reading (I wouldn’t try making flashcards here).

8. The Barnes & Nobles Johns Hopkins Bookstore at the corner of St. Paul and 33rd. This is actually a great place to study. I particularly like the second floor up where the textbooks are. There are several tables sitting right up against the balcony rail overlooking the store. It’s a great spot for taking the occasional people watching study break. You should know that you are setting yourself up for buying something from “that coffee shop” which is located in the store, but sometimes I suppose that sort of thing just cannot be avoided in life.

9. Bert’s. Again in that little neighborhood that in no way resembles a village (Charles Village) there is Bert’s, a sports bar located on St. Paul and they have some really great burgers. They also tend to have some really decent beer on tap. Sometimes this is just the environment I need to study in. And now that there is a smoking ban in place, I can sit in there much more comfortably and have a good burger, get some reading done, maybe work on a paper and I don’t come out smelling like someone’s day old ashtray. Sorry you smokers, I am so glad there is a smoking ban in place for I just love fresh air (although the ban has been a tough one for me in principle - and I don't even smoke). And now for #10…

10. The balcony at the Barnes & Noble Bookstore at the Power Plant on the Inner Harbor. When the weather is nice this is a simply wonderful place to sit and study. 

11. So I said the top ten places to study, forgive me. I cannot publish this without making mention of perhaps the greatest place to study that I have found so far: the One World Café on University Avenue on the Homewood campus directly across the street from that famous stadium where Johns Hopkins reigns supreme in the world of Lacrosse. It is, perhaps, one of the few sports retaining that dignity elusive to so many, that purity cast off so long ago by the others who have traded in the honest pursuit of fair competition for money and drugs and multi-million dollar 30 second television advertising spots on game day. The One World Café has some of the best vegetarian and vegan fair I have ever tasted outside of my own home and they play great music (and sometimes they play it really, really loud ;-)).

Tuesday, January 29th - 8:38 PM:

I have been waiting to tell you about some of the details of my winter break. You know, they gave us five weeks off from nursing school! Most of that time my family spent right here in our new hometown of Baltimore. We slept in every morning and snuggled in big piles on our bed. It was during that time off that we discovered the American Museum of Visionary Art I told you about. It sits right at the Northeastern corner of Federal Hill on the south side of the harbor. We also visited Fort McHenry, a place that needs no explanation. But we also took a road trip...

One week we traveled down to North Carolina where my wife's brother lives with his family. Well, we had a ton of fun there, which included more late morning snuggle piles (with the cousins), adventures in the Duke University Botanical Gardens (so nice, even in winter - they have a great carnivorous plant garden), the Museum of Life Science with the black bears, wolves and the most fascinating tropical butterfly house with a place you can actually watch butterflies and moths as they emerge from their chrysalis...so much fun stuff. Matt and I even walked over to Franklin Street in Chapel Hill one evening to the Local 506 (an interesting little music venue) and caught a great band called The Moaners.

But one of the things I deeply appreciate about my brother-in-law Matt's hospitality is his passion for cooking. We ate like Royalty the entire time and one of the highlights was his truly authentic, made from scratch, Chicago style pizza...  

This was sooo tasty I still find myself salivating as I recollect the experience.  

He made three of them, filled with fresh veggies, several different types of cheese, turkey sausage, homemade sauce and all lovingly placed in a beautifully handcrafted crust. You know it's the love that makes the best food taste so good.

We also found ourselves, one evening just as the sun was setting, out in the country somewhere near Chapel Hill by a dairy that had a little shop where they sold ice cream that they made in small batches from the milk their cows gave on their farm right across the road. I am glad I don't live near this place! And while we were there a local farmer pulled up offering wagon rides with his team of two majestic, white Percheron draft horses. 

After our time in Chapel Hill we headed out to the coast, near Washington, NC to visit some other good friends where we found ourselves digging up sharks' teeth, doing a little back woods target practice with a good old Winchester 30/30 lever action, an 8mm Mauser, and your standard 12 gauge side by side. Afterwards we broke out the guitars, banjo and ukulele and ended up recording about a four hour jam session. If I can get a copy of the edited audio file and figure out how to post a sample I will.

All of this reminiscence is therapeutic for me as I settle down from a very dense day, at JHU SON - but full of wonder nonetheless. We had a five hour pharmacology lecture today (interrupted by a welcome 1 hour lunch break). Our first pharm exam is next week. You won't be hearing from me until I come out of the woodwork after that one.

I am counting down the hours until Thursday morning at 7:00 AM when I will be back at Johns Hopkins Hospital (JHH) in labor and delivery...I can't wait.

Well, keep checking for updates, I will back soon with more of the scoop.

Cheers,

Daniel 

Monday, January 28, 2008 – 12:40 PM:

All right, well it is no longer 68° F here in Baltimore. Today isn’t that bad actually, around 40° and not much wind. We have had some traditional winter weather around here lately, nice and cold and even a little snow – just enough to go sledding with the kids (what fun…I think they were ready to go home before I was).

A few things to bring you up to date on my experiences here at JHU SON: First and foremost let me say that last Friday was the best day of nursing school so far for me. I was working in maternity at Johns Hopkins Hospital and I had one of the best experiences of my life, really, never mind nursing school. I do have three children and watched all of them as they made their passage into this world and that is the most profoundly stirring experience I think a person can have. To be around this process as a nursing student is amazing in another way, more in terms of rounding a corner in the learning curve, like light switches in your mind getting turned on and certain things suddenly making a whole lot more sense.

Thursday was an introduction and orientation to the unit we will be working on over the next seven weeks , but Friday, our second day of clinical time this semester, was the first hands on day and we were literally put right to work. None of us felt like we knew anything and we were introduced to the nurse we would be working with as they were getting the report about their patient from the off-going shift. The next thing I knew I was being asked to do a head to toe assessment on the new mother and vitals on the newborn who was less than 24 hours old. So much happened in the next 8 hours I cannot begin to write it all down here, but before the end of the day I had given my first IM injection, assisted in a circumcision and fell in love with nursing on a whole new level. Every step of the way I was right beside either my clinical instructor or another RN with a wealth of experience. What a way to start providing bedside care!

This semester our clinical rotation is divided into two parts, each seven weeks long. One half of the class started in the maternity setting, as I have, while the other half has begun with psychiatric nursing. After seven weeks we all switch. The other two classes this semester are pharmacology and Pathophysiology (both of which are very dense and the reading required is a mountain’s worth, but all very fascinating and exciting).

On a cultural note, some things my family and I have discovered lately in Baltimore:

1. The Baltimore Museum of Industry (www.thebmi.org). This place is just absolutely amazing. The best part of it, in my opinion, is the exhibit on how the city of Baltimore has played a part in the evolution of the printing press. Most unique about the exhibit here in Baltimore is that it is not a static exhibit, but a living history display where people who have had their career in the printing business are operating a press that is a close cousin to the Gutenberg press (developed by Johannes Gensfleisch zur Laden zum Gutenberg in Germany in the 1400’s). The machine is known as the Linotype machine that was invented in 1884 by a German clock maker, Ottmar Mergenthaler, who emigrated to America in 1872. When you see this marvel of technology (keep in mind it was invented in the late 1800’s) you will see why a clock maker came up with this design.
2. The American Museum of Visionary Art. All I can say is this is one of the best art museums I have ever been to (and I have been to a few).
3. Carma's Café in Charles Village - home of the meatball rocket and pink Dalmatians, two of the tastiest food items in Baltimore.

More on the meatball rockets and pink Dalmatians later; y'all take care now...ya hear!

Monday, January 7, 2008 – 3:08 PM and 68° F:

68° F on January the 7th in Baltimore, MD. Who is it that sang that song about Monday’s and how you can’t trust that day? “Bah-da bah-da-da-da. Bah-da bah-da-da-da bah-da bah-da…Monday, Monday.” Was it the Mama’s and the Papa’s? I think it was, in 1966 or so. Well, it is just absolutely beautiful on this Monday as I sit outside, in my t-shirt, next to the Eisenhower Library at the Hopkins Homewood Campus writing this to you. It does seem like a pretty sneaky thing for an early January Monday to pull; but you can trust me when I tell you that today life is grand.

Life is a grand thing, actually, even on a cold, blustery January Monday, as I am sure is in store for us here in Bawlmer (“Baltimore,” that is, in the local dialect of Bawlmarese as spoken by the indigenous population in these parts). Perhaps I will write to you again on one of those. I have to admit, though, that the grandeur of life is just a bit sweeter to contemplate in the 68° sun on an early January Monday when there is no school. Ah, school – the very reason you are reading these words and the very reason for which these words were written. So why glory in the fact that school is out?

Well, as wondrous a place as Johns Hopkins School of Nursing is (“JHU SON” for short and it truly is a place of wonder), the respite offered to those of us who are engaged in the study of the art of nursing is very well appreciated and I dare say well earned.

In these weeks of early January I have been spending time thinking about, well, to be frank I will say that I have been thinking about money. FAFSA information needs to be updated. Financial aid forms for the next academic year need to be filled out once again. Grants, scholarships, and yes, even loans need to be researched and applied for, resumes or if you prefer, “CV’s” must be brought up to speed and polished yet again. It sounds like a lot of paperwork and it is. Oh, another thing, I hate paperwork. So, I will stop talking about all of that now and say something you may really be interested in.

So, what was the 1st semester of nursing school like, anyway? Well let me tell you…

For one thing, something that had I thought to be true before starting here at JHU SON was confirmed: the notion that by coming to Hopkins I would be surrounding myself with people who would potentially teach me as much if not more than the professors themselves. Allow me to explain. First I will say that those who decide to dedicate their lives to teach here at JHU SON are marvelous and outstanding people, without question they are the best of the best…but so are the students and these are the ones you, as a nursing student, spend most of your time with in nursing school. Think about it. The lectures are great, but learning what the lecture had to offer takes place, to a large extent, in the conversations you have after the lecture with the others who heard the same lecture. Here you will find the best and the brightest to share a cup of coffee with after class and discuss the nuances of osmotic pressure, fluids and electrolytes.

I want to take a moment to recognize, especially, the five people I worked most closely with last semester, our first semester of nursing school. I am convinced that I could not have found myself surrounded by a better group of smart and talented people with genuine hearts: Susan, Sarah, Heather, Tina and Jordan. These guys (one of whom was quite literally a guy, Jordan, one of the other 7 men in our class of 110) were really the best to work with and experience what for all of us was our first taste of nursing school. If I had to say one thing for you to remember about choosing a nursing school and even a nursing job, I would say consider the following question: "With whom will I be working?" A very wise person relayed that message to me as I was searching for a nursing school and I have heard the same wisdom from professional nurses about looking for a job as a nurse. Who your co-workers or fellow students are can make or break the experience.

As we are learning here at JHU SON, being a nurse means working with a large team of other people who all have a piece of the health care delivery pie that they know the most about. Therefore, the best care for patients really boils down to how well that health care team can communicate and work together.

The nuts and bolts of my first semester was a five-day week, four of which were spent in the School of Nursing building at 525 North Wolfe Street, Baltimore, MD and one day a week at a clinical site in some hospital around the city. For me that site was a rehab unit at Bay-view Medical Center. Some of the time at the school of nursing was spent in lectures and many hours each week were spent in the laboratory where we practiced hands on the various nursing skills that we were learning. Our classes ranged in size from all 110 of us in the large lecture hall on the main floor to about half of the class in the rest of our course lectures. You see, the entire class is split into two sections so that classes and clinical sites can be more easily managed. Now the lab times were much different. Still we went according to which of the two sections we were in, but then we were further broken down into groups of five or six students per instructor – a great ratio when it comes to hands-on learning.

What subjects did we have for the 1st semester? Well, I am glad you asked:

1. Principles and Applications of Nursing Interventions

2. Health Assessment

3. Foundations of Nursing Practice

4. Trends and Issues in Nursing

5. Issues in Aging

That’s the list of required courses. I also took an elective:

6. Fundamentals of Forensic Nursing

The Forensic Nursing class was a treat. I mean, if you are coming to nursing school all of these classes are welcome changes to the academics we have already had to finish, those classes we may only have taken because they were pre-requisites…you know what I mean.  However, the Forensic Nursing class is exceptional. I am wondering when it will become a required course to graduate with a BSN (I am surprised it isn’t already a requirement actually). And the professor, Daniel Sheridan, is an international leader in the field of forensic nursing and he is simply one of the best lecturers I have ever heard.

It was a fast and furious 1st semester and I honestly cannot believe how much we all learned. In a few weeks, as we begin the second semester I suppose we shall see how much of all that information is sticking with us.

Well I am going to leave it at that for now. I will be writing again soon, so keep your eyes pealed.

Take care, Daniel

Thanksgiving