I Will Become a Nurse — Helping Patients Fight to Win Health Back
By Daniella Rao
E veryone has their reason for becoming a
nurse . Maybe they or a family member had a personal health issue . Maybe they love the healthcare field . Or maybe they are people oriented and crave the nurse-patient interactive relationship . Maybe they want to go on to advanced practice nursing to improve their clinical practice . Most nurses have at least one moment that they can think of when they knew they wanted to go into healthcare .
The moment that I decided to become a nurse happened when I was five years old . While getting blood drawn , I was told not to watch , to look away , and be cautious of the pinch . Disregarding the advice , I watched . I wondered about the mechanisms behind blood flow , coming up with as many questions as stars in the sky . From that moment onward , I knew that healthcare was the field for me . I vacillated between specialties and degrees , from pediatrician in eighth grade to neurosurgery in eleventh grade and cardiovascular physician assistant in twelfth grade .
I found out that I had cancer in September 2020 . After a successful surgery to remove the tumor , my five-day hospital stay provided valuable exposure into the reality of the healthcare community . Going through this experience convinced me to change paths yet again — this time for good .
I had struck up friendships with several nurses during my hospital stay . I learned that some of them had fought cancer and were similarly inspired to pursue nursing . They were in the same boat as me . They wanted to help children who were going through the same thing they had gone through . Doing daily laps around the pediatrics floor , I realized how many people were affected . I didn ’ t want to be a nurse , I needed to be a nurse . I needed to be able to tell patients my story and be there to support their fight .
A common misconception is that nursing is all about medicating and diagnosing . While those are two important aspects to nursing , they often pale in comparison to the importance of the nurse-patient relationship . Nurses must maintain a focus on medical procedures but must see the patient as a person as well . Nurses must be present for patients when they need help the most . The satisfaction of seeing a happy and healthy patient is the best reward a nurse can get . I want to help patients fight like I did , and I want to see them win .
Covid-19 hit just as my program began at Hunter- Bellevue School of Nursing in New York City . I knew going in that it wouldn ’ t be easy . But I had my mind set on being the best nursing student that I could be . The first semester was innocuous , mostly introducing us to the basics . The second semester hit me like a ton of bricks . Between the advanced courses and introduction of clinicals , I was overwhelmed and bewildered . My very first clinical was a cardiac step-down unit , an especially challenging introduction to my new reality . My social life became nonexistent . Worklife balance was a thing of the distant past . I spent countless hours studying my way through the semester . Thousands of different words of a new language were engraved into my brain . When the semester ended , I felt burned out like never before . It took a few weeks to recover mentally and physically . The summer was welcomed and well deserved .
Fall semester began and two classes sparked my interest : medical-surgical nursing and nursing theory . In nursing theory , I learned that Bellevue Hospital School of Nursing was founded in 1873 and was the first school in the United States patterned on Florence Nightingale ’ s principles of nursing education ( Bellevue , 2022 ). In 1969 , Bellevue Hospital School of Nursing joined the Hunter College School of Nursing to become the Hunter-Bellevue School of Nursing , part of the City University of New York . Florence
36 NSNA IMPRINT • NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2023 • www . nsna . org