A Nursing Students' Convocation Address to Families, Classmates and Instructors

We're sorry we have neglected you for the last two years. Nursing school was something we badly wanted to do, and you all helped make it possible. Thank you for your love & support while we were busy, we really could not have done it without you. We hope we can make it up to you, repay the consideration you have shown us while we studied, reviewed, prepped, read, and grew from wannabes to the real deal. We are back now. We're ready to resume our roles fulltime as wives, husbands, mothers, fathers, daughters, sons, sisters, brothers and friends. Again, thank you.

Dearest Classmates:

I never dreamed that the most rewarding part of our training would be the time we spent together. In class, sometimes furiously writing notes. In the lab, tangled in IV tubing, air bubbles going round and round, saline dripping into my shoe. Studying together, where we could start with hydrochlorothiazide pharmacology, segue to an amateur movie review and end up discussing orthostatic dyspnea. In the hospital, where we went from shaky voices, shaky fingers and being able to accomplish 3 tasks in only 5 trips to the pts room, to the competent graduate nurses we are today. It has been an amazing time of personal growth for me, for all of us I'm sure. Sharing it with each other has made it all the more memorable. Remember our time together and be grateful to one another for the experience, I am.

Thank you *Anne* and our Instructors:

Thanks for helping us learn the basic science of nursing. The breadth of knowledge you passed on to us is most impressive, from the pathophysiology of cerebral edema to therapeutic communication skills with a lot in between. In keeping with the nursing process, there have been all kinds of objective measures of our nursing competency, test scores, clinical evals and board of nursing testouts, all of which are compelling evidence of our abilities. You did your job well, Thank You.

But, personally, I am most grateful to you for teaching us something that may not be specified by the board of nursing, but we learned from each and every one of you. You may not have been trying to teach us anything beyond the listed learning objectives, but we could not help but learn, just by watching and working with you, that there is so much more to nursing than the science emphasized in our texts. You see, while you were instructing us on how to perform skills, safely administer medications, make and chart our assessments, you were also teaching us to care for our patients' hearts and souls, through your professionalism and caring. If we can develop those skills as you have, surely they will benefit our patients, but just as importantly, I think, they will nurture our hearts and our souls. We will be better nurses and happier people thanks to you. So, from my heart, our hearts, we are very grateful to you, for all you have done for us, thank you.

Well Classmates, all of us have different dreams for our future as nurses. I have been dreaming of being a nurse off and on ever since I was initially turned down by a nursing school, 35 years ago. But, today ladies and gentlemen, Today, we start living the dream!

Congratulations & God Bless

*name changed*