Nursing students are the lifeblood and the future of the nursing profession, but their importance is often underestimated. The purpose of this article is to offer reasons why student nurses rock. Nurses Announcements Archive Article
Nursing students sometimes get a painfully raw deal while receiving their education and training to become nurses. For instance, their eagerness to learn and questions are occasionally met with cold receptions from a handful of staff nurses and patients whom they encounter during their clinical rotations. Some behaviors interpreted by students as unkind or disrespectful are eye rolling, heavy sighing, and using a dismissive or impatient tone of voice (Crotty, 2010). Furthermore, some student nurses say they have received humiliating treatment from certain nursing professors.
However, student nurses rock for multiple reasons, and their significance to the nursing profession cannot be underestimated. Every nurse in existence today started out as a nursing student at some point in his or her life. Every expert in his profession started off as a novice before acquiring the knowledge and experience that allowed him to achieve mastery. The role that student nurses contribute to society should not be taken lightly. The following are five reasons why nursing students rock.
Nobody knows what the real world of nursing will bring until they actually start working as nurses. Even the modern-day nursing school experience does not fully prepare a student for what shall come. The nursing student who is cognizant that he or she still has much to learn is exhibiting courage for continuing to walk into unknown territory.
The student nurse who observes the code blue on the telemetry floor during his or her clinical rotations might be the same professional nurse who saves the life of your mother, father, child, spouse, or even you many years from now. The student may graduate and become the nurse who helps safely bring future generations into the world at the birthing center, or they might maintain our dignity as we pass away.
Some professions and vocations have withered over the years, not due to a lack of need, but as the result of a lack of interested people desiring to enter those fields. As long as passionate people continue to express interest in becoming nurses, the nursing profession still has a fighting chance to weather the storms that lay ahead in this new era of healthcare.
The nursing profession is complimented by the wonderful students who display eagerness to learn, positivity, energy, and the willingness to help others in their times of need. Their passion, wide eyes, and ideals help to balance the negativity that a handful of experienced nurses express.
The students of today will one day be our coworkers, floor nurses, nurse educators, nurse midwives, nurse practitioners, managers, leaders, and political activists. It is in everyone's best interest to be kind and and exchange mutual respect with every encounter, for student nurses are the future of the nursing profession.
To sum this all up, student nurses rock! Thank you for embarking on the journey to join the ranks of the nursing profession. You will be our colleagues someday, and I cannot wait to work with you.