Class Elections?

Nursing Students General Students

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Specializes in CVICU.

Hi All,

I searched, but couldn't really find any pertinent information, so hopefully one of you can help me out :)

To begin:

I'm a first-year nursing student, no husband, no kids, work p/t weekends, so I have Sun-Fri free for just school.

We have class elections coming up in the middle of this semester, I was thinking about trying to run or at least help out somehow and I'm wondering how many of you participate in student government yet still find enough time to study?

I just don't want to divvy out my time, and then have my grades suffer because I wanted to be able to be class pres & still get A's on tests.

Anyone have any experience or advice on this? I'm definitely a leadership-oriented person, and think I could handle it.

Thank you in advance ;)

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Specializes in Ortho, Neuro, Detox, Tele.

I tried, but I didn't quite make it. Seemed to me that the votes were split down the middle between two sections, and everyone in one person's class voted for her, everyone in my class voted for me, and viola, her class was bigger. I have yet to see any fundraising efforts on our end, I see no effort yet for pinning, and I'm getting worried. I have no desire to spend numerous $$ for pinning and have no class funds to offset it.

that being said, make sure you can devote enough time to it to make it worthwhile, you don't want to be the officer everyone else is talking about.....

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Specializes in Case mgmt., rehab, (CRRN), LTC & psych.

I was elected the class secretary of my LVN program, but lagged on my secretarial duties throughout the remainder of school. I quickly became disillusioned with the other class officers, the school's instructors and directors, and other aspects. In hindsight, I wouldn't have done it again.

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I have been the class Mentor since Fundamentals and will grad in Dec.

Honestly our student government hasn't taken up much time AT ALL. One meeting a month and various other little duties. It's been a minor blip of time vs. what school is actually like time-wise.

If I were you I would look into exactly what your government is like and talk to the other upperclassmen officers. You may find it's a lot less than you think it is.

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Specializes in CVICU.

Thanks I emailed one of the officers from a class about to graduate, so hopefully I'll get an idea of what is expected in our school.

I could definitely do 1x/month meetings, plus maybe an hour or two a week organizing and setting up for said meeting, and being the liaison between fellow students and school faculty.

Thanks for the varied viewpoints

Lindsay

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I was considering running at my school too, but I don't exactly have a lot of friends there yet. I'm not from here, and I'm married, so I didn't know anyone going in and I don't live near campus or do a lot of other activities around there. I will soon have the free time to devote a little to being an officer (quitting my job), and would like to be involved in something on campus. I was class and NHS treasurer in high school (yes it was a long time ago) and was considering running for that...

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i'm the nursing class of '08 president and i love it! it's about 2 hrs/wk of work, and that's the max. when you organize fundraisers, that obviously takes up a little more time. having a good relationship with the other officers is absolutely necessary. we have a great team.

if you run for presidency, you have to represent your classmates. you'll act as a liason between them and the staff. that was a huge issue for me at first because i don't like confrontation. but i got used to it quick and it taught me how to be an effective communicator/listener.

you're phone will ring off the hook. you'll get to know about 80% of your class personally and know about their lives. that's so fullfilling for me. you'll laugh with each other and cry with each other. i know this sounds dorky, but i absolutely love our class and am so proud of them. despite a few people, we all work so well as a team. you have to let them know how valuable they are-- it's a spirit-building position. you are their cheerleader!

the biggest obstacle will be fundraising. it sucks all around. we've developed a system in which everyone needs to be accountable for their portion of the fundraising.

like i said, i know it's "dorky", whatever, but i take great pride in representing our student body and being a part of their lives.

:balloons:go for it!

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Specializes in Med Surg, Hospice.

I'm the Class Librarian. It takes up about 2 minutes every so often. I am not permitted to attend the meetings that the other class officers have to attend, which is fine with me because I'm usually working when the meetings are going on.

Our class President is wonderful, but she meets with a lot of "We don't care about you or your class' problems" at every meeting she attends. If I had to attend these meetings, I'd probably be thrown out since I never could stand a sit on your butt and do nothing type of administration.

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