Emory CNM

Hi,

Congrats on your admission! I see this is an older post so I'm not sure if you've already had your questions answered, but I'll share my thoughts. I guess you're starting in the May cohort next month? I graduated from the Emory ABSN-MSN program about a year ago (FNP/CNM). I would say that first year is intense but doable.

Atlanta has so much to offer! I only lived there for the 3 years of my program but loved it and was always discovering new things. There are frequent fun activities at Piedmont park, such as free yoga, the Dogwood Festival, various art festivals, the Persian culture festival, etc. Some of my favorite local eats are Highland Bakery (various locations including one on campus, hands down best brunch food), Fox Brothers Barbecue (near Candler Park, best bbq I've ever had), Dancing Goats Coffee (Decatur, good for studying on week days), Chai Pani (Decatur across from the coffee shop, try the kale fritters!), Arepa Mia (Decatur, Venezuelan), Pho Dai Loi (a little ways north/Buford rd, amazing pho), Zyka (North Druid Hills area, good if you like spicy Indian cuisine). Also Your Dekalb Farmers Market has just about every produce/spice/wine/fish/meat you can imagine with super reasonable prices. There's plenty I'm leaving out, too.

Also, in case it helps, here are some things that helped me be successful in the program:

1. Being curious. Nursing course content is complex and challenging but also highly fascinating. I find it's hard to study and retain a lot of facts without truly grasping the underlying explanations. Time permitting, professors will provide enough background info to make all the testable bits of information make sense. But if you encounter a piece of information that doesn't make intuitive sense, I recommend asking yourself "but why?" and looking up more about the physiology etc., beyond what will be on the test (even through Wikipedia). Once the "why" makes sense, the facts are so much easier to remember.

2. Connecting with optimistic students. I found that we students fell into three general categories: those who look on the bright side, those who complain about class/teachers/tests, and those somewhere in between who may be swayed by the others. I fit in the third category, so it made a big difference for me to try to avoid hearing and engaging in too much negative talk. Sure, the program is hard, but that's part of the process of becoming a strong, critical thinking nurse.

3. Asking for help if/when I felt overwhelmed. Emory has a great counseling center which is free for students, and offers a range of services. One program that benefited me was the stress clinic, a mini course for stress management using guided imagery, biofeedback, etc. I still use what I learned there when managing a stressful clinical situation or preparing for a job interview.

4. Brain sheets. There are lots of great examples of these around this website. I purchased a mini plastic clipboard that could fit in scrubs or labcoat pocket and clipped in pages for taking notes during clinical rotations. I tailored the pages to the site so I would remember all key information throughout the day. For example during midwifery rotations I had a worksheet that included spaces for me to log the patient's due date, allergies, complications, birth preferences, time that water broke, etc. These worksheets helped me throughout the day and with writing up class assignments afterward. I highly recommend this for staying organized in clinical and would be happy to share blank copies.

And finally, one thing I would do differently, now that I have worked as a healthcare provider for several months, is save guidelines/articles/powerpoints by topic for future reference in a methodical way. I had a folder for each course, grouped by semester on my computer, which was useful at the time. I didn't realize til it was too late that a lot of the powerpoints and articles I had read online through links or on Blackboard and didn't have catalogued for future reference. I don't mean I should have saved everything twice, but it would be helpful for me now to have, for example, a diabetes folder with the latest treatment guidelines, one good lecture on the pathophysiology, my notes from pharmacology, and a blank blood glucose log to give to patients, all in one spot. Some students compile resources like this in a binder, which would be equally helpful for me as a first year provider.

I hope this helps and that you don't mind I took the liberty of answering several unasked questions. :) Best of luck to you! I hope you love Emory and Atlanta as much as I do!