With the current challenges facing healthcare and the world, we want to shine a light on the students and new nurses who are coming into the field during this unprecedented time.

We hope to raise awareness of their situations and help to amplify what needs to be done to ensure that nurses feel comfortable and supported in the healthcare field.

Situations cannot change with truth. We hope their stories will resonate with you and can create change within the field of nursing.

This is the first video in our series where we bring these students’ experiences to you.

[Transcript]

Olivia
We were actually on spring break when everything got shut down, and then they basically just emailed us and they're like, OK, we're taking a two-week break from clinical. We're not going to be on campus. We're going to start doing online learning, which of course, was something none of us had ever done before. And for the school, they had to figure out, OK, what systems are we going to use? And then, just like is New York state, going to accept this for this program.

I human was the system we used for our simulations for clinical. It was more geared towards doctors, so that made it a little challenging because there were things that we just didn't need to know or learn. Every time you finished a clinical, which was just to get experience, you were getting this grade and you're seeing something that you may not have been super OK with. And that was kind of a weird thing to adjust to. And then, of course, just like it's a simulation. 

When I came back, we were still doing online learning, but we were going to be in person for clinical, so that was nice to finally be back in the hospital and, you know, getting that experience again, but definitely still being on Zoom was really challenging just because it was a lot of the higher-level classes and we were having like five-hour lectures and you're just sitting in front of your computer. 

The biggest thing I learned from it was just, you know, sticking to that routine and getting dressed every morning and waking up at the same time. And that really helped me kind of get through it. And I think, you know, I took a lot more notes than I ever would. Sometimes you would just be sitting there, and you'd break out a little bit, so taking more notes really helped you kind of focus in on it. And then just like really taking advantage of the fact that with Zoom, the lectures could be recorded so you could look back at it, so there were definitely some benefits from it. You know, you had to become even more responsible than you were in the past because there was just you were kind of on your own, a little bit. 

Victoria
This has been a learning experience like it has for a lot of people during the pandemic to shift from a very in-person hands-on sort of learning experience to a much more virtual learning experience. So that aspect has been a little difficult and stressful, for sure. Definitely a lot of working to be the best you can be from this virtual environment. 

Fernanda
There's been a lot of changes that happened while the pandemic hit, and as it's been going on for the last twelve months within my practice, of course, in most health care practice, it's been a lot of changes and protocols and procedures. The way that we did things before, we don't no longer do it. We've lost, you know, staff has also been an issue. And also, the mask-wearing. Now we have to wear since the pandemic, we had to wear all this protective equipment and then after things calmed down, we have to wear a mask constantly at all times. 

Caroline
In 2020, when everything started happening, we went completely online. I guess March 15th, I guess, is when we started just doing like virtual class. And then we did like Zoom for my second year in the fall and spring, but I actually started my clinical rotations in the spring. So even though we were doing online school, I was going into the hospital doing one rotation. It was just like five hours a week, so it definitely changed a lot. A lot of our class like deals with, I guess, group sharing and having discussion-based learning, so teachers asking us to do that over Zoom, no one wanted to talk or collaborate ideas and stuff like that. 

So it was nice that we still got in-person learning with the clinical tools this past spring. And we're fully in-person now, so I have like in-person lectures and in-person clinicals, so I'm happy about that. But it's definitely a huge adjustment from being completely online with like a little bit of in-person, just all in-person.