Elective

Adult Health II

Taking adult health II was truly a turning point in my nursing studies. This class was an addition to the adult health I class that I took in the spring semester before. In that class, we learned about foundational disease process such as diabetes, hypertenison, cancer, etc. The things that most people have general knowledge about. But adult health II was about more serious, complicated, and critical conditions such as heart failure, acute respiratory distress syndrome, and much more. This class was so intense that even from the first few lectures in that semester I wondered if I even had a chance of passing the class. I knew nothing about these disease process coming into the class, some of them I have never even heard of until that moment. Unlike others who had healthcare workers as family members, I was starting from ground zero on knowledge and that scared me.

When it came to certain topics that we were learning, it felt as if no matter how much I studied I still was not understanding the material to its fullest extent. I was beginning to feel defeated as I received mediocre test scores compared to my other classmates. But then we began a topic that really peaked my interest. We studied Critical Care.

When we started critical care towards the end of the year there was shift. A shift in my hope, my excitement to learn, and thankfully, my understanding. There was something interesting about learning about traumas like skull fractures, brain bleeds, burns, and much more. I spent so much time studying it not because I felt like I needed to but because I desired to. Day in and day out I was reading, and reading, and reading some more about these critical conditions which, in return, helped me to understand the things I didn't understand before. Amazingly, for my final I scored one of the highest grades in the class and that was when I knew that intensive care was meant for me.