Page 16 - Healthcare News May/June 2022

SALUTE TO NURSES CONT’D
something with more direct patient care.
And now, COVID was potentially standing in the way of the kind of
learning experience she wanted and knew she needed. And she admitted to thinking about withdrawing and putting her plans on ice.
But something told her to push on, and the sentiments she expressed about her thought process speak volumes about this intriguing crack in time, others who persevered, and those who choose this profession in ge“neral.
In all of its harshness, COVID was kind of a blessing in some respects. Because it gave me at least — I can’t speak for anyone else — a good reality check as to what this business is and what we’re getting into rather than being in the business for so long and then having it be rough.”
“I actually weighed the pros and cons of going into this program dur- ing the pandemic with things being so restrictive,” she said, adding that talks with her advisors and faculty members convinced her to press on.
“They had a really positive attitude about it, and they basically reminded me that, despite the pandemic, people were still getting sick, and if anything, they were getting sicker, and there was a shortage and we needed new nurses, and more people would be leaving the field because of this,” she went on. “It made me think ... ‘if I can’t go through this program during the pandemic, then I don’t belong in this field; even in the worst times, you need to be available.”
So, she stuck it out, and her perseverance has certainly been re- warded. Indeed, while nursing graduates have been in demand the past several years, Machuca said she had multiple offers to weigh before ulti- mately deciding on Holyoke Medical Center, where she is now working the 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. shift in the emergency department.
So, while the pandemic spawned myriad challenges for nursing students, she noted, it ultimately created opportunities and learning experiences on myriad levels.
Michael Konderwicz, a recent graduate of the BSN program at American International College (AIC), said essentially the same thing.
He was able to transition into a graduate-nurse role at Mercy Medical Center, where he is now working in the emergency department. He told HCN that because of COVID, he and others like him were able to work under the license of a willing nurse one day a week to “get your feet wet while you’re still in school,” as he put it, and apply many of the things he was learning in school to what he was doing at work.
It was invaluable experience, he said, one that is accelerating the tra- ditional orientation process at Mercy and should help him more quickly transition into his role after (hopefully) passing the nurse licensing exam, known as the NCLEX.
Overall, he said the past four years, and especially the past two dur- ing COVID, have been a test, one that has enabled him to learn about himself, the profession, and much more.
“In all of its harshness, COVID was kind of a blessing in some re- spects,” he said. “Because it gave me at least — I can’t speak for anyone else — a good reality check as to what this business is and what we’re getting into rather than being in the business for so long and then hav- ing it be rough. I said, ‘I’m going to commit to this and stay with it.’”
As for those administering college nursing programs, it has been
a time of challenge and opportunity for them as well. The challenges are obvious; they had to re-invent how they taught nursing early in the pandemic and adjust to a landscape that was changing quickly and profoundly. And then, they had to change back, which was not as easy as it might sound.
In doing so, said Karen Rousseau, dean of Health Sciences at AIC, administrators and faculty members learned some valuable lessons
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