Immediately after my graduation from my A.A.S. program, I thought that I would be able to land the job of my dreams. I began to apply for the coveted “hospital job” and applied endlessly for days at a time. Sadly, I never got a call from any of the hospitals I had applied to. I soon learned that it was near impossible to get a hospital job without a BS degree. I applied for the RN-BS program at City Tech and got accepted.
Now that I have come to the end of the RN-BS program, I am glad that I did not start out at a hospital right after i got my A.A.S. I realized that I had a lot of learning and maturing to do. The BS program has really shaped and molded me into the nurse I am today. Currently, I am working in a nursing and rehabilitation facility. I have been able to incorporate my learning into my career. I have become a better leader, delegate, and advocate for my patients. I am more in tune with my patients and have a better understanding of patients and the people around me. I have matured and grown exponentially as a student, nurse, and person.
After taking RN-BS courses, I feel more confident in my work and as a person. I feel that I am more prepared to handle the obstacles put in front of me at work. When I first started working in nursing, I found it was almost impossible to delegate because my self-esteem was low. After taking the Leadership course, I feel more comfortable in leading my colleagues during a busy shift. After taking Urban and Community, I find that I judge people less by their appearances. This is important because as a nurse, I should be able to keep my biases to myself and not let them interfere with the care that I provide to patients.
The A.A.S. program was all about learning and memorizing signs and symptoms of disease and realizing how much information you can cram into the small lump in your head called the brain, but the BS program is so much different. You learn to connect the dots from the patient to the disease, to the community, and to the global population. Nursing will always be a profession of lifetime learning. I am glad that I pursued my BS to become a better nurse.
