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Guys. This is really sad. This is the last blog that I will be writing. My WISE journey has been super fun and I’m so sad that it’s coming to an end. I truly got a lot out from this class, from getting assistance from Mrs. Mero on the whole college process in the fall, to researching about my dream job and being able to get an internship! I gained so much knowledge on my field, as well as bettering my time management skills. To keep up with all of the assignments, I had to keep myself on track.

This week I completed my symposium board and brought it into school. We have our symposium night tomorrow and I’m super excited to see everyone’s hard work. I am now fully focused on my final presentation and I’m trying to get it done. I’m a bit stressed, but I know that it will all work out fine.

I still can’t believe that our WISE journey is reaching an end. A special thank you to Mrs. Mero as well as my mentor, Mr. Salmore, for all of their help and guidance!!!

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This week I mostly just worked on my symposium board and my final presentation! I started to put together my slides for my presentation and put together a nice lay out. I then began to glue all of my information onto my symposium board. I also got some extra things to make my board look more unique.
This week I also created a checklist for myself to make sure I had everything completed, or am in the process of completing it. For example, I went back and made sure that I had all of my 15 annotated bibliographies done and ready to submit. I also made sure that I had all of the information and materials to complete both my final presentation and symposium board.

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Hey! YAY. GOOD NEWS. I finally got an internship!!! This weekend I got to spend some time with our school nurse, Mrs. Cortese, during her night shift at The Children's Hospital at Montefiore. It was such an amazing experience, and made me even more excited to one day pursue this career myself. I got to see several patients and observe nurses. One of my favorite parts was being able to see a four day old baby. He was the cutest thing I have ever seen. This burst of joy has reassured myself that I want to work with babies.

While being in an environment where there are many sick children, I realized how difficult this job can get. You have to stay strong and know that all of the rewards and positives that come from it rise above the negatives.

Overall, being able to finally see things first hand was something that I really needed. It opened my eyes to seeing that this is what I want to do for the rest of my life. I can't wait to go back and continue my internship at The Children's Hospital at Montefiore!

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I went shopping this week!!! Shopping is always fun. I went to Michaels and bought some cute supplies to get started with designing my symposium board. I went with the black tri fold board, so that my silver and red glitter letters/borders would stand out. I found a book with sooo many nursing stickers in it which made me happy. I had done a few rough drafts on paper of what I want my final board to look like. I think I'm finally ready to start putting together the real thing!

I'm super excited to work with our school nurse, Ms. Cortese, for part of my final project. We have some really cool ideas that I can't wait to share with everyone! I've also heard back from two interning opportunities and plan to start them in the upcoming week or two!

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Over this weekend I visited the University of South Carolina, where I will be furthering my education starting in the fall! I attended an information session for the College of Nursing at UofSC. It was super interesting and I learned so much about what to expect for my upcoming years in the program. They talked about all of the courses that we will take, and separated it by each of the 8 semesters. I also got the opportunity to walk around the building and see all of the interactive fake patients, hospital beds, and equipment that they use to better their educational experiences. I had a great time and I'm super excited!

Earlier on in the week, I got to sit down with our school nurse Mrs. Cortese. She told me about her whole journey of becoming a nurse, starting from college to now. I learned about how there are seriously SO many different options of what you can do with your degree in nursing. For example, she has worked in the hospital as a nurse, in managing positions, and in the school. It was really great listening to all of her stories, and it made me 10x more excited to pursue this career. She is truly amazing at what she does!!!

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Throughout this week I did a lot of emailing and contacting places. I had emailed the school nurse here in the high school and planned out some time to go and chat with her which I am super excited about! I'm getting to a better stage in my internship process. I think we're finally getting there. I found a couple of opportunities that I'm so excited to explore more about. Next week I plan on making some more phone calls and talking to more people. So yea, I had a good week, a little bit of stress but not too bad. Hopefully everything works out and I can get some cool experiences!

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This week I spent some time really trying to get some shadowing and/or interning experiences planned out. I emailed bigger places like Westchester Medical Center, and called smaller offices like Yorktown Pediatrics. I haven’t found an available opportunity yet, and a lot of my plans keep falling through. I’m going to keep trying my hardest and contacting more people. I plan to email and call more places. It is also on my to-do list this week to fill out more volunteer applications for different places. Hopefully next time I update you guys I will have some sort of internship plan!

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I finally spent the time to read this article that Lily had tweeted about a while ago. I remember seeing it and finding it interesting, so I went back and found it again. It was about a Pediatric ICU nurse, Ly Truong. She was always known as the one to add an extra light for her patients on their darker days. She has worked in this unit for over 8 years and has a lot of experience. It has always been Truong's biggest priority to cheer the children up as much as she can everyday. One of the many activities she has done for the children was painting on the glass windows of her patients' rooms. Waking up to their nurse painting fun pictures on their rooms is something that these children will remember forever.
https://dailynurse.com/nurse-of-the-week-ly-truong-adds-extra-c-to-cheer-kids-in-pediatric-icu/

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Imagine you're a woozy grade-schooler waking up in the ICU at night... And when you open your eyes, the first thing you see is a nurse on the other side of the glass painting Minions! Or, Raphael and Michaelangelo getting ready to battle Shredder!

If you're a child in an ICU in Austin, Texas, that nurse might be our Nurse of the Week, Clinical Nurse Coordinator/artist Ly Truong, BSN, RN. Truong's colorful hand-painted window murals of comic book, Disney, and Sesame Street characters brighten the days and nights in the pediatric ICU at St. David's Children's Hospital in Austin.

Truong has been a pediatric critical care nurse for over 8 years now, so she's had time to learn how to cheer up sick, lonely (and often frightened) children. When the pandemic began-adding a new flavor of stress to an already difficult experience-Truong grabbed her paints and chalk markers and embarked on a project to make the pediatric ICU a cheerier, chiller place for kids. "I hope for my patients when they get a chance to see me draw (because I work nights and they are sometimes asleep), it inspires them to be creative and fun," she told Southern Living. "Or it at least reminds them that even in the hospital there can be a little bit of fun."

In addition to brightening the environment of the ICU, Truong believes that offering young patients an opportunity to suggest subjects for her murals can give them a sense of autonomy in a situation where it is all too easy to feel helpless. She observed, "They [the kids staying in the ICU] don't have a lot of choice about what they get to do, or they have to take all these medicines that they never had before, or they're stuck in their room because they're contagious. So, it's really nice that they get to choose what characters go on the windows or choose what colors the characters are."

Truong's other masterpieces include characters from Despicable Me and PAW Patrol as well as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Elmo, Ernie, and Burt et al. Her ICU art has become so popular that St. David's is asking her to do a larger-scale mural for the hospital.

To see a video interview with the multitalented Ly Truong, visit KVUE.

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Nurse of the Week: Ly Truong Adds Extra "C" to Cheer Kids in Pediatric ICU - Daily Nurse

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Imagine you're a woozy grade-schooler waking up in the ICU at night... And when you open your eyes, the first thing you see is a nurse on the other side of the glass painting Minions! Or, Raphael and Michaelangelo getting ready to battle Shredder!

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This week I looked focussed mostly on how the pandemic has affected nursing education. During March of 2020, students were held back from so many in person opportunities to better their nursing skills. I'd say that the health risk of having these students work in person was about as worse as them losing this major piece of knowledge and experience needed to become a successful nurse. Knowing that so many of these students worked hard and made it through nursing school  during this hard time makes me feel less nervous, especially because things are starting to get back to normal!

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This week I was really stressed on getting everything done while I was away in Florida for cheer. I decided to read this intriguing article on the plane ride there. It was written by a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit Nurse, named Stacy. The information was presented in a question & answer styled writing. Stacy talked about why she wanted to become a NICU nurse, her skills, her favorite parts of her job, the most challenging parts of her job, and her advice to new grad nurses. I really enjoyed reading it because it felt very casual and truthful. I recommend reading this if you're interested in specializing in this area of nursing in the future!
https://www.choc.org/articles/compassion-skill-and-advocacy-caring-for-the-smallest-of-patients/

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One of the things I did this week was watch a video by The New York Times called "Inside A Covid I.C.U., Through a Nurse's Eyes". This video went into depth about what nurses have been through during the pandemic, while making it personal and effective. The long shifts, grieving the deaths of their patients, and keeping their home life separate from their work life, are just some of the things that nurses have to do during this hard time. As this video did show quite a large amount of  negative and difficult things about nursing (specifically during Covid), it was meant to spread respect for all nurses. My respect for nurses has 100% grown during the pandemic, and after watching this video. I definitely recommend watching, and I'm sure it will make you look at nurses in a new way!

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Inside a Covid I.C.U., Through a Nurse's Eyes | NYT Opinion

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My goal is to get hands on experience somewhere, learning skills that I will use when I become a nurse. I am currently reading the book "I Wasn't Strong Like This When I  Started Out: True Stories of Becoming A Nurse", by Lee Gutkind. I plan to watch the educational nursing documentary on YouTube called "A Nurse I Am". I want to talk to some nurses to get to hear about their real life experiences in healthcare. I plan to contact Andrea Debenedictis, Olivia Barletti, and Kim Corteze. My goals are to visit hospitals and to shadow a NICU nurse. I really just want to get experience doing something in my field. Some places I can contact are NY Presbyterian, Yorktown Schools nurse offices, Yorktown Volunteer Ambulance Corps, and Yorktown Pediatrics. I will assess when I achieve my goal by presenting my experiences to the class thoroughly and excitingly during my end of the year presentation. My plan is to create a board with all of the new things I have accomplished and learned. I hope to fill all of the boxes on the board by the end of my WISE journey.