The routine of a nursing major: Sara Hershberger

Photo by Josiah Garber

Lori Anderson, Denise Snook, and Michelle Crouse present their senior project to fellow nursing students and faculty. The senior project addressed a number of questions in a case study involving the expansion of the nursing program. Each nursing student takes two years of general courses and two years of nursing courses before being certified as a RN.

Comments like, "Oh, you’re a nursing major? Well, I won’t be seeing you around junior and senior year then" sometimes make me wonder what I’ve gotten myself into as a freshman nursing major.

Do I really want to put myself through all of the work and stress that I hear rumors of? Yes, I tell myself, it will be worth it in the end because EMU has a reputable program that has been around since the early 1970’s and produces respected, caring nurse leaders.

There are three levels in the nursing program; levels one and three are both a semester long, and level two is two semesters long. These levels are normally completed as a junior and senior. Prerequisites for the nursing program are mostly science related (for example, Biochemistry and the ever-famous Human Anatomy and Physiology), but nurses are also expected to have an understanding of basic human psychology and sociology.

As a sophomore, students take Conceptual Framework, a course in which students are exposed to the theological and conceptual basis for nursing at EMU. Once a person is in the nursing levels, learning is facilitated both in a regular classroom setting and through modules. These are packets of information that the student has to learn either on their own or in a class. After each module is learned, a test is taken. Students then learn laboratory procedures and have to demonstrate mastery before they move on to clinical situations. Clinicals take place in the community in settings ranging from working with individual families in homes, to working in clinics, health care centers, and hospitals. Students travel as far away as Luray and Charlottesville for these experiences.

The nursing program at EMU emphasizes caring relationships. We are taught that nurses should look at health care as a whole: physical, spiritual, mental, and environmental. Nurses don’t just care for a person’s physical needs, but should be ready to give other support as needed or wanted. Caring is central to nursing. Students are expected to articulate a Christian philosophy of nursing that incorporates the following approaches to caring: service, agape love, justice, presence, empowerment, advocacy, reconciliation, partnership, and grace. Nursing is not only carried out with individuals, but with families, groups, and communities.

Nursing students get to know each other very well. Once in the nursing levels, the classes are relatively small, with a lot of interaction. Students have to learn how to trust each other because they practice giving injections and examinations on each other. There are also numerous group projects that can create both closeness and tension at times. Students share intense learning and experiences around patients’ and communities’ birth, death, and life experiences. Sharing in this way brings students closer together.

The nine nursing faculty members are approachable and students have comfortable and open relationships with them. Over half of the faculty members graduated from EMU and Goshen.