What\u2019s the worst that can happen?<\/p>\n
By: Camilla Dunn RN, BSN<\/p>\n
So you have decided to go to Grad School?!\u00a0 Are you nuts?\u00a0 No, you are not nuts.\u00a0 You are not crazy.\u00a0 But you will think so throughout your journey, trust me on that.<\/p>\n
I am attending the University of Michigan-Flint for a Doctorate in Nursing Practice.\u00a0 In other words, I will be a Nurse Practitioner when I am finished.\u00a0 And have learned that there is not enough time in the day to get everything done, that it is okay to feel like you are drowning because you probably are, and that procrastination is not an option!<\/p>\n
I have finished one year of the program so far and it is HARD!\u00a0 My family is supportive, thank goodness.\u00a0 But it is still hard.\u00a0 I have a husband and family that expect me to be able to spend time with them, rather than have my nose in book with a highlighter as my main accessory on a day off from work.\u00a0 I have four children that expect me to read them stories, play, take them places, and just snuggle rather than having my laptop in the place I would love for them to be.\u00a0 But I keep trucking on.\u00a0 I keep on because it will be a great lesson for my children to see that even through adversity, you can prevail.\u00a0 I hope that when I do graduate they will see how far I have come and look at me with pride in their eyes.<\/p>\n
Hardest part of all of this, is not necessarily the workload.\u00a0 It is taking care of yourself!\u00a0 \u201cSleep is overrated\u201d and \u201cI can sleep when I am dead\u201d has come out of my mouth more than once, but I also work the night shift.\u00a0 If you like to sleep more than about 4 hours a day you may have difficulty getting everything done that you need to accomplish.\u00a0 Have a good planner and USE IT!\u00a0 I buy a student planner every year with intentions of using it and I don\u2019t.\u00a0 I have better luck inputting due dates for assignments on my cell phone rather than another book to look at!\u00a0 And I have missed due dates.\u00a0 Some instructors may be sympathetic.\u00a0 Others, not so much.\u00a0 I missed passing an important class by two percentage points because of due dates!\u00a0 So yes, do not be afraid to fail!\u00a0 It may happen.\u00a0 Did I cry?\u00a0 Oh yeah.\u00a0 I spend a couple of days wondering if I should continue in the program or not; obviously I decided to continue.<\/p>\n
Should you be involved in student organizations?\u00a0 That would be an individual decision.\u00a0 I decided to get involved and I need to network.\u00a0 My program is completely online, so contact with professors, colleagues, and classmates is usually via email, Skype, collaborate sessions, etc.\u00a0 I debated on getting in a student organization for several days, maybe even weeks, before deciding to run for secretary of the Student Nurse Practitioner Association.\u00a0 Wouldn\u2019t you know it?\u00a0 I won by default, nobody else ran against me.\u00a0 I work with a great group of nurses and we are working to increase the exposure our group has in the community, state, and on campus.\u00a0 It\u2019s a lot of work and my GPA cannot drop too low, but my program as a higher GPA requirement than most anyway.\u00a0 And since I live close to campus I have volunteered myself to be on other committees as well.\u00a0 In doing so, I get my name out there more and feel as if I can be an agent of change for the graduate program.<\/p>\n
Do we ever see each other in person?\u00a0 Not that often.\u00a0 It is great, until you need to do a project with someone that you never see and have to rely on electronic communication to complete the assignment.\u00a0 It gets frustrating at times, but constant communication is helpful.\u00a0 Do not be afraid to give out your cell phone number, email addresses, etc.\u00a0 By provided all possible avenues to contact you, you will have a better chance of success at the group projects.\u00a0 Of course it is always possible you will find someone that doesn\u2019t work as hard as you do and feel as if you are doing all the work anyway, just like in traditional face-to-face communication and projects.\u00a0 What do you do?\u00a0 Well, communicate concerns with your instructors, other group members, and carefully worded emails with the problem group member maybe beneficial as well.\u00a0 And yes, you don\u2019t want to be a complainer, but you don\u2019t want to get the shaft if the work is not what it could have been because of the partner(s) you get.<\/p>\n
I have given you a lot to digest.\u00a0 And is kind of all over the place.\u00a0 But since this is all things I didn\u2019t necessarily know when I started, I am happy to share what I have learned along the way.\u00a0 So, if you are thinking of Grad school, join us.\u00a0 What\u2019s the worst that can happen?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
What\u2019s the worst that can happen? By: Camilla Dunn RN, BSN So you have decided to go to Grad School?!\u00a0 Are you nuts?\u00a0 No, you are not nuts.\u00a0 You are not crazy.\u00a0 But you will think so throughout your journey, trust me on that. I am attending the University of Michigan-Flint for a Doctorate in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":303,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-228","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-motivation","category-nursing"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.umflint.edu\/graduateprograms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.umflint.edu\/graduateprograms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.umflint.edu\/graduateprograms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.umflint.edu\/graduateprograms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/303"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.umflint.edu\/graduateprograms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=228"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.umflint.edu\/graduateprograms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":230,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.umflint.edu\/graduateprograms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228\/revisions\/230"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.umflint.edu\/graduateprograms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=228"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.umflint.edu\/graduateprograms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=228"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.umflint.edu\/graduateprograms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=228"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}