Interview with Fiona
Fiona works for Carecor Health Services while she finishes her nursing degree. We recently caught up with Fiona for a brief interview:
How far along are you in your studies?
Fiona: I’ve done one year of nursing school so far and I’ve got three years left.
Getting to work through Carecor as you are doing – does that give you any advantages in your schooling or marks or whatever?
Fiona: It is really good experience for me. A lot of the work I do at Carecor, with the patients is really valuable to my nursing. It’s a lot of the same things that we are learning. So practicing things like bathing, patience, making beds - its great getting experience interacting with different patients; you see patients with different conditions in different situations.
Do you think you have an advantage over your fellow students having this experience with Carecor?
Fiona: Yes. It is really great to get right in there and see different hospitals, see different patients and get a lot of experience practicing the skills that I am learning at nursing school.
Are you finding that what attracted you to nursing is there for you in nursing?
Fiona: Yes. I am really finding that what pulled me to nursing was the chance to interact – interact with patients; interact with nurses; also getting to apply my scientific background.
Did you have a mentor or someone who was a nurse who inspired you to get into it?
Fiona: Not really. I found nursing just appealed to me. I had been to the hospital a few times just for some scrapes and bruises and so on. Getting to see what nurses do there really interested me.
What is the hardest thing about being a nurse?
Fiona: The hardest thing about being a nurse is you need to be extremely organized. You have to always be on the go, keeping all your different patients in mind at the same time, keeping track of who needs what done and staying on schedule.
What is the best part?
Fiona: The best part is seeing people getting better; getting to see the difference you make in peoples’ lives; someone who is in the hospital and is sick and uncomfortable – if you can go in and make them more comfortable, make their stay more enjoyable – it really feels great to be able to help people.
What is the most interesting or challenging thing that has happened to you in the past year or so in nursing? Does anything come to mind? Something you have told other people about?
Fiona: Working in Neuro Units is fascinating, seeing the effects that brain injuries have on people, on their lives and seeing what a big impact it has for the long run if you are injured in a car accident, for example.
How are you able to witness blood and death and pain - all those things that nurses have to confront every day and then go home and be joyous and light and free – how do you do that?
Fiona: What you see, you just get used to. Sometimes, it does come home with you. It does not actually feel like you are witnessing someone who is in a lot of pain and it is hard to help them. Actually, it is just getting used to things and it is just learning to live with them.
How did you find out about Carecor?
Fiona: I found out about Carecor at my school’s Job Fair and they had a day when all these different health care facilities, different health related jobs came to present and I thought that Carecor was something that was really interesting to me. I really liked what they do.
Would you recommend it to fellow nursing student?
Fiona: Absolutely! What an experience for a student.
