Haley Tjon, NUR ’24, Dublin, CA
This summer I externed at NYU Langone Orthopedic Hospital as a student nurse extern. In a series of happy accidents, I found a home on my floor and a group of new friends among my fellow externs. Initially, I wanted to be at the main NYU hospital rather than the specialized orthopedic hospital but ultimately ended up at a different hospital. I also happened to get the last choice I listed for what unit I was placed in but by the end of the summer, I was glad I ended up where I did.
Working on my unit, I really learned about the importance of teamwork in caring for patients. During the schoolyear, I get hands on clinical experience during my clinicals once a week when I go to a healthcare site and see how our classroom skills playout in practice. However, with clinicals only being once a week, it can be difficult to get to know your unit as you work with a new nurse every week, making it difficult to create a bond in 12 hours while also trying to fill out a care plan and attend to patients. I am grateful that I was able to be on one floor for the majority of the summer because I was able to get to know all of the nurses as well as the patient care technicians, unit clerks and so on. I was recognized as part of this team and it helped me build my confidence in practicing my skills and recognizing when others needed help. Every person on the floor is integral to ensure that patients are receiving exceptional care and I saw how communication and teamwork was used to carry this out.
I am grateful to all my nurses and others on the floor who welcomed me to the floor and were so willing to share the knowledge they had gained through their experiences. I was placed on an acute rehab floor where patients who had strokes or traumatic brain injuries were receiving various therapies to regain their strength or learn to adapt to new changes in their abilities to do certain activities. It was a floor where people felt very vulnerable with their loss of independence and I saw how all the people floor comforted them and ultimately how I could do the same.
This is part of a series of posts by recipients of the 2023 Career Services Summer Funding Grant. We’ve asked funding recipients to reflect on their summer experiences and talk about the industries in which they spent their summer. You can read the entire series here
