Congratulations Texas graduate nurses, and good luck on your boards! For everyone else, good luck with your next semester in nursing school.  I just graduated from the University of Texas in December.  My first week working at Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas was great.  In August I will start their Nurse Internship Program, but until then I will be working on one of their med/surg units. 

 

Looking back on my experiences from nursing school, I have realized how much my teachers have impacted my career.  One instructor in particular, Mrs. Janis Carelock, inspired me to critically think and become the best nurse I could be.  Her passion for education really shined whenever she acted out scenarios to teach us how to critically think.  My favorite was when she pretended to have a heart attack.  Her passion for nursing could be seen whenever she shared her amazing stories from her work experience.  My notes are covered with her funny and entertaining nursing experiences.  She has accomplished so much throughout her 40+ years of nursing: critical care nursing, reviewing legal healthcare cases, working overseas, and instructing adult health clinicals, to name a few.  I can only hope to one day have my own plethora of nursing experiences and careers.  It just comes to show there is always something new to learn or to do in the nursing profession.  Words can not even describe how much I appreciated her commitment to us throughout nursing school.  Even when she was sick, she always made herself available and supported us.  Thank you Mrs. Carelock and I will never forget you!

When I was asked to write an article about a nurse who has inspired me, I began to think about all of the nurses that have influenced me in my pursuit of becoming a nurse.   Of all those who were on my list, one person always remained at the top.  On my first day of my first semester of nursing school, I met her.  I was taken with her genuine love for nursing when she introduced herself and told us all of the many fields she had practiced in and told us stories of her ventures in the nursing profession.  I was so excited when I found out a few days later that she would also be my clinical instructor for that semester.  As an overwhelmed, scared, excited first semester nursing student I was in need of a caring, supportive person that I could call a mentor.  And I found her.  She was one who expected a lot from her students, yet she was more than willing to work with each individual to meet and even exceed those expectations.  Observing her interactions with patients and coworkers, I realized that this was the nurse that I eventually wanted to be.  She was kind, caring, fun, and always seemed to improve the quality of life for every patient she interacted with.  She was a team player when it came to the staff at our clinical site, always willing to help out another coworker.  I knew then, that this was what I strived to be.   It was bittersweet when that first semester ended because even though I was successful in her class, I knew that she would no longer be my teacher.   I think I half-jokingly asked her several times if she would move on to the next semester with our class, but that wasn’t going to happen. 

She was too good at taking care of the “babies” of nursing school.   As I moved on through nursing school she remained a mentor and friend, one who was always willing to help and listen in times of need.  I was lucky that her office was right outside of our theory classroom because I really needed her inspiration on test days.  It became a routine for me to stop by before a test for a little pep-talk and she always obliged.  She always knew exactly what to say to make me feel better going into an always dreaded test.  The next two semesters were more challenging than the first, emotionally, physically and mentally, and she was always there to provide a caring shoulder to lean on.  I used that shoulder probably more than my fair share.  To my dismay, I returned for my final semester to find that she was no longer teaching at our school.  I was pretty upset and wondered what I was going to do without her, and if I could do it without her.  She was my nursing school security blanket and I wondered if I would survive without her test day pep-talks.  Though I did successfully complete that final semester, I missed her the whole way through, and will never forget her.  The impact that she made on me will stay with me forever, and though I know it will take a lot of time and experience, I still strive to be the nurse that she is and will always remember the lessons she taught me.  Lori Wastlick, thank you for being the nurse, mentor, teacher and woman that you are.  You will forever remain with me.

Instructor Missing

Aleisha Finley

TNSA Nominating Chairman