NursingZen

Winter quarter started last week right after New Year’s Day. I was still a little hungover in class after a raucous time at a house in the woods with friends. (I highly recommend getting out of town for New Year’s Eve, getting a space with your friends, and not spinning in circles asking each other: ‘So what are you doing for NYE?’)

I have a lot of juicy news about this quarter (Family & Child Nursing and Sociocultural Issues), but I know a few readers have MEPN interviews coming up really soon, so on the off chance that you read this before your interview, I want to answer a burning question: “For MEPN interviews, what do you think they like to see in students?”

I alluded to this issue in a post under Things I wish I knew:

• Don’t overthink the admissions process or your application. It seems like there’s no one tie that binds all of us. Sometimes we seem totally random. Everyone is different. For example, some people had hardly a clue about the nursing profession, while others did a lot of work in public health or health care. Some people dreamed of being a nurse and advanced practice nurse for years, while others decided to try nursing two months before the application deadline.

How do you like my non-answer? “Totally random.” Well, all right, despite the randomness, if I had to pick out some threads, I’d say that my classmates have had enriching life and/or work experiences, a desire to help people, and confidence (and I don’t mean in a Russell Crowe kind of way. Many classmates have a quiet confidence that comes through if you take time to talk and listen to them).

Some classmates at the interview stage had little volunteer experience and no clue about what a nurse practitioner or clinical nurse specialist does. I admit, I was a little surprised by this because a) isn’t community service important? and b) shouldn’t one have a good idea what nurses and advanced practice nurses do before going into the profession?

More concrete insight into the interview process:

• Wear what makes you feel comfortable and confident. No need to wear a suit if you dread that type of thing. One-third of my classmates during my interview day wore suits, but the rest were dressy casual (if not way too casual).
• Read this guy’s summary about the process in 2005. Nothing changed for me, except the number of applicants, interviewees, and available spots.

When I had my interview with a nursing supervisor, I thought I bombed it. She hardly smiled and kept hitting me with the same type of question and comment over and over again:

• Nursing is hard.
• We need nurses who want to be professionals.
• Nurses need to be able to speak up and stand up for themselves and their patients. Can you do that?
• There are two types of nurses: those who are there to punch the clock and those who are leaders.
• Nursing is hard.

I felt like she was trying to ‘break’ me. Needless to say, I wasn’t too optimistic after this interview. But in retrospect, I believe she was simply trying to be upfront and honest about the profession, so that I could be upfront and honest with myself about whether I really wanted to stick my neck into it. I’m now more than halfway done with MEPN, and I don’t have any regrets. Good luck! Please share your interview experiences at this blog if you can.

Apologies for flaking out for so long! My winter break wasn’t as much of a vacation as I had hoped for. But I did manage to read a few interesting books: The Alchemist, The Kite Runner, The Beginner’s Guide to Insight Meditation, and The Good Heart - A Buddhist Perspective on the Teachings of Jesus - His Holiness the Dalai Lama.

Arinna Weisman and Jean Smith’s The Beginner’s Guide to Insight Meditation helped answered some of my burning questions about Buddhism, such as do Buddhists have to believe in reincarnation? (Many don’t.) Are all Buddhists vegetarian? (No. Buddhists in Tibet and Japan often eat meat.) The writers also resonated with me by acknowledging that it’s not important to categorize or label oneself as a Buddhist because it may not necessarily be a true reflection of whether the person lives by Buddhist thought. Many people don’t call themselves Buddhist, yet they practice “awareness and awakening.” I could get carried away by spiritual talk, but I’ll just say that striving for awareness and awakening has been enriching my whole nursing experience and making the MEPN bubble a lot easier to live in.