College health nurse

Rosie's story is about her 2 roles as college health nurse and ICU nurse – work she thoroughly enjoys.

I've been a nurse now for twenty years practicing mostly in the hospital setting. Two years ago, I had a yearning to work in a clinic setting of some sort. While taking a Trauma Care Coarse, one of the instructors who I hadn't seen around the hospital in awhile told me she had left the ER to practice at local college health clinic. After a long discussion about college health nursing, I decided to apply for an inpatient position at that includes weekend clinic hours. I still work in the ICU at our regional medical center as well as part time at the college health center.

While the role of nursing is similar, the actual role is dramatically different in many ways. First and most obvious, the patients at the health center are much younger and overall healthier than the typical hospital patient. Therefore, the plan of care for the student is very dynamic and changes in hours versus the plan of care for the hospital patient is longer and often changes over days. The student patient response to treatment is much faster and therefore their return to health is much quicker. For example, many of the students that are admitted to the inpatient unit for dehydration from gastroenteritis turn around within hours and are discharged in a day.

Secondly, my role as a college health nurse involves more primary health care nursing since the clinic is staffed with a physician during the weekday hours but is on-call during the evening and weekend. The nurses assess and diagnosis the students and then treat them accordingly via medical directives. Much of our care (assessment, diagnosing and treating) therefore is done independently. The students present with a wide variety of problems ranging from the simple conjunctivitis to the difficult injury or serious illnesses requiring central lines care. Boy, does this ever demand and strengthen independent assessment and critical thinking skills!

Overall, I thoroughly enjoy the differences in the two areas of nursing. I enjoy working in the student clinic equally as much as in the ICU. I learn something new everyday at each setting that strengthens my practice and care at the other setting. I don't believe that there are many professions that would allow this type of variety and contrast in the same professional role.

Rosie Rowland