Student Socialization
We realize that students undergo many transitions to become part of a nurse anesthesia program and to move into this career. To help smooth the transition to becoming an anesthesia student, we provide a number of resources to incoming students. The most innovative of these is our pioneering orientation program, called “Surviving the Bubble”. This program was developed by one of our own students, Jennifer Ferguson, based on her own extensive experience with team-building activities as a long-time camp nurse. Recognizing that students feel isolation analogous to being encapsulated in a “bubble”, Ferguson custom-developed this program to introduce students to the concepts of teamwork, interpersonal communication, problem-solving, goal-setting, and time-management as they relate to navigating a nurse anesthesia program.
Ferguson was assisted in implementing the program by Kat Vanden Heuvel and Aimee Jones from YMCA Camp Harrison at Herring Ridge. Kat is the Resident Camp Director and has over 10 years peer facilitation experience, and Aimee is Assistant Resident Camp Director and has 4 years peer facilitation experience. Together, the team brought their collective experience to provide a very meaningful and effective program.
The program is held at the Piney Lake Experiential Education Campus of UNCG. During the one-day program, new students participate in various physical activities as well as group discussions.
The activities foster trust and commitment toward one another, while also giving students the opportunity to learn more about each other.
The afternoon session pairs new students with experienced students who share similar family situations (single, no children, young children, grown children, etc.) In these breakout groups, the new students learn “from the pros” strategies for effective time management and achieving successful work-life balance.
The class came together to formulate a group mission statement and an understanding between themselves as to how they would tackle the difficult years ahead.
What some participants said about “Surviving the Bubble”:
“It was a wonderful day that exceeded my expectations. I enjoyed it.”
“Very real. Fun, too. Great balance. Eight hours of activity that will mean a lot in the next two years. Strongly recommend this!”
“Discussing real life situations gave us guidance and some reassurance as well.”
“Today was great! Thanks so much! I really feel that our class bonded together as a team and as a new “family”. The exercises built trust and confidence in each other.”
“I enjoyed learning to work together as a team with strangers (who are no longer strangers after today!)”
In other social orientation programs, efforts are made to provide students with helpful resources prior to large transitions. Starting in the spring before the program starts, students are invited to join a discussion board and to utilize a chat room to get to know their new classmates. In the 5 months prior to the start of the program, students posted 160 messages as they made connections with their prospective classmates.
Once in the program, prior to starting clinical, students are paired with both a senior student advisor as well as a faculty mentor. These resource people provide a “friendly face” in the OR, and someone the student can go to with questions, problems, etc. without the apprehension sometimes associated with bringing every concern to their instructors.
Just prior to starting clinical, students and CRNA mentors get together for a breakfast to discuss the upcoming phase of the program and allay anxieties regarding clinical practice expectations.
New students are welcomed to the program with a mentor breakfast hosted by their CRNA mentors.
These orientation programs support our vision of Creating Excellence in Nurse Anesthesia: to produce practitioners who possess an awareness of their role and who are comfortable taking a leadership position in the health care system. Development of the Surviving the Bubble program was also completed in fulfillment of Jennifer Ferguson’s Service Learning requirement: an opportunity for students to expand their leadership and management abilities beyond the typical realm of clinical anesthesia. |