The Pedrozzi Foundation was thrilled to receive an update from Karissa Beran, 2017 Pedrozzi Scholar and current Sacramento State School of Nursing student.
Karissa shared about her current classes and the
I have just started my 4th and final semester with Sacramento State’s School of Nursing. In my 4th semester, I am enrolled in Nursing Leadership and Management, Clinical Leadership and Role Development, and Community Health Nursing. The largest part of my semester is doing my preceptorship, which I have asked for and happily been placed in home health care, where I will be completing 225 hours of nursing care. The other components of my semester include a community health clinical (90 hours throughout the semester) and team projects. This semester is all about reviewing, enhancing and learning nursing skills and professional behavior to transition from senior nursing student to a novice professional nurse.
It is great to hear that there are students interested in nursing! As for how I came to nursing, I came from Las Positas Community College and applied to Sacramento State and Chico State. I was waitlisted with both (I had a 4.0 but lost some points in the point system because I had not worked in healthcare before, volunteered enough hours or knew a second language fluently), and I was #21 on the waitlist. Thankfully, in late May of 2017 Sacramento State offered me a seat, which meant I had all of summer to move and prepare to start nursing classes in fall 2017! So what I always tell people is to not get discouraged if they are waitlisted; they can still potentially get in!
As for what I have done in my previous semesters of nursing school, here is a brief break down:
1st semester: Nursing care of adults, theory in
2nd semester: Focus is on acute medical-surgical and critical care for adults, as well as psych nursing. Students spend 135 hours in acute med-
3rd semester: This is a favorite for many students, as it is all about pediatrics and maternal newborn (obstetrics). You spend 180 hours of clinical in pediatric hospital floors and postpartum floors, with some days in the pediatric intensive care unit (PICU), labor & delivery (L&D), and L&D triage as an observer.
As always, I am thankful to the Pedrozzi Foundation for their support of my education. I hit some financial downturns since moving to Sacramento, and the support I received from the Pedrozzi Foundation helped me to stay in school.
The Pedrozzi Foundation wishes Karissa continued success on her journey in becoming a nurse.
