It’s good to take a challenge

We have just had an on-site Open Day at the Medical University of Warsaw (WUM). Did you ever participate in such an event before you started your studies?

Yes, I did and I have a very good memory of that. I remember a photo booth. I still have a photo taken there, with the WUM University logo. But the most important part was being able to talk to students from various medical faculties. I was able to find out what the studies at WUM look like. I wasn’t sure at that time which faculty I should pick, and the meetings with fellow students helped me decide.

So, what actually made you decide to go for nursing?

 
I was looking for a faculty that would give me a stable job, employment assurance. I also needed my personal development, being able to choose from multiple career paths. I suspected I would get all this at the Nursing faculty. And indeed, when I completed the Bachelor’s course, I discovered how many different paths were available and how many things I would be able to do afterwards. There were much more than I initially expected.

Now, three and a half years later, how does your idea about studying nursing compare to the reality? What surprised you the most?

When I was starting my studies, I didn’t have any specific ideas about studying. In the first year, you take fundamentals of nursing. This course takes place in a lab where we have phantoms and manikins for practicing some basic nursing skills, such as injections, inserting a catheter, connecting a drip. This is done without a patient present because we first need to learn how to operate the equipment. Then we switch from the simulation environment to working with actual patients. And that transition was a very positive surprise for me. It was then that I felt this job was really something for me, that I’ve chosen the right thing.
Another surprising discovery is how much support you can give to a patient by simply talking to them. The initial years of my training practice were during the pandemic. Hospital visits were restricted then. And the medical personnel was actually the only support and the only link with the outside world. You just needed to ask the patient if they had a good night’s sleep, how they were feeling, just to have a brief conversation to see that they were feeling better immediately. It was particularly true for elderly patients.

Why did you decide to study at WUM and not at any other medical university?

I heard from my senior colleagues who had studied there that a lot was going on at this school. You make progress, you can meet great people, see and discover a lot, learn more about yourself. In my secondary school, my class profile subjects were biology and chemistry. I passed my final exams well, so I got to the WUM University easily. Besides, I am from Warsaw, so it was kind of a natural choice for me.

What are the strong points of studying here?

I have training practice at different hospitals, clinics, care homes. We can all find out if we are happy with the site characteristics, the different patient profiles, working methodologies, responsibilities, and the way we feel there. Interpersonal relations are still another aspect. I was lucky to meet some wonderful people in my Dean’s group. We had all kinds of situations in the course of training, sometimes it was difficult, yet we had to get through this together and it brought us closer to one another. We can motivate each other and give each other a lot of support. We help each other and share our experiences. We stick together and I hope these friendships will survive graduation, too. What is also precious about studying nursing is that our academic teachers do not only convey knowledge to us but they also share their personal experience. They tell us about the situations they had to face and the challenges they encountered.

 
Are there any teachers whom you would call your mentors?

Yes, these people are great at building a relationship with a patient. They can soothe the patient, interview them properly, they focus on communication with the other person, and they make every effort to give the patient the best possible care. They are also able to give simple instructions to students: what we should do to avoid getting stressed out, to build rapport with the patient and make them feel secure.

In the nurse profession, you are often confronted with human suffering. Then you need empathy on one hand, and on the other hand you have to protect yourself from burnout. Is it something you can learn in your studies?

We had classes in medical communication in our first cycle studies. In the second cycle we learn the psychology of health, and the communication and empathy aspects are discussed here in detail as well. These classes are very important for me, both in the context of “me versus the patient” and “me versus myself”. We learn how to set the limits, to identify the point in time when the job starts to be overwhelming. 

You have won the WorldSkills Poland Competition, which is the Poland preliminary round of EuroSkills in the Health Care skill - what was the competition all about?

The competition took three days, proceeding through several stages. First we had to take a knowledge test in English. The questions were about the responsibilities of a nurse, such as how much medication you can administer through subcutaneous injection, and certain psychological aspects, for example which patient behaviors we should be concerned about, how to deal with problems. The test determined the final round contestants who then took part in the second, practical stage. We were asked to prepare a nursing care plan for specific patients, for example with COPD or hypertension. The next competition task is simulation. The first simulated patient was suffering from Alzheimer’s disease and he was staying at home. My job was to manage the situation and complete the necessary nursing procedures. It was quite a challenge because the actor who played the patient was perfect at his job. He asked lots of questions, he was getting upset, asking ‘who are you?’ and ‘what are you doing here’, he tried to leave the house. It was not easy to explain it to him who I was and why I came. Another simulated situation was at an outpatient clinic and the patient was a teenager who had just been diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. He needed education, explanation how to use the insulin pen, how to monitor the sugar levels, and he needed to talk about his concerns relating to the disease. The jurors awarded points for every task, and the person with the highest score was the winner.

You have the EuroSkills finals ahead of you now, the international competition in Gdańsk. How are you preparing for it?

Fortunately, I have the support of doctor Lena Serafin, an expert in health care. Soon I will have medical communication, ergonomics, care planning, self-management and patient management practice. The competition takes place from September 5 to 9 so I still have some time left to prepare. 

Have you already decided what you would like to do after graduation? 

Not entirely, but I try to have all my options open. I want to try a lot of different things, take advantage of the course offering at the school and of the numerous events that are happening in the nursing faculty. Right now I am focusing on my EuroSkills preparation and I am not thinking further ahead beyond September.

What would you say to the young people who will be starting their studies at WUM in October?

That it’s good to try new things. I do my best to follow this rule myself. New challenges help me discover a part of myself. Naturally, everything that’s new gives you some concerns, and I have these, too. But it’s still worth trying, regardless of the stress involved. It’s good to take the risk. Even an interview for a study program or a preliminary round of a competition is a new experience. You can see where you need to improve and what you excel at.

Interviewer: Iwona Kołakowska
Photo: Michał Teperek
University Office for Communications and Promotion