My First Year as A Nurse, Grad School, and A Dog 

One year as a nurse! By the time this article is published however, it has been more than a year and a half, oops! In the past year I’ve learned about the difficulties of what it takes to be a critical care nurse and managing graduate school. There has also been a new addition to the family, a German Shepherd puppy. To say that it hasn’t been a busy year is an understatement.

Something I’m sure every new nurse has felt is nursing is a tough field to work in. While there are different specialties, those working in hospitals or similar facilities know the feeling of long hours and tough nurse-patient ratios to name a few variables. There comes little surprise of high burnout rates in the nursing profession. For myself, starting in critical care, while difficult, was really beneficial for increasing my clinical knowledge and I’m grateful to have started in a unit that had a great education culture with a vast amount of resources available to me to provide high quality care to my patients. While I spent my time learning, I spent my nights and weekends pursuing further education.

Currently I still have another semester to go before I have completed my first year in my doctoral program. The current course of public health or epidemiology have been helpful in understanding western medicine and how those in the community become admitted to hospitals for a variety of reasons. Hopefully as I continue through the program I’ll gain more insight to find gaps and barriers to improve healthcare outcomes. When I did find myself having free time from both work and school I went to fulfill a lifelong dream of mine, to have a German Shepherd. 

I got him in July of 2024 and he is currently seven and a half months old, and I have to say we have had our ups and downs as we navigate through the puppy stage but he is my best friend. I’m currently down a few pairs of socks, my floor will forever be dirty, and I’ve vacuumed enough hair to knit everyone I know a sweater, and I wouldn’t give him up for anything. He is also the best at playing outside and going on hikes, friendly with everyone, and most importantly he loves my mom more than me so I guess we gotta keep him around. His best friend is another German Shepherd named Daisy and those two together are a force to be reckoned with and I appreciate he has a buddy to grow up with. I’m lucky to have him, even though he destroys my socks. 

While this article is short the main message is that the first year of nursing is a tough one, in a way it’s probably supposed to be as it’s unlike nursing school or tech positions. I hear a lot of nurses say they want to do some sort of continuing education but are not sure of going back to school. I say do it, there is so much to learn and grow in our field. For anyone considering getting a puppy, try a goldfish instead. All jokes aside, dogs are truly unconditional loving animals. There will definitely be some Marley & Me moments, but what is life without a little adventure and a friend to share it with!

Zeus on Day 1 (Left) and Zeus at Seven Months (Right)