Pictou County nursing students prepare to graduate St. FX
Just as the COVID-19 pandemic spotlights the urgent need for and heroic work of nurses, St. Francis Xavier University is turning out 108.
These nurses, including a handful hailing from Pictou County, will be among this weekend’s 945 new graduates. In normal times, depending on their faculty, they would be part of morning or afternoon convocations filled with long traditions, pageantry, music and the collective joy of an audience of family and friends. Instead, like the previous grad class, they will have scaled-down ceremonies livestreamed into their living rooms, in adherence with public health dictates.
December’s exuberant X ring ceremony and stately May convocation are traditional milestones of the graduating year but the Class of 2021 has, of necessity, been sadly short-changed on celebrations. Despite that, the relief, satisfaction and excitement of graduating remain strong.
Chloe MacLeod of Stellarton arrived at St. F.X. four years ago, freshly graduated from Northumberland Regional High School, determined to get her nursing degree.
“My grandmother, Margie MacLeod, was a nurse and she died of cancer when I was very young. I always wanted to honour her by becoming a nurse so I couldn’t be happier.”
Like all nursing graduates, she still has to pass a licensing exam but she is looking forward to joining the staff of Aberdeen Hospital where she spent the majority of her fourth-year studies. Now anxious to gain more experience in medical/surgical work, she remembers the uncertainty she felt in her first few weeks of university.
“If there was another NRHS grad in nursing, it wasn’t anyone I knew and I felt quite alone. I wasn’t used to being away from home and I kept hearing nursing is so hard.”
Those stories about the program being hard are true, she added.
“Looking back I probably set standards for myself in early days that were too high. I can remember failing a test and then thinking how much money I was spending to fail. I even wondered if nursing was too specific a path but I was determined to stick with it. Every year had its challenges but I kept learning and wanting to be a nurse so it has paid off.”
A Pictou Academy gold medallist, Clare MacDonald was influenced by her cousin to go into nursing and is expecting a younger cousin to follow her.
“I loved volunteering at the Oddfellows Home and in high school I had a chance to spend time in all departments at the Aberdeen Hospital so I got interested in nursing. I’ve since learned I enjoy medical/ surgical and love ICU but the emergency department is not for me.”
She joked there is another version of how she ended up in the profession.
“Chanda MacDonald, the Aberdeen’s clinical nurse educator, was a student nurse at the Aberdeen when I was born there. She always says she imprinted me from birth.”
MacDonald, who also expects to continue her nursing at Aberdeen Hospital, feels making friends was the most important thing she did in her first couple of weeks at X.
“I wasn’t used to being away from home so I was nervous but I knew I had to make friends and I had to make nursing friends.”
Those new friends proved invaluable, especially during long nights in the library and countless hours in the skills lab.
“I especially remember practising IV insertions in the skills lab until security kicked us out. There were times I wondered if I’d ever get it right and friends were a big help.”
Woodburn’s Naomi Zentner has aunts who are retired nurses but she credits a co-op class at North Nova Education Centre with luring her into five years of studying nursing.
“I had a term working with the recreation program at Glen Haven Manor but I got interested in the nursing side. I thought I knew what I was getting into but the first two years are all sciences and not much nursing so I did wonder if I was on the right path.”
Yearning for clinical experience, she was still shocked when her time came.
“My first few clinical experiences out on the floor were terrifying. I was consumed by the overwhelming responsibility of caring for five patients and so afraid of doing anything wrong.”
She was relieved her confidence grew with each nursing shift and she is now interviewing for a job in Halifax.
“I’ve had a lot of really good experiences, including a great co-op term in labour and delivery at Sydney Regional Hospital, but my time in the Aberdeen emergency department stands out. My preceptor, Laura Crockett, was a wonderful teacher about whatever came through the door. When she was too busy, the other nurses willingly took me on.”
Morgan Westerman, who grew up on New Glasgow’s west side and lives in Trenton, was raising two children, now seven and nine, throughout her five years of nursing studies.
“My world fell apart when I was 14 and I was in four high schools before I dropped out for good at 16. I always knew education was important but I had other issues going on and school just felt impossible to me.”
At her lowest, she was living on the street, but when she was pregnant with her first child, she enrolled at Nova Scotia Community College in Stellarton. She took time off for her son and later for a daughter so it took her five years to finish at NSCC.
“I got my first credit card when I finished NSCC and right away I applied for nursing at X only because I thought it would make me employable so I could look after my children. I never imagined I’d be accepted but I’m grateful I was. I’m also grateful for the professors who knew my situation and supported me so I could succeed.”
For years Westerman’s children had their bedtime stories interspersed with anatomy and other nursing lessons but they also shared her joy in getting her X ring.
“I have all the admiration in the world for the 18-yearold high school student with a 95 average who steps into nursing because I couldn’t do it at that age. If I had any advantage through the years, it was my understanding of socio-economics and mental illness. I went into nursing for socio-economic reasons but over time I developed a passion for it. It still kind of amazes me how things worked out.”
To any mature student who is hesitant about going back to school, Westerman remembers what she was told.
“I worried about taking four or five years to get through a program but somebody pointed out those years are going to go by anyway and it is what you have at the end that counts. I’m not graduating as an honours student and I’m already worrying about my licensing exam but I have to believe there is a job for me in nursing.”