Hello dear reader and sorry that I couldn’t publish anything yesterday. The day was a nightmare but now I’m back on track and ready to tell you something more about the nursing program!
What does our nursing studies actually include?
Of course we spend some time in the classrooms listening to lectures and doing the basic studying. We do a lot of group work and write reports, assignments, keep presentations and take part to seminars and finally, try our best to pass the exams 
Unfortunately for us students, the exams tend to accumulate to the last weeks of each study period and it’s understandable that we get quite stressed those times. If one has some methods which help to release the stress, life is much more comfortable during the hectic times. I for example exercise and pour my heart to my friends. If the student feels that he/she has difficulties related to studies or otherwise some problems in his/her life that she wants to discuss with some professional, the school offers us study psychologist and study councellor’s services. Also the student health care services are for us and they work otherwise well, but there are long lines for example to doctor’s appointments.
© Sanni Räsänen
As I mentioned earlier, skill labs also belong closely to our studies. They really deepen our knowledge about the theory, because usually after the theory lectures we get do those things ourselves. For example we learn how to cannulate, why it’s done and in which cases, what kind of drugs can be given intravenously etc. And then we get to cannulate each others! If you want to become a nurse, you shouldn’t be afraid of needles. It’s okay if you don’t want to be injected, but you should be able to do that to someone else. Otherwise you will be in trouble in the future in the working life. (Of course the nursing is much more than just giving injections
We have lots of compulsory studies that everyone need to pass. For example preventive nursing, nursing in public health problems, communication skills, mental health nursing, family and community nursing,operative nursing and so on. In addition to these we need to gather at least 10 optional credits. Those can be for example some language studies or something else; there is a huge list of elective courses where to choose from.
We also do study visits to different wards. We have for example visited the central hospital couple of times and also the psychiatric hospital. This way we get the view of the working life and different working environments. Also the practical trainings make a big part of our studies. Going to a practical training means that we reserve the placements from the ward where we want to go. The people who are responsible for the student things on that ward arrange everyone a personal mentor, who guides the student throughout the practice. He/she is the one who does the evaluation and who the student can rely on and go to whenever she/he has something to ask. There is certain amount of hours which each practical training period takes and there also are some assignments that need to returned to the teacher in the end of the practice. The practices are usually the time of the school year that everyone looks forward, at least I do!
© Sanni Räsänen
Help for the poor students!
Our school library has saved my butt several times, because that is the place where I can find almost every book that I need without any cost. You just need the library card and that’s it! The school food is tasty, healthy and low priced, and if you belong to the student organization JAMKO, you get many benefits and discounts for example from train and bus tickets, swimming hall, many shops and so on. JAMKO is actually a great organization and definitely worth paying the little annuity. Many students from our campus are active members of JAMKO and that’s why there are several happenings organized at our school.
Each study group has a tutor teacher, who is the one who we can turn to in any kind of situation. Each group also has student tutors, who are there to help the new students especially during the first year when everything is new and exiting. They also arrange the group some small events and happenings if the students are willing to take part to them. Everything is of course voluntary.
This was something that came to my mind today. Tomorrow I have planned to write something more about the internationality. We’ll catch up tomorrow!
Sanni
PS. The pictures are from last spring’s Amazing Race competition, which was kept in Jyväskylä. You can see that the beautiful purple outfits are the ones that we nursing students proudly carry, the burgundy are for logistic students. We made a great team!
If you have anything to say about my blog or something to ask, feel free to comment!
Our Law teacher only introduced and explained main ideas in the first half of the class, and then we started to go through and discuss different case studies together. This way of learning turns the hard-to-remember-all nature of Law into a long and vivid memory for key issues. Here comes the first piece of practical studies at JAMK IB: case studies and open forums for discussions (and sometimes arguments due to a bunch of concrete opinions from IB-ers).
