My Students

Here is a group shot of my students we took on the first day of class. Don't they look so young! It's hard to believe that I was that young when I was a student in this clinical rotation! Some of them are 2nd degree students, meaning they already have a bachelors degree in another area and are returning to school to follow a calling into nursing.

This is my Friday morning clinical group :)

This is my Friday afternoon group :)

I hope that I can make even a fraction of the difference as some of my past nursing instructors made in me. It is such an honor to have been asked to join the faculty at Purdue and work along side some of my former faculty members. I can't help but look at my students and wonder where their nursing career will take them.

Purdue Day Trip

~*~*~*~Here's a faculty status update~*~*~*~*~
Purdue completed my contract and mailed it to me on Friday, so I'm really official now! I will be teaching 2 clinical groups (approx 10-12 students/group) on Friday's, one group in the AM and then one group in the afternoon. We will be at St. Vincent Women's Hospital, here in Indy which means that I won't need to travel to campus very often. Since St. V's is where I got my start in L&D, I'm very excited that I'll be able to work with these RN's and MD's again. Faculty week will start on Aug. 13th, but I'll have a few meetings with the Maternal Child Health team at St. V's and at Purdue before then. My last day at the office will be this Friday, Aug. 3rd.

~*~*~*~On to the actual blog~*~*~*~

It had been awhile since Cory and I had been to Purdue together, so we decided to take a trip up to West Lafayette this weekend. Luckily, we had good weather the whole day so we were able to do a lot of walking around campus. As soon as we were on campus the first thing we did was a
thorough drive through, from the Acres to Purdue West, from Chauncey Hill to the Levee, from the Union to my old home at 519 University St., I wanted Cory to have a better idea of all the places & landmarks that made up campus. After our drive, we parked at the Nursing building and were able to go up and check out my office, it was pretty quiet! Then we found my name on a school of nursing scholarship plaque on our way out...that was exciting! We walked across University St. to the Alpha Eta chapter of Alpha Xi Delta, my old home. We were *so lucky* that someone was in the house because they were able to let us in! This was such a nice surprise! Cory and I were able to walk through the whole house, look at all the new changes, see some of the traditions that were still in place and I was able to reminisce about my years as a collegiate member. By this point, it was starting to get really hot & humid outside (and our sorority does not have AC) so we sat on the back porch for awhile to cool off. Then we headed back to the
Escape and drove to the student union where Cory ran into the Purdue Bowling team....yes, Purdue has a bowling team, and then he wished he had brought his ball! We were going to have lunch there, but unfortunately the market area was under some improvements for the upcoming school year. So, instead we went to Jake's Roadhouse Pub and had a traditional college town lunch. After lunch, we hit one of the bookstores and updated our Purdue apparel and Cory bought me a really cute Purdue sign that I can put up in my office. As soon as I get my faculty ID card, I will begin getting discounts at all the bookstores on campus! By this point we had finished up all we wanted to do on campus, so we decided to go exploring Lafayette. We drove past all the major shopping/dinning venues, drove through *many* neighborhoods and talked a lot about what would happen if next year Purdue offers me a full time teaching position (during my interview last week, this was brought up as a possible future option by Dr. Novak). It is still a ways off, but a real possibility. For right now, we're just thankful for this opportunity I've been given and we're going to keep open minds about what the future may hold...until then...

Future Purdue Professor?

On Tuesday, I mailed my official application and professional portfolio to Dr. Julie Novak (our Dean) to review for a faculty position at Purdue University School of Nursing. My mentor, who is a current Purdue professor and I decided that it was time to take this step. Now, I've been a clinical instructor for Purdue in the past, teaching OB clinicals at Home Hospital in W. Lafayette, IN and most recently I've been a guest lecturer for the high risk OB module. I have great hope and confidence that the examples of work I provided in my portfolio and my past performance with Purdue will increase my likelihood of an offer. While I still have one year left in my Master's program, I am hoping to resume teaching with Purdue this fall. They may or may not need more faculty until the next school year, which would be okay...I'm just anxious to get back into teaching! In the mean time, I'm still working full time with Northwest OB Gyn Associates as the peri-natal nurse educator and I have the opportunity to join the St. Vincent's Hospital perinatal education team this fall if I choose. So, there are plenty of doors opening for me, which I am thankful for, but I am holding out to hear from Purdue!