Happy, Happy, Joy, Joy

Throughout our nursing program, each nursing class has a group project with your clinical group of eight. So, this class we had a Caring Project. This is the Dean's baby and she tells us about it and gives us all the criteria for it. Then she is the one we turn it into and she grades it. She changes it a little each semester. This time she made it all about caring for ourselves. She said that nurses are usually people who put themselves last and we need to know the importance of caring for us. I agree. But, this was hard to do. She shot down about four ideas and then we got one approved.

We are all females in our group so we did "Caring Girly Get-Togethers." These are times we have set up to last throughout the two years of school. We get together at each of our houses and have a time to just relax and pamper each other. We'll be having one each semester. The first one was fun and I look forward to doing it again.

Part of the project is to write a 7 paragraph paper. These are the points we were graded on and the grades we made:

Creativity and sustainability of act (15 points) We made 20/15
The dean wrote: "Creative and caring w/potential for excellent plan for sustainability throughout the program."

Development of a caring relationship that makes a difference (20 points) We made 20/20
Dean wrote: "Appears that most members have formed a bond & recognizes plus' already."

Teamwork (20 points) We made 18/20
Dean wrote: "Worked well together & demonstrated some insight into group process. However, did not make recommendations for preventing future communication breakdowns. Also, did not discuss the impact of not having a formal leader."

Ability to express ideas clearly (5 points) We made 5/5

Evidence of critical thinking (30 points) We made 30/30
Dean wrote: "Demonstrated critical thinking in final paragraph (summary of caring) and lessons learned."

Grammar/Spelling (5 points) We made 5/5

APA Format (5 points) We made 4/5
We did an "annotated" bibliography. She wrote APA uses "Reference" not annotated.

So our grand total for points....

We made: 97 / 100

In telling us all about the caring project the dean pointed out that the average grade is usually in the 60's. So, we were all nervous about what we would make. Wow!!!!!!!!! I am so proud of us. We hit it out of the ballpark!!!!

I will be so sorry to be broken up out of this clinical group. Each semester we are re-grouped into new clinical groups. I can't imagine I'll ever be in a better group. I wish we could stay together throughout our time in the program.