Introduction
I had discontinued my Nursing Program at the San Diego Nursing College in the 2009 fall semester due to personal reasons. After the discontinuation, I took some time off to evaluate my options, assess my ability to continue with the program, and get my motivation back on track. I carefully considered my reasons for the discontinuation and how I could come up with a permanent solution to these issues. I feel that I have finally re-organized myself and have made the decision to continue with my studies at the San Diego Nursing College. I feel and know that becoming a nurse is the best way to make a difference in the lives of those I aspire to serve. I want to use my position as a nurse to bring changes and give care to every single person through my training and expertise in the nursing profession.
Discussion
Nursing has always been my first choice career and when my application was accepted at the San Diego Nursing College, I was so exhilarated and never considered the challenges that I might have encountered during my study. I did not realize that I would have to make several adjustments to my daily life, both physically and emotionally to balance school work and other non-academic obligations. I joined the college while living with my son who was five weeks old then and tried to focus on my schoolwork but found that the child took up all the free time I could afford. I could not leave him at the daycare since I felt that the services would not measure up to my standards. Besides, I could not afford the services of a quality nanny for such a young child due to my strained budget since I also had to pay my tuition fee, purchase expensive books, clinical supplies, and domestic items. The duties became overwhelming that I developed symptoms of postpartum depression.
It is during this period that my grandmother, who was very close to me, developed a heart attack back in India. I tried to focus on schoolwork and my baby but her memories never left my mind. I finally decided to discontinue my studies in November 2009 and traveled to India in January 2010 to be close to her, she passed on two months later.
Why I am Ready to Resume my Studies
Since discontinuing my studies and subsequently traveling to India, I assessed my situation and re-organized myself. I saw that to focus on my studies, I needed to find a reliable daycare for my son and after an elaborate search, finally found a great daycare whose services were satisfactory. I made all the necessary arrangements with the daycare owners on how they would tend for my son, and then shifted my attention to academic matters. I enrolled for student health services at Miramar College as a health technician due to my medical experience. The position has a higher level of responsibility and I am not only learning the critical medical procedures, but I have also learned self-discipline and precision that is required in the nursing field. I have learned and embraced the values of hard work, team effort, reliability, and a positive attitude towards work.
Apart from attending student health services, I have been concentrating on the course work and attempting to solve practice examination questions that are obtained from textbooks on the internet. I have bought several textbooks to use for reference during my studies; books that will ultimately help me in my coursework once I am readmitted to San Diego Nursing College. I have spent hundreds of hours studying my books and to check my understanding of the topics, I have been taking ATI exams and studying NCLEX-RN practical questions. I have also planned of taking a Personal Growth 120 (PG 120) class in the summer semester, a program that would enable me to develop mentally, emotionally and acquire life lessons that will help me to point out the challenges in my life and know how I can solve them to make life more satisfactory. I have signed up for Personal Growth 130 (PG-130) during the fall semester to further these developments.
I realized that with the classwork involved in the Nursing program, my attention will be required all the time and I have to be fully prepared for such undertakings. I have also appreciated the importance of hard work in the accomplishment of tasks assigned to me. Besides hard work, I have realized that proper time management and class planning are crucial to the success of my studies; balancing the coursework with other duties will ultimately lead to the attainment of satisfactory results. To effect this, I will prepare a personal timetable and sync it with that of the class to make use of any available free time. I will have to assign time for taking care of my son whom I will drop off in the morning on my way to school and pick him up later in the evening as I come from school. My ultimate challenge is to make use of any resources that come my way, these include facilities availed by the college such as the library, career counseling services, and student loans. The communal resources that include daycare services will also help me take care of my son who is now one and a half years old. I will not have any problems leaving him at the daycare since he is now older and has been in such care for almost a year while in India.
Conclusion
My background in the nursing profession has immensely improved since I discontinued my studies due to the clinical experience that I have acquired at Miramar College. The nursing knowledge has also improved due to the books that I have been using for studying. I have undergone mental and emotional growth and I feel that I am ready to resume my studies at the college. Taking my time off school has enabled me to evaluate myself, I have set my career goals straight and have elaborate strategies of ensuring that I succeed in my studies. Challenges will come my way but I have learned to handle them suitably; challenges are there to strengthen us and not lead us to quit. We, therefore, have to face them as they come.
This is my first ever time being on an academic suspension and once I am admitted, will do all that I can to complete my degree successfully. It is my hope and desire that the administration will positively consider my application for readmission at the San Diego Nursing College.