Bye Bye Lorain County Health Department and FPB

I cannot believe that my last semester has come and gone by so quickly. It seems like just yesterday that I got the opportunity to walk the stage even though I still had to complete one last semester. The only thing I could think about was, "I am walking the stage, but I am not really graduating because I have one more semester to complete..." Now I am only about a week away from actually being done with my undergraduate career at FPB. Of course, there is still studying for the horrifying NCLEX but now that this semester has come to a close, studying is the only thing that I will have to focus on.

Even though I am excited that the semester is almost over, I can honestly say that I enjoyed my experience working at the Lorain Health Department for my capstone experience. At first I felt like I would not enjoy myself since I was not traveling outside the state or country, however I was definitely mistaken. I have experienced lots of new things with the nurses and staff members here in Lorain County. Before Capstone I had no idea about the health department and how involved the nurses are within the community.

I went on multiple newborn visits that I absolutely adored. Teaching was the main objective for the nurses and since I love teaching and newborns, this may absolutely be a great job for me one day down the road. I also enjoyed the (BCMH) bureau for children with medical handicaps visits. These visits were also focused on teaching but also on goals and care plans for the handicapped children. It was great to see all the resources that are available for families that can be taken advantage of right in the heart of their own homes. Although this opportunity was not in the home, a Breastfeeding group, was offered for free to all new moms to meet and get together and get with  breastfeeding if they needed it or to simply meet with other new moms. This was a great opportunity that is offered for new moms not only to receive assistance with breastfeeding from lactation consultants but to also make friends and enjoy a common social outing. It was really interesting to see how much the moms enjoyed the group session and how they really do look forward to meeting each other every week even though they may have already mastered breastfeeding.

I will definitely miss coming out to the Lorain Health Department, and working with the terrific nurses and staff members. They have all made my experience very interesting and I have learned tons. Even though I do not want to start out as a public health nurse, I can clearly see it somewhere down the line of my nursing career.