[Anastasia G Paolini]

Hi Avery,

I can relate to having received negative responses from co-workers regarding my decision to return to school for my DNP degree. Although mine have been primarily due to the fact that I am a rather new nurse. I had a faculty member in my senior year of nursing school tell my entire class one day that we should not even think about getting our advanced degree without 5 years of nursing experience. I found this kind of upsetting because I believe that everyone is different including how they learn and advance. Plus, there are direct entry DNP programs in which one can totally bypass BSN. I have always wanted to be an NP and right after becoming a nurse applied to DNP FNP school part-time which is a 5 year program because I will need to stay employed full time to provide for my family. I have never been happier in the program and am confident in my ability to become an amazing DNP. I am sorry that you are experiencing this, right now I pick and choose who I tell that I am in school. I try to avoid negative responses and continue to get through my program. As nurses we should encourage co-workers to get their advanced degree and provide positive reactions because it helps the nursing profession in general to grow. We are also in such need of providers in our country it is contributing to helping in this deficit.

[Anastasia G Paolini]

This post is very touching. Working on the frontlines in this pandemic was a very tough time for me and my colleagues. I experienced the loss of co-workers and their family members due to them working as healthcare professionals during this pandemic. But this is not the first time I have come into contact with patients that had an infectious disease. I have had pt.’s with active TB, flu, and others and provided them nothing but the best care possible without even thinking about it. I think this pandemic has shown the selflessness, dedication, and courage of those working in healthcare at the bedside. Although I am not sure I can compare it to getting actively shot at such as those who serve our country in a war. This is because the odds of dying from a gunshot/IUD explosion on a battlefield versus contracting Covid is different. Highlighting the sacrifices and risks healthcare professionals take is way overdue and a service to our country in a different way. The United States rallied together to highlight those people who continued to brave the virus ( police officers, grocery store employees etc..) and it was nothing short of heartwarming. I think the community will now carry a new appreciation for people working in these professions and it is a beautiful thing.

[Anastasia G Paolini]

This is an interesting point of view. I believe that the Covid-19 pandemic most definitely highlighted the importance of expertise in healthcare and certainly showed the huge importance of public health professionals. I also think that our use of technology has become a curse in the way that false information was so easily dispersed causing many problems for expert physicians such as Dr. Fauci to slow the infection. I am seeing this so much now with the vaccine and am praying that we are not going to see another wave of Covid-19 cases like last year. As as becoming a more serous country, I think after this pandemic people who experienced it will never act as before. People will be more aware of contracting disease, keeping themselves healthy, washing their hands etc.. but not sure how long they will keep cognizant of these health practices once we are over these horrible times. I agree with Whitney about American’s and their “I know best” attitudes concerning health rather than listening to the advice from experts but also believe that the media and spread of misinformation played a role in providing false information. I am not so sure with so many still not vaccinated that our country will change to completely taking the advice of the experts. Although I wish it would be so, I think there are always going to be that population of people that think they know best and unfortunately might have to pay the consequences for it.

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