Nursing students head to competition

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 07/11/2017 (3071 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A local student is preparing to put her skills to the test in China.

Elyse Griffith, a second-year nursing student at Red River College, will be going to Shanghai, China from Nov. 7 to 11 to take part in the 7th annual International Nursing Skills Competition at the Shanghai University of Medicine and Health Sciences.

Griffith will be teamed up with third-year student Rachel Rubin, and the pair has been working since the beginning of the semester to hone in on the skills they will be tested for.

“I’m definitely nervous, but I know we’re not going with the expectation to win, just for the opportunity, for a really great learning experience,” Griffith said.

For the past few weeks, the students have been meeting with mentors and teachers for weekly practice sessions. It’s given Griffith a closer look at some of the topics and skills that she may have only skimmed in class.

“We’ve visited a lot of nursing skills that were quickly touched on in class or lab, so I think that’s been beneficial because that’s stuff we can experience in the clinical world but don’t necessarily go too in depth in school,” Griffith said.

It’s a busy term for her, as she’s taking several science-based courses, but she decided this opportunity was too great to pass up. The selection process was fairly rigorous, she said.

“They sent out a letter to see who’s interested… and then we had to go through a pretty selective process to be chosen for the final two,” Griffith said. “We had to show a letter of recommendation, a letter of interest and then a panel interview. If we got through that, we did a final, where we were tested on a simulation that was presented to us.”

Griffith and Rubin only met this year to work on competition prep, but Griffith says at this point they’re a well-oiled machine.

“We’ve gotten comfortable because we always practice together,” she said.

Coming from a family of nurses, Griffith eventually decided on the same path, knowing the medical field was where she wanted to be.

“Even just from my mom, school is a totally different process,” she said. “There’s still similarities and it’s an intense program, but different for sure.”