“Every time I say that I am a nursing student, people insinuate that I must have no life. I am happy to say that throughout my years at UCF, I have been able to join the Filipino Student Association’s dance group Fresh Off the Beat, assist doctors with their charting as a medical scribe, and work as a professional baby ‘cuddler’ in the NICU…”
Many of Kristen’s friends were initially concerned that she would become burnt out with medical scribing. However, she didn’t; she loves the work because it enables her to obverse every nitty-gritty aspect of being a healthcare provider. And she is fascinated by their work. From cardioversions of an atrial fibrillation to a closed reduction on a hip dislocation, she has observed them all. For Kristen, going to work in the ER is fun and eventful because she gets to learn about the role of healthcare providers and prepare herself to work in the hospital one day.
In addition to working as a medical scribe, she is a professional baby cuddler in the Newborn Intensive Care Unit (NICU). The multitude of people she has met while working has taught her so much about our world: “I have already met so many people from different backgrounds, and they taught me phrases used in different languages and alternative cultural coping techniques.”
But how is she not burnt out with schoolwork and everything that’s going on?
It’s all about time management, Kristen contends. “Stay off your phone in the morning. I know how easy it is to be sucked into emails, Instagram, or TikTok.” But doing one productive thing right when you wake up helps get you into a productive mindset that can set the tone for the rest of the day. Moreover, “keep an up-to-date calendar as well,” she explains, “I have Google Calendar installed on my phone and a physical hard copy printed out on my desk.” Her calendar shows her all the deadlines and events and responsibilities she has and keeps her on her toes all the time. Calendars are not the only thing helping her to manage her time though. She has an obtainable daily to-do list as well. “Oftentimes, we find ourselves overwhelmed with the amount of work to be done,” and an obtainable daily to-do list helps her to compartmentalize all her tasks into manageable chunks that can be completed on a day-to-day basis.
