Caring Moments

CARING MOMENTS

The caring project our group chose involved taking a test. We felt test day was an unusually stressful event for everyone. We wanted to come up with a caring way that would help to alleviate some stress on our fellow students, the faculty, and ourselves. We decided to hand out peppermint candy on test day to help stimulate brain function. we felt this might help us all do well. We also talked to everyone and wished them well on the test which was a good way to help relieve stress. It also gave us an opportunity to meet some of our fellow students that we had never met before and it helped to ease the stress we all were under. We also passed out the peppermints to the faculty as they needed a stress reliever on test day too. They have to keep everybody under control and start the test at the appropriate time.

We all felt like we were helping our fellow students through a stressful time. Shannon felt good inside knowing that the peppermint might help someone do better on the test than they might normally do. It made her feel wonderful inside seeing everyone talking to one another and enjoying the moment. Kristi felt we were giving out a caring part of ourselves every time someone took a piece a candy. Barbara felt pride in knowing she got a smile out of the students. She felt good knowing the words of encouragement, to each individual student, took a stressful moment and eased the tension.

Kristi had a caring moment when a fellow student gave her a small gift. Kristi would carry a pink, "hello kitty" coffee cup with her to lecture every day. A classmate always complimented her on her cup each time she brought it. One day before a test her classmate handed her a pink, "hello kitty" pencil. The classmate said she was out and saw the pencil and it reminded her of Kristi. She bought it and gave it to Kristi.

This made Kristi feel very special and important. Kristi and the classmate never have a chance to talk outside of class. However, Kristi will always remember her classmate and have a special place in her heart for her, because of this gesture. Every time Kristi sees this classmate it brings a smile to her face. She feels warm inside knowing that someone thought enough of her to perform such a kind act.

Our group has decided to implement several caring gestures. The first gesture is to make it a point to meet someone new in our nursing class once a week. We will have a conversation with him/her and learn something about that person. Then we will endeavor to speak with that person every time we see them. Our class is so large and there are so many students we don't know. There could be someone out there who could use a friend and one of us just might be that friend. We believe you can never have too many friends. The second caring act we plan to implement is sending e-mail birthday cards to our fellow classmates. Birthdays are important and we want everyone to know we are thinking of them on their special day. The third caring act we plan to implement is the continuation of the peppermint and words of encouragement before a test. We felt it was a big hit and everyone enjoyed it.

To provide caring moments for our nursing faculty we decided to implement these three acts. First to send e-mails of encouragement to the faculty members. We as students are so quick to complain. We forget how much time and effort it takes to prepare a class lecture. Along with preparing our lecture, the instructors must be able to answer questions, as well as keep the class under control. There time is also spent in conferences with students as well