Failure is Not Final

Hey guys ! Happy Monday ❤︎

Last week Friday I got my results for my thesis and I am so delighted with it. Final year is coming to an end FAST and I feel so many emotions ! As we speak I have 16 more weeks of internship to go before I am a fully qualified Registered General Nurse (RGN)  PERIOD ! And three of those weeks are annual leave yuppppppp.

Throughout my four years of nursing school I have experienced many failures. Failure looks different for people , for some it's LITERALLY failing ie. scoring / performing below the pass mark but failure can also look like not getting the grade / feedback you were aiming for.  I remember failing one of my assignment in first year and it was a REFLECTION piece... bruh I felt so deflated. I got the opportunity to re submit the assignment and passed thank GOD. This is an example of a time I liiterally failed. In my second year of university I had the opportunity to sit a special voluntary set of exams called the "Schols exams" in Trinity College Dublin. They way these exams worked , if a candidate scored 2/3 first class grades in the exam  then they would be entitled to free campus accomodation , free campus meals etc. I passed all the exams but unfortunately I didn't pass well enough to reach my goal , the prize (womp womp). I remember feeling so annoyed at myself for wasting time studying to do a VOLUNTARY exam , completely overlooking the fact that I learned so much along the way and I took a bold step. In hindsighte I am proud of myself for trying.

To the nurses , healthcare professionals and whoever else this may concern. While you may not have got the grade you wanted I truly want to emphasise the grade is not ALL that matters. All is the keyword.

The patients we get to take care of will never ask you about your grade , they are more concerned with your ability to take care of them. Do you listen to them , anticipate their needs , advocate for them , show them that you care ? I remember a time where the ward I was on was particularly busy (surgical wards are a madness , don't say I didn't warn you!) , I had a patient who said "nobody ever listens to me" this reponse was triggered due to the fact that I was rushing out of her room to do my next task instead of taking 5 minutes out of my busy schedule to engage with her. That stung because communication is a part of care.

While getting amazing grades is obviously a good thing , and often opens doors, aswell as indicates to our professors our competency on key areas of our proffession , it is not a direct reflection of ones ability to be a great nurse/doctor etc. You know what it indicates ? Ones ability to write a great academic piece of literature. Someone can score 100% in an exam , have all the head knowledge and not have the ability to care. Meanwhile, someone who is not as strong academically may have a strong nature of nurture for their patients.

This is not me saying not to aim for the stars academically, but to remember that there is more than just stars in the solar system ... clock it !

Failure is ot final , try again then try some more. You will make it ☆

Signing off , RGN 2 BE

Jennyfa x