Effective nursing is about going above and beyond what is required.
The Nursing Student Summer Practicum is a key aspect of Geauga's reputable Bachelor of Science in Nursing program. It provides nursing students with more than double the in-person, one-on-one nursing experiences they are required to have before they graduate. The face-to-face interactions summer practicum students have with local patients equip them to provide above-and-beyond care.
This elective, paid summer experience provides nursing students with supervised, hands-on clinical experience in local hospitals. Working directly with patients, students get to apply their nursing knowledge and skills in real-life situations. This equips future nurses for the rigors of the careers they have been preparing for in the classroom.
Six eligible BSN students worked full-time over the summer semester, each alongside a registered nurse. The students completed the Summer 2024 Practicum under the guidance of Jessica Larubina, MSN, CMSRN, College of Nursing Lecturer at Geauga.
“The hands-on experiences that the students gain through this internship cannot be matched due to the amount of time spent in the real-life setting,” says Lecturer Larubina. “This experience allows the students to see various skills and real-life unexpected situations that can and will arise when they are the registered nurse in the future.”
Lecturer Larubina taught a course that complemented the students’ 324 hours of clinical work. She also visited the students and their nurse mentors at the various clinical sites to observe each student’s experience.
Nursing students who do not participate in the Summer Practicum must complete the Spring Practicum course which requires 144 hours of one-on-one clinical unpaid experience in a hospital.
Students participating in the Summer 2024 Practicum completed their internships at various University Hospital locations (UH Main, Rainbow Babies, UH Geauga) and Cleveland Clinic (Lutheran Hospital). They became familiarized with nursing specialties in medical-surgical, obstetrics, NICU, and emergency departments.
Two practicum participants were Ja'Nia Walker and Geriko Huth, whom lecturer Larubina calls “exceptional students, putting forth effort and enthusiasm about becoming bachelor’s-prepared nurses.”
According to Geriko, “Jessica was very helpful and made sure to stay in close contact with each student during the internship. She made sure each person was cared for and had all requirements up to date. She made the internship run smoothly and cleared any obstacles along the way.”
Geriko Huth has been passionate about nursing since he volunteered at UH Portage Hospital for two years before graduating from Ravenna High School. He says, “I grew up around nurses, my mother being my biggest motivator, as she is an ICU nurse. I have found a profound passion in caring for those less fortunate and ill.”
As a volunteer, he assisted with delivering blood specimens to the lab, directing people throughout the building, and transporting discharged patients. For the past four years, he has worked as a nursing aide in the UH Portage Emergency Department.
Even though Geriko had already gained so much experience at the hospital, he jumped at the chance to participate in the summer practicum. He was placed at UH Cleveland at the Lerner Tower, caring for patients in a Trauma Med-Surg unit.
“I wanted to advance my skills and knowledge as much as I could,” he explains. “Placing myself in unknown territory and giving my all to help as many people as I can is what pushed me to pursue the internship.”
Here, he cared for a full assignment of patients as if he was the sole nurse; his preceptor stood by to observe and assist when needed. “It really helped sharpen my skills and learn how to properly time manage and delegate while being cautious of each patient's clinical manifestations,” Geriko says.
“The unit was definitely an eye-opener. I saw how to care for patients with a wide range of traumatic injuries such as gunshot wounds, stab wounds, fractured limbs from falls, motor vehicle accidents, and much more. I was surprised at the excellent interdisciplinary team communication and the coordination between all members in order to help the patient regain normal health.
Reflecting upon his summer practicum, Geriko says, “With the prior knowledge I have gained thus far in the program, I was able to showcase my abilities and understanding while having an open mind and willingness to learn new interventions and disease processes that I was previously ignorant of. The greatest components of the program that I will be able to carry on towards the remainder of the program and in my career are delegation and time management. I feel as though those skills can only come with time and experience rather than merely learning about them.
“I have a higher appreciation for all members of the team caring for each individual patient. I have now a better backbone for handling a full assignment and managing my care appropriately. With the new semester starting and the internship completed, I can confidently say I have less stress and an even stronger desire to graduate and work in the field.”
Set to graduate in May 2025, Geriko already has a position lined up and plans to begin his nursing career by next summer, after taking the NCLEX certification exam. ( BSN graduates enjoy a 96% NCLEX pass rate and a 99% job placement within six months of graduating.)
Ja’Nia Walker grew up in Cleveland and graduated from Twinsburg High School. Before pursuing a nursing degree at Geauga, she enjoyed working in assisted living facilities, where she became attracted to the dynamic, evolving field of nursing.
She says that Geauga provides a close-knit environment where the focus is on student support and success. Her summer practicum at Ahuja Emergency Department offered both: valuable experience along with a paycheck.
“A plus was that I was able to get more hours and experience more things along with having a flexible schedule during the summer. The experience helped me get familiar with interacting with patients and being more comfortable with speaking to different people on the teams, patients and their families.”
Ja’Nia says the practicum experience also helped her with organizing her day and reinforcing skills that she had learned in class, “because I was doing more on a daily basis. I was surprised by a lot of things in the clinical setting because it is different from a clinical. Also, I learned that things happen a lot faster in an emergency department. I feel like the most important thing I learned was the importance of communications.
“I'm just ready to put everything that I learned into the clinical setting, try new things and get more experiences. I'm excited to apply everything I have learned.”
Once Ja’Nia graduates in May 2025, she is looking forward to a nursing career in “an environment that will help me grow as a nurse as well as learn and apply the knowledge I’ve gained in school. I'm ready to put everything that I learned into the clinical setting and try new things and get more experiences. I'm just excited to apply everything I have learned.”