Like every nurse, I still remember the very first patient I ever cared for.

I was an 19-year-old nursing student on my first clinical day in a Copenhagen hospital. I’d walked into the room where my patient, who had chronic lung disease, was unintentionally soaking his bedclothes and the sheets with abundant moisture from an uncontrollable cough.

I felt my knees buckle. “What,” my 19-year-old brain asked itself, “have you gotten yourself into?”

My clinical instructor—whose face I can still clearly recall, though not her name—observed my pause, and gently took me back into the hallway and sat me down. As I caught my breath, she assured me that I could do what needed to be done (make the bed with the patient in it, in this case). That I had practiced. And that it was OK to feel unsure and take a minute.  

Her true kindness in that moment marked me. And many of us have a story like that one, a moment in which we felt afraid and unsure, but received guidance from someone who was there to scoop us up, remind us of our competence, and give us the small shove forward that we need.

"So much thought, care, and science go into a UVA-educated nurse’s schooling; I’m so proud of how our faculty, staff, and students meet change with energy and optimism."

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As a nursing student in 1981, I could never have imagined all of what my nursing career had in store for me: the incredible advances in medicine, revolutions in disease management and care, and my path into research, learning from nurses’ work around the globe, and, ultimately, leadership. A degree in nursing is truly boundless: there are so many pathways we nurses can choose to take (as several of our alumni will share at a Feb. 12 Alumni Networking event on Zoom will share).

Given that change is truly the only constant (as the necklace my father gave me 25 years ago says), we must view new methods, mandates, and tools as the opportunities they are. So much thought, care, and science go into a UVA-educated nurse’s schooling; I’m so proud of how our faculty, staff, and students meet change with energy and optimism.  

Of course, the things that matter most—support, belonging, community—won’t change. They are our foundation as we rise to meet the moment that is Nursing School Now, our cover story's subject.

As always, thank you for reading VNL.

Be well,

Marianne Baernholdt, PhD, MPH, RN, FAAN
The Pew Charitable Trusts Dean and Professor, UVA School of Nursing
Dean of Professional Nursing, UVA Health