{"id":5717,"date":"2016-10-25T15:18:16","date_gmt":"2016-10-25T20:18:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/web.saumag.edu\/news\/?p=5717"},"modified":"2016-10-25T15:19:45","modified_gmt":"2016-10-25T20:19:45","slug":"sau-nursing-student-elected-district-1-director-ansa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/web.saumag.edu\/news\/2016\/sau-nursing-student-elected-district-1-director-ansa\/","title":{"rendered":"SAU nursing student elected District 1 director of ANSA"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"morgan-layssard-sau-nursing-bsn\"<\/a>Morgan Layssard, a senior from Bradley, Ark., said she is following her dream of helping people \u201cat their best and worst times\u201d by receiving a nursing degree from Southern Arkansas University.<\/p>\n

Her recent election as District 1 director of the Arkansas Nursing Students\u2019 Association will surely rank as a highlight of her academic career. Layssard was elected to the post earlier this month during the state convention of the ANSA in Little Rock. She said she \u201cdidn\u2019t get up that morning\u201d thinking about seeking the post.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had no idea I would even run for director,\u201d Layssard said of her Oct. 7 election, \u201cbut I applied that day. I thought it would be interesting and I would love to serve on a state board. I was super-excited to be elected.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

She said her duties will include serving as a liaison between SAU\u2019s Department of Nursing, other schools in the district and the state board. She will attend monthly meetings, raise funds and work with different philanthropies. She will also attend the national convention next spring in Orlando, Fla. She will serve as director for one year.<\/p>\n

Layssard said there was \u201cnever really a question\u201d about where she would go to nursing school, or college. \u201cSAU has that small feel that I really enjoy, but also, everyone here is willing to help you. I just couldn\u2019t imagine going anywhere else \u2013 it was the only university that I applied to.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI always wanted to work in health care,\u201d she said. \u201cWe help people on their best and worst days and that can be an amazing experience. I knew SAU had a good degree program in nursing and getting my degree here will help me do what I want, which is to try make peoples\u2019 future a little bit better and brighter.\u201d<\/p>\n

Noting that nurses spend more time in direct contact with patients than physicians, whose time may be \u201cspread thin\u201d among patients, Layssard said she has seen the highs and lows of nursing at clinicals.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have to learn how to detach, and that can be hard,\u201d she said. \u201cThat might be the greatest challenge in nursing because you don\u2019t expect to become so attached. I\u2019m a very tender-hearted person \u2013 I want to help, I want to brighten someone\u2019s day. It\u2019s difficult when you\u2019re just starting out. You learn with experience. There are no books to tell you how to deal with a sad situation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Having recently completed a round of pediatric clinicals at Arkansas Children\u2019s Hospital, Layssard said she wants to work with infants and children.<\/p>\n

She praised SAU\u2019s nursing faculty. \u201cTheir doors are always open, they are always there for your questions and concerns,\u201d she said. \u201cAll are tests are geared toward the state board exam, and I feel like you are well-prepared to enter the workplace.\u201d<\/p>\n

Close relationships are formed among nursing students. \u201cWe understand and appreciate one another\u2019s hardships,\u201d she said. \u201cNursing school can be hard, and you build relationships built on that. Sometimes you need people to bring you up when you\u2019re down.\u201d<\/p>\n

Clinicals help prepare the students for work in health-care facilities. In addition to shadowing at ACH, Layssard said she has also done clinicals at St. Michaels in Texarkana.<\/p>\n

\u201cI enjoyed the work environment,\u201d she said. \u201cIt can be stressful, you have to learn to multitask and prioritize, and you may have multiple patients who all have needs, but you have to figure out which ones are the most important, and you handle those first.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said that in clinicals, she has gotten to work with \u201cgreat nurses who teach us the tricks of the trade. They help you decide what area you want to work in most \u2013 what\u2019s our passion?\u201d<\/p>\n

She said she has also learned to work as part of a health care team. \u201cThere are so many people who make up just one patient\u2019s team \u2013 their physicians, their occupational or respiratory or physical therapists, their nurses. You have to learn to work as a team to make a person better.\u201d<\/p>\n

Because health care is holistic, she said, nurses also have to learn to work with patients\u2019 families. \u201cWhen you\u2019re treating a patient, you\u2019re also treating the family. You have to educate them. You\u2019re seeing them at their best and worst, too.\u201d<\/p>\n

Technology is an important factor in nursing. \u201cWe learn and train on all the latest technology,\u201d Layssard said. \u201cYou have to learn how to operate all of the equipment, because if you use it wrong, there could be a bad outcome. Nurses will take the time (in clinicals) to show us how to use things.\u201d<\/p>\n

Charting is an important part of the health-care process. \u201cWe learn all the charting systems because each facility uses a different system,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Layssard said that she sees herself a year from now working \u201cin a job I enjoy, with co-workers I enjoy. I\u2019ll miss the people I see every day after I graduate, but I feel like I\u2019m ready to work. I would like to eventually become a nurse practitioner but I will need to get a lot of experience under my belt first.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Morgan Layssard, a senior from Bradley, Ark., said she is following her dream of helping people \u201cat their best and worst times\u201d by receiving a nursing degree from Southern Arkansas University. Her recent election as District 1 director of the Arkansas Nursing Students\u2019 Association will surely rank as a highlight of her academic career. Layssard… Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":564,"featured_media":5718,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[271,308,32641,7753,76],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-5717","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-academics","8":"category-college-of-science-and-technology","9":"category-featured-layout","10":"category-homepage","11":"category-nursing","12":"entry"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.saumag.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5717","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.saumag.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.saumag.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.saumag.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/564"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.saumag.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5717"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/web.saumag.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5717\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.saumag.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5718"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.saumag.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5717"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.saumag.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5717"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.saumag.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5717"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}