On Monday, September 11th and 18th, the College of Nursing held its two-part New Student Orientation. The September 11th orientation was more formal, focused on the key features and characteristics of the College, while the September 18th was much more casual, featuring a pizza dinner and games. The September 11th orientation allowed newly admitted students to get to know their dean, Dean Jane Lasseter, the faculty, and each other. Over a light dinner, students and faculty intermingled and Dean Lasseter discussed key principles of the program. As faculty stood and introduced themselves and the classes they taught, there was friendly banter between them, highlighting the unity and commitment to excellence found within the program.
New to the college this year is the HESI program, a new assignment and testing program designed to prepare nursing students for the NCLEX exam, the national exam needed to receive nursing certification. Last year, 100% of BYU College of Nursing students who took the exam passed. The college hopes to replicate this percentage each year with the introduction of the HESI program.
But nursing students are not just there to pass an exam: they are there to learn. Dean Lasseter taught that education is a religious responsibility, one that BYU values. “The end goal of your education at BYU is to then render worthwhile service to the world.”
Dean Lasseter further expounded she said: “your work as a nursing student and a nurse can and should benefit the world.” She spoke with conviction about the privilege it was to be the newest member of the BYU College of Nursing. Many other students wished to be where they were now, and those present should be grateful for the privilege it is to be there. She discussed the experiences and success these students would have, the expectations they were to keep, along with the trials and life lessons that would accompany them.
Hearts were touched as Dean Lasseter, other faculty, and students discussed the college’s motto: Learning the Healer’s Art. Derived from the popular LDS Hymn “Lord, I Would Follow Thee,” the college seeks earnestly to focus their teaching and learning on The Healer Himself, Jesus Christ. Dean Lasseter taught that the true Healer’s art is not just physical, it is mental, emotional, and spiritual. Lily, an undergraduate student, talked about how the gift of the Holy Ghost can help them know the needs of the individual they are tending to. Dr. Blaine Winter highlighted this point further when he said that he always prays before he starts his shifts, so he can provide the highest quality of care to his patients. Carter, a newly admitted student, said the following on the Healer’s art: “because we are at BYU, we are blessed to learn the Healer's Art, or in other words, to heal as Christ does. ... We can … heal people spiritually, emotionally, mentally.... Christ set the example for us. He said several times, ‘Thy faith hath made thee whole.’ Not only were those people healed physically, but they were healed entirely. Christ saw them as more than a person with an ailment that needed to be healed. He saw them as a child of God, and we are given the opportunity to learn [the] same … and … heal God's children...”
The Orientation finished with the BYU College of Nursing song, inspired from the LDS Hymn “Lord, I Would Follow Thee” with special verses added for the College of Nursing itself. Students and faculty sang these words with hope and vision:
“I would be my brother’s keeper; I would learn the Healer’s Art. To the wounded and the weary I would show a gentle heart. ...
Stir my heart with Love’s compassion, when in weakness I withhold. I would heal, as Thou has healed me, comfort, strengthen, and enfold; stir my heart with Love’s compassion – Lord, I would follow Thee.”
We wish these nursing students the best of luck as they set forth to learn the Healer’s art.