Chris Banyas
Life Editor
A trip to the hospital is something that for many conjures up scenes of chaotic operating rooms from television programs or emotions tied to emergencies that have occurred in their own lives.
Idaho State University’s nursing program instructs and prepares potential nurses for the environments they will one day work in through practical, experience-based learning.
These students are also prepared to provide more than just medical care. They are prepared to do all they can to ensure the comfort and overall satisfaction of their patients upon their departure.
Susan Belliston, a registered nurse who works at the Portneuf Medical Center in the Newborn Intensive Care Unit, also works as a clinical assistant professor at ISU in the nursing program.
Babies are her favorite aspect of working where she does, specifically other people’s babies.
“Other people’s babies are the best! You get to take care of the baby and then at the end of 12 hours you get a good night’s sleep,” said Belliston.
Initially earning an associate’s degree, Belliston then continued on to a bachelor’s and then a master’s.
“As I was working in clinical practice, one of the things that I enjoyed the most was working with students,” said Belliston. “When I did my master’s, I did some education specific classes and I was like ‘this is definitely what I want to do, this is a great place,’ because I love nursing but I love working with the students.”
Watching students make connections over the course of a semester is one of the things that Belliston enjoys the most.
Belliston’s own experience of starting out in nursing has given her a unique perspective when dealing with her students.
“I have great compassion for students that get into clinical and are really panicked, because I was there once,” said Belliston. “I can appreciate that some of the students are going to get into the hospital and they’re going to be like, ‘I can’t go talk to that patient. I’m afraid of talking to that patient.’ So it’s nice to be able to be like, ‘OK. We can go do that together. I can help you through that.’”
According to Belliston, staying current with medical changes and updates is the best thing about working in the medical field alongside instructing.
“It forces you to stay up to date with what’s going on, or new research that’s coming out because you need it for practice,” said Belliston.
Originally, Belliston did not want to pursue nursing because of the preconceptions she had of the profession.
“I didn’t have a good understanding of what nurses did. I was like ‘oh, nurses just take orders from doctors all day,’” said Belliston. “Unfortunately that is what a lot of people think and it’s really not what we do.”
As of the start of the semester, Belliston is pursuing her Ph.D. in nursing.
“I am passionate about having evidence-based practice for nursing. For so long in nursing, all our practice was just driven by tradition until we had a few nurse-scientists starting to develop that said, ‘yeah we’ve always done it this way, but does that mean it’s the best?,’” said Belliston.
One of the biggest changes to come out of this shift to evidence-based practice has to deal with ventilator associated pneumonia.
When a patient is having trouble breathing, they are intubated, a process in which a tube is placed into their trachea to aid with respiration.
“What we learned is that if they have really good nursing management, they can be on a ventilator and not get pneumonia,” said Belliston. “One of the biggest interventions was positioning of the head and oral care. A very basic thing, keeping the mouth clean. That is very nurse driven. The nurses at the bedside are doing that day to day care.”
Currently in her fifth year of instruction at ISU, Belliston has experienced first-hand the benefit of teaching from real-world experience and what her students have taken away from it.
“Last December my husband was in the hospital for a major surgery and I was really stressed out about it. It was the end of the semester so I was really busy here, and I was worrying about how I was going to manage everything,” said Belliston. “One of my graduates walked into the room to take care of him for the night and I was like ‘you know what, I can go home now.’ It was one of the best feelings ever thinking ‘I know how well that nurse has been prepared and I know that person is going to take good care of my loved one.’”
