I started my journey towards this Health Science degree in the fall of 2011. It is now the winter of 2017. I did not take classes straight thru for this degree, I stopped from 2013 to 2016. The reason I stopped was due to my working situation and home life. I did not have any extra time for myself for a while, and then I became very sick and that took awhile to recover from.
My personal and professional growth during this time was greatly enhanced by my schooling. One of the classes that I have quoted and referred back to a great deal is the ethics class. The ability to reason out the difficult questions and to articulate the reasoning behind the answers truly assisted my arguments in keeping my patients as my primary focus while in upper management. I also think that by not practicing some of the information that I received lead to my health crises. Classes such as the Healthy Lifestyles were full of information that I already knew but did not practice with myself. I have learned the hard way that I should practice what I preach and the first rule of a caregiver is “take care of yourself first.” I truly Love to discover information and to learn new things that relate back to the human condition. I do not like and have great difficulty with expressing that knowledge in a written form. I truly regret not acquiring the technology to convert my speaking into writing. I do believe that if I had, my papers would have been much more in-depth and articulate. I am very proud of myself for completing all my classes, so far, with passing grades. I have truly struggled here at the end, due to personal reasons, and I will not regret if i have to retake this last semester. While all of the classes have been truly beneficial, one other class I would like to mention that truly touched my core being. the class on the American Indian and the American Society was an eye opener. While I grew up in a city of 50% Hispanics and was well acquainted with their struggles it never accrued to me that the American Indian’s struggle was so much greater. I learned how they are living now, and why it is so terrible. I also learned how they view health care, end of life , and white people medicine in general. This has been such a benefit to my professional life, that I now am referred to the “hard” cases in therapy with the Native population. I am able to assist them in recovery faster and better than other therapists. I totally attribute this to the strong lessons learned in this class, and I would greatly encourage an additional class of this type.
I am not sure where I am headed once I have this degree completed. The plan was to attend a school in New Mexico to complete a masters in Occupational Therapy. It was a bridge degree from my Associated to the Masters. That program has been closed down. I cannot take years from working to attend a traditional school for this, only a weekend or online program will fit my needs. I may now look into a masters degree in health care, so that I can apply to run a nursing home or work in a large institution in upper management. At my age I need to look to the time when I will not be able to do the heavy work of patient care.
I am very thankful that this has been such a rewarding and beneficial program for my life.
Shaye' Gurrera 