I am currently a pre-nursing major at ODU. I chose this major because I have always loved volunteering and helping people in need, and I feel like my way of helping my community and society is through nursing!
In high school I was a member of the Governor’s Health Science Academy. Through this program I took medical and biomedical courses and I even learned how to conduct numerous tests on patients. Last summer I volunteered at a local hospital in the Mother-baby unit and I loved it. Because of this experience, I have a great interest in working with babies and helping women along their pregnancy.
Parallel Major
a/b) My parallel major would be Human Services. I chose this as my parallel major because I feel it correlates the most with nursing. With this degree, I would still be able to have the overall health of a person at heart and as a concern. I would still be able to care for people hands-on. Moreover, I feel like I would realistically choose this major if nursing seriously did not work out because it most correlates to the passion I have. I do not have much interest in the other majors the School of Health Sciences offer like nuclear medicine, dental hygiene, or public health.
c) There are multiple interesting facts about this major. For one, I appreciate how this major puts emphasis and highlights on aspects that affect people and their behavior such as substance abuse and children in unfortunate settings. I also appreciate how diversity issues in health services are given attention in this major as well. I also found it somewhat interesting that it is not recommended for people with a prior felony conviction to pursue this major.
d) This degree allows for multiple careers. One in particular is a home health aide. In this career, you care for a patient by providing personal services like grocery shopping, bathing, dressing, serving meals, etc. These professionals also report conditions to registered nurses. Another career is a social worker. This is a very important career, with the mission to help children in situations in poverty or in an abusive home, etc.
e)Additional classes required are general biology, astronomy or physics, and a literacy and research class. There are numerous steps I can take to gain professional experience to learn more about this area of study. For one, I can research local non-profit organizations and speak with people who work for those organizations to get more of an understanding of what they do/help the community. I can also volunteer at local non-profits as well. Along with that, I can also shadow home workers and aids (certainly not during Covid). My advisor for this major would be Kerri Musick.