Balancing act
Senior nursing student has five jobs and takes 18 credits.
By Chloe Peter | Clarion Correspondent
Tracy Eischens went through her before-bed routine like she always does. She gave herself time to sit in bed for a while or in the main room of her suite in Heritage Hall and started watching 9–1–1 on Hulu. Eischens left time for a shower. And eight to nine hours of sleep. Her day was filled with nursing clinicals, studying, working as a TA in the Nursing Lab and her regular class schedule.
“I know that I’m going to get a quality amount of sleep each night…staying in a bedtime routine helps me relax, so I don’t have all of this anxiety before going to bed,” Eischens said when asked why she follows her routine so strictly.
This is often the only freetime Eischens will get in her day.
She is an 18 credit nursing student who has five jobs including: attending nursing clinicals, grading other students’ clinicals, tutoring nursing students, working as a TA in the Nursing lab and as a Personal Care Attendant.
“If I have a half hour between classes, I’ll try and get a small assignment done in that time…just utilizing all times of the day, so when it comes to seeing friends, it’s free time and I don’t need to worry about that [assignments],” Eischens said.
When deciding her major, Eischens’ boyfriend, now fiance, suggested she go into nursing. Eischens mentioned she didn’t get an exciting story of how she chose nursing like some people do, but, very soon after taking major specific classes, she became more interested in the material presented.
“When I started my clinicals, and I was getting to be hands on with patients, it really confirmed even more that this is what I want to do,” Eischens said.
One afternoon, in her junior year, Eischens attended a clinical for a woman who had a disease that made her experience constant pain, and pain relievers and other medications could only do so much for the patient. But, Eischens rubbing her back, caring for her, talking about her day and standing by her bed-side helped the patient to relax.
“[Tracy] comes home to me raving about her clinicals…she comes home excited to tell me the stories.” — Claire Swenson, Eischens’ roommate
This semester, Eischens performed her clinicals at St. John’s Hospital in Maplewood and Children’s Hospital in Minneapolis. After late night clinicals, she sat in her scrubs in her living room and waited up to tell her roommates the stories she had. They sat in the light of lamps and the glow of their laptops or TV as Eischens got into telling her story. Using her hands to describe. The tone of her voice changing as she told different parts of her story.
“[Tracy] comes home to me raving about her clinicals…she comes home excited to tell me the stories,” Claire Swanson, Eischens’ roommate and friend since freshman year said.
Megan Inwards, another one of Eischens’ friends, talked about how intentional Eischens is with her relationships, but how she is also still hardworking and passionate about school. The two women still meet at least twice a week to have lunch together. They meet in the library to study together. And go out to eat at El Taco Riendo.
“I make sure I utilize my time in order be able to enjoy time spent with friends and family, but I let my friends know: school comes first, that’s what I’m here for,” Eischens said regarding on how she balances her relationships and schoolwork.
Eischens made the choice early on in her college career to live with her class of freshman instead of sophomores that she had PSEO with. Even with her busy schedule, she is a part of the Bethel Student Nurses’ Association and organized their 5k Fun Run. Eischens also talks with her students she TA’s for outside of class, and she decided to live on campus instead of living in her own apartment. As Eischens talked about graduating this May, her face fell and her voice went soft.
“It will be hard [to graduate]. All of my friends will still be here. But, graduating in three years looks good for future employers and it saves money,” Eischens said.
She plans to graduate this May and hopefully enter into a nursing career soon after. But, for now, Eischens cherishes her friends and her eight to nine hours of sleep.
