We made it. With the seemingly “open” schedule for Case Management this semester, it was difficult to stay on track. But we finished strongly in our AHA class for CM.

Our first encounter with Health Assessment was as petrifying as AHA for CM. We were new student nurses and boy, it was difficult to go through Simulations with patient actors. I remember my very first one, I had difficulty getting blood pressure from an elderly patient and one minute into the assessment I was sweating bullets to the point where if I wasn’t mindful of them, my patient would have been drenched in my sweat.

AHA for CM was a foreign idea in the beginning when we received the list of classes to register for. I didn’t have the knowledge to wrap my head around what it could be about. However, after going through the course, it all makes sense and comes together. It is similar to the HA as a Registered Nurse, but structured through the skills that CM’s have to apply to the patient. We learned about the different components of the HA of a CM, similar to the components of a RN assessment like physiology, through each class session, and then applied it to our patient simulations.

It’s difficult to see growth when in the moment but after some reflection it is easy to see how I’ve grown. Although AHA for CM was new to me, approaching the simulations were much easier and less nerve wrecking because we have done similar things before. Practice, practice, practice.