For nursing students, some of the most meaningful learning opportunities happen outside the classroom, when lessons from lectures and clinicals come to life in real-world healthcare settings.

Recently, students from Galen College of Nursing’s San Antonio campus had the chance to attend the Texas Cardiovascular Innovations Conference, sponsored by HCA Healthcare and Methodist Healthcare. This conference brings together physicians, fellows, nurses, technologists, and industry leaders — offering things like cutting-edge education and networking opportunities for those who attend.

This experience was especially meaningful for Cara McCray, a Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) student attending the conference for her third year. With her nursing residency starting in just two months, McCray was able to gain insight that she can carry into the next stage of her career.

“I’m starting my residency in two months, and I’m going to a Cardiovascular Intensive Care Unit, and I want to do extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO),” she said. “And one of the conference rooms had a board of physicians that work in cardiogenic shock and do ECMO, and that was the coolest conference room for me.”

The conference also gave BSN student, Cesar Flores, a deeper understanding of what cardiac symptoms bedside nurses should watch for when caring for patients.

“My biggest take away was the things to look out for as the bedside nurse that could prompt you to notify the provider is signs of decreased cardiac compensation, cardiogenic shock, and other cardiac emergencies,” he said. “Being knowledgeable about how the heart works can give you the tools needed to save someone’s life by reacting in a timely manner.”

Being able to hear directly from physicians and other specialists offered McCray a glimpse into where cardiovascular care is headed and where she could eventually find herself as a nurse. But the value of the conference went beyond any single presentation.

“It’s such a cool opportunity, honestly. I think the exposure is so important, because the things that you see there are not normal day-to-day. It really compiles so many different things into one place at one time, and it really gives the best possible view of cardiology in general,” she said.

That kind of exposure helps nursing students make the connection between what they learn in school and what they will encounter in their careers. Conferences give students the opportunity to learn from healthcare professionals, explore specialized areas of care and discover new possibilities for their futures.

“Attending conferences like this offers Galen students insight into what nursing in the real world is like, it can help us identify new best practices and can give us specialized training that we otherwise wouldn’t get in basic nursing school,” said Flores. “Not to mention the amount of networking and opportunities it could possibly present for certain students.”

Returning to the conference for a third year also showed McCray how much she has grown throughout nursing school. Information that once seemed unfamiliar began to connect with what she had learned in the classroom and experienced during clinicals.

“The first year that you go, when you don’t have any experience, a lot of it goes over your head, but I think this year, I was like, okay, I’m understanding. Especially going through not only clinical and hospital experience but tying what you learn in your last quarters of school completes the picture of just how everything works.”

Experiences like the Texas Cardiovascular Innovations Conference give nursing students a chance to take what they have learned in the classroom and see it in action.  As part of HCA Healthcare, Galen students also benefit from opportunities to engage with healthcare professionals and experiences across the broader HCA Healthcare network, helping them better understand the field they are about to enter.