Few nursing specialties are as challenging and fast-paced as the intensive care unit (ICU). Given the critical care patients these nurses care for, there are multiple scales and charts that constantly need to be referenced when assessing patients. And for nursing students, learning all that information can feel overwhelming. 

During their clinical rotation in the ICU, students at Galen College of Nursing’s Nashville campus were given multiple digital charts to reference on their phone by their instructor.  

But for Kortney Hudson, she saw an opportunity to make things a little more efficient.  

“If I’m doing an assessment on a patient, I don’t want to get on my phone and try to scroll through it. So, I decided to take them all together, put them on one piece of paper to take with me and utilize versus having to get on my phone,” said Hudson.  

The resource quickly caught on among her classmates. But its usefulness didn’t stop there. Hallett brought the resource to the ICU manager, expecting it to be a helpful tool for students. Instead, the manager saw an opportunity to use it beyond the classroom. 

“All of a sudden, we had this laminated piece of paper that I presented to the ICU manager at Hendersonville,” Galen faculty member Nick Hallett said. “I went in kind of joking with her because I knew she really liked laminated materials, so I was going to show her this thing my student had put together based on the information I had been providing to all of them. But she really liked that it had all the details in one place.” 

What started as a simple resource to help Hudson through her clinical rotation will eventually become an official document used to onboard new graduate nurses joining the ICU at the HCA hospital in Hendersonville. For Hudson, seeing something she created as a student start to make its way into the hospital was unexpected.  

“It was just a simple thing to create to help people out. It’s kind of surprising, because I was not expecting to go that far,” said Hudson. “I wasn’t expecting, hey, this little 5-second thing to make, now all the students are utilizing it. Now, the hospital is utilizing it, too. It’s just… I don’t know. It’s kind of awesome.”  

Hallett says seeing students like Hudson take what they learn in the classroom and apply it in a real-world setting is part of what makes clinical experiences so valuable. Especially in an environment like the ICU. 

“For me, I really try to instill the critical care knowledge into the students when they come to me, because a lot of them have never had exposure to the ICU or any kind of critical care medicine, and it definitely involves a lot of thinking on your feet, thinking quickly,” said Hallett. “Sometimes time is the difference between life or death in certain circumstances.” 

His goal is to help students move beyond simply knowing the answer and instead develop the confidence to find it, think through a problem and apply what they’ve learned. 

“Getting them to a point where they feel comfortable enough to start to think on their own is important, because eventually, they need to do that, right? That’s the ultimate goal is for them to be independent thinkers,” he said.  

For Hudson, that lesson has already begun to take shape. Although she’s still a nursing student, she’s already experiencing what it means to make a difference in patients’ lives.  

“I mean it truly feels like an honor to be able to do something like that, especially since it’s helping out new grad nurses who are graduating now,” said Kortney. “I’m over here still a nursing student, and they’re utilizing something that I made, versus me already being out there, and in the field, and making the idea, you know. I’m just glad I was able to do something like that.”  

Galen College of Nursing combines classroom learning with hands-on clinical experiences to help students build confidence and prepare for the realities of patient care. From Practical Nursing (PN) and Associate Degree in Nursing (ADN) programs to Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN), Galen College provides the experience you need to feel confident in your nursing career.