BSN pre-licensure student Sabreen Qassem

[00:00] Michelle: Life has not been easy for Sabreen Qassem. As a Muslim immigrant, she has endured frequent relocations and deeply rooted cultural expectations that are in conflict with her dream of becoming a nurse. But I was smiling the entire time we talked because Sabreen is as charming as she is intelligent, well-spoken, and hardworking. She has taken on a lot. Not only is she a full-time BSN pre-licensure student, but she also works the front desk at her college and as a student nurse aide on a busy cardiac unit. When she isn't studying or volunteering for her University's Future Nurses club, she's spending the little time she has left with family and friends. At 21, she is wise beyond her years, already having experienced some of nursing's downfalls: short staffing and a tired workforce but when she feels defeated, she cheers herself by practicing gratitude for her professors, her nursing mentors, and the freedom to pursue her goals. And I have no doubt she will do just that. In the five minute snippet, she's going to be a very rich woman. Here is Sabreen Qassem.
[01:31] Michelle: Well. Hi, Sabreen, welcome.
[01:47] Sabreen: Hello. Hi.
[01:50] Michelle: I'm so glad you're here, and I'm so glad that you reached out to me. You're a nursing student, and I am very interested in talking to nursing students for so many reasons. I think that you in particular, have a very unique perspective, and we'll talk about that in a little bit, but why don't you just start out by telling us how did you come to make the decision that you wanted to be a nurse?
[02:23] Sabreen: Thank you for having me. And I came to the decision to be a nurse solely because of my father and also the opportunities that you could get from nursing. When I was deciding what career I wanted to go into, I was just choosing whichever works best for my family. As I come from a first-generation family, I kind of have to choose what will benefit us the most instead of just myself. And I know that with nursing, you could really choose anything. In any town you go into, there will always be jobs. And I also chose it for my father, who has a lot of sickness, specifically, he has a lot of heart issues, and I've always wondered how I can help. I wish I was helpful for him. And as I am going through nursing school right now, I feel like I am I'm starting to understand a lot of things that I never knew before. And I'm just so thankful that I could use my education not just to help my family financially, but also for their health. It's just a great feeling.
[03:44] Michelle: Well, I can certainly hear your sentiment and your love for your father and your care for your father. And I think like you, many nurses start out either having someone in their family that's ill or themselves being ill and kind of getting thrown into that world of hospitals and doctor's offices and clinics, and then they start really taking a look at maybe that's something that I want to do. I think that's just a wonderful reason to get into nursing. And I think you can't go wrong. I can hear that your heart is really in the right place and I kind of teared up a little bit listening to your story. It's very touching. So I appreciate you sharing that. What was the process for you to get into nursing school and was it difficult?
[04:45] Sabreen: It's actually kind of funny. The past three years, even my junior and senior years of high school, I was destined in my brain, in my heart, to do dental hygiene. I told everyone, all my friends, all my family, I will do dental hygiene. I took all the prerequisites for it. Thankfully, it's the same prerequisites for nursing. And I applied for the dental hygiene program about two years ago or a year ago for Fresno City. I didn't get in my first time since it is a lottery system. And then I felt disappointed with myself. I felt upset that I couldn't get in. And then that's when I started thinking about nursing and I started taking in my dad's background and the opportunities there are. So I found out that my school, Fresno Pacific University, finally opened a BSN pre-licensure program. And I would be the first cohort if I did get in. I was pretty excited. I like getting into projects that are newer because I can start them from the beginning. And I just wanted to be a part of something big like a new nursing program. So I applied for the nursing program. I didn't know I would get in. And then I applied for dental hygiene and I got into both dental hygiene and nursing.
[06:18] Michelle: That is a very interesting story. So you were going to be dental hygiene and then you applied to that and then applied to nursing, got into nursing. Was there any particular reason that you chose FPU?
[06:35] Sabreen: I knew that they were a private Christian school before I applied. And I am a Muslim myself, and I do share the same values as similar to a Christian. So I knew that I wouldn't have any problems going into a religious school. But the reason why I specifically chose FPU was I just heard amazing things about it. I just heard that the professors are very kind, which is true, and that the school, the way that it's set up is really helpful. It helps you become the best version of yourself when you graduate, but in such a way that you still have your faith interlocked with your degree.
[07:19] Michelle: I share your love for FPU. That's where I got my Bachelor's in nursing in 2012. And I kind of knew they were there, but I didn't know very much about them. And there were definitely less expensive programs that I could have gone to. But my sister, who is a nurse, she was in the first cohort for their BSN program, their 18-month program, and so as she was near exiting that program, she said, if you want to go get your BSN, you need to go to FPU. It's awesome. It's such a family atmosphere. Exactly, like you said, Sabreen, the professors are all just wonderful people, and all the help is there that you need. And I said, okay, I'm signing up. And I never regretted that decision. It's an excellent institution.
[08:22] Sabreen: Yes, I agree with you on that. Even though there's bumps on the road going with our cohort, just like any nursing program, being the first cohort, I understood that it wouldn't be super easy, but we're definitely working through it, and I feel like the years coming, it will be a lot easier.
[08:46] Michelle: Absolutely. I echo that. And it will be because it just takes a little bit of life experience and things get easier along the way. I was really interested in your bio where you said you're a part of the FPU Future Nurses Club. Can you tell me about that and what that is?
[09:07] Sabreen: Yes, of course. My close friend and classmate Michaela, who's also one of the representatives for the program, is the president of the club. And a lot of my own classmates are leaders in those clubs. And it's just an amazing club for students who are pre-nursing or are in a nursing program at FPU. And there are volunteer opportunities. There are opportunities where you can just hang around other nursing students and kind of learn how to go through nursing school and how to do interviews. And it reminds me of a club that you would go to in high school and you would just surround yourself with people who have the same likings as you. And I don't know, I just really like it there.
[09:59] Michelle: It sounds really fun. I wish there had been something like that when I went there because I feel like I would have gotten involved in it. It sounds like it's really fun and informational and motivational. You're with people of like-minded people that have similar goals and aspirations. So I like that they have something like that.
[10:23] Sabreen: Yeah. I'm very proud of my classmates who run that club. They're just amazing. Shout out to them. You guys are great. And all members of the Future Nursing Club, you guys are amazing.
[10:40] Michelle: So you have two jobs.
[10:42] Sabreen: Yes.
[10:43] Michelle: And tell me about what you do.
[10:45] Sabreen: All right, so my first job that's a little older, that I've been working for about six, seven months, is working the front desk at my college, Fresno Pacific University. I just answer phone calls, respond to emails, help students register for classes, and I do that before and after class. So I work at nine and then go to class at two. Once class finishes at four, I'll work till seven. And then my second job is I'm a student nurse aide at Kawaeh Health Medical Center on the 2North Cardiac MedSurg floor. And I am working, it's similar to, like, a CNA position, but a little bit more exposure to nursing, as in how I would do things as a future nurse. And I can shadow nurses while they do IVs and pulling meds.
[11:45] Michelle: So as a student nurse aide, are you assigned to one nurse per shift, or do you just help out wherever needed? How does that work?
[11:56] Sabreen: So as an SNA, a student nurse aide, I would just do the same thing as a CNA, where I would get a group of patients that I would do turns, bed changes, all of that stuff. And when I have downtime, I'm allowed to shadow nurses. I just go to whichever nurse is available and just kind of follow them. It's not as heavy as if I was a CNA, where I would have a lot more patients and a lot more to do. It's a great position. Putting myself through nursing school, I felt like I needed to learn the basics of nursing.
[12:36] Michelle: Do you feel like that's helped you kind of navigate hospital life and things that are associated with that?
[12:46] Sabreen: Tremendously. I feel like I'm learning the culture of a hospital. I'm learning what to say and what not to say. I'm learning just like these words, this medical terminology, charting even basic things like giving someone a bath. I never learned any of this in nursing school, so I'm so glad that I could do this because my goal is to be a well-rounded nurse, and this is a great opportunity to learn.
[13:24] Michelle: Well, I think you're absolutely right about doing things in real-time versus in nursing school. They're quite a bit different, and you're getting exposure to both, so that's really neat. When I was going through nursing school in the early 1980s, I was 18, 19, 20 years old. I graduated at 21. And how old are you?
[13:53] Sabreen: I'm 21 right now.
[13:55] Michelle: Okay, so a lot of similarities. And I was a certified nurse's aide. They didn't have that position where you have the student nurse aide. That would have been fabulous, but the nurses on the unit knew that I was in nursing school, and so in addition to my regular CNA duties, they would kind of pull me to the side when they had an interesting procedure. It was a surgical unit. So the surgeon might come on the unit and want to do a complex dressing change or pack a wound or something like that. And they knew that I would appreciate the opportunity to learn. And so they would pull me from whatever I was doing at the moment and say, oh, come in here. You got to see this. And that was just so valuable to me. And one of the other things was the surgeons. They also knew that I was in nursing school, and they would give me advice. And one of the surgeons said, whenever you have downtime, read the charts. And back then we had paper charts, so it was really easy. But he said, read the charts, and that way you'll learn anatomy, physiology, the terminology, read the H&P and you'll see how the systems go. And that was such great advice. I learned so much just by doing that. So your time as a student or say it, is just going to help you transition into being a nurse?
[15:37] Sabreen: Yeah, I've heard a lot from the nurses. When I ask them questions at the hospital, how do I get through this? I feel like I'm drowning. I don't understand anything. They always say, your time will come. You will know. You will know. And I'm like, okay, I believe you. I'll just wait.
[15:58] Michelle: Yeah. And it seems like magic. It's 100% true. And when you're in it like you are, you just can't see it, but it happens, and you will figure it out. So they are being 100% truthful with you. Along those lines, what has it meant to you being mentored by nurses?
[16:27] Sabreen: It's been a crazy ride just because a lot of these nurses are all different. Some have kids, some are you know, they don't have kids, traveling, living the life. So I get a lot of different advice from different people at the hospital. I'm grateful to be surrounded by hardworking people like nurses. I'm so used to being the most hardworking around my family, as in going to school, and working 12 hours. And so when I meet these nurses and they're saying, 12 hours is normal. You got to work. You got to do what you got to do to pull through. And I'm like, okay, yes, this is motivating. I need someone to motivate me like these nurses have. And they have hearing these words from them just makes me feel like, okay, I'm doing this right. I'm okay.
[17:32] Michelle: I'm not crazy.
[17:33] Sabreen: I'm right, I'm not crazy. So it's just good being around the same people that you're trying to be. You are my role model, and you're telling me I'm doing fine. Thank you.
[17:46] Michelle: Yes. That has to be so encouraging. And I'm really happy to hear that you're being mentored in that way and that you're being encouraged. One of my questions is being a student nurse aide and being involved in school and your clubs and so forth, you have to be aware of the current state that nursing is in, in terms of burnout. A lot of nurses are experiencing burnout, and there's staffing issues, and you've probably encountered those on your own floor. And so does that first of all, does that current state of nursing, does it worry you or not? And what do you feel like we could do to make it better?
[18:40] Sabreen: Yes, it definitely worries me. I've actually had it firsthand here at my school, shortage of nurses who are in the education field as well, not being able to go to clinicals because not enough nursing instructors, not being able to go to certain units because there's not enough nurses to watch over you. Even at my job, on my first day, I did have half the unit to myself, 17 patients, just because there was a shortage of just not nurses, of everything. And I had to handle that. And I am scared. Of course, I am worried. And sometimes I think to myself, oh, what have I gotten myself into? But I know deep down in my gut, I know I can handle it. I know some people might not be able to, and that's okay. Not everyone has to handle that. It's a lot, but I feel like I can. And the way that we can fix it in the future is what I've seen, and what I've heard, I'm not a nurse yet, but we just need to treat these nurses better. We need to support nurses. We need to be able to give them we need to give them the tools to success. We can't just take away their tools and then ask them to pull 15 hours or have eight patients on their floor all to themselves. We can't punish these nurses for just doing their jobs. I noticed administration doesn't help, and they don't know who to go to. So it's sad. I see it on the floor, and I see it even from my own professors, and I'm scared, but we can definitely work it through.
[20:43] Michelle: Well, I like your optimism, and I'm optimistic as well. It's frustrating because we've been dealing with this for quite a while now, and we think that we know what the answers are. But it seems like the people that are really involved in change-making are maybe not listening. And so that is very frustrating. But I think getting involved in professional organizations, in your community, in knowing who your politicians are, I think those things are all very important in making changes. So I'm happy to hear that you're optimistic because we need that kind of attitude, and you've already experienced it firsthand, I think. Another thing that's really important to remember, I interviewed a nurse just the other day, and I really admired her boundaries. She had very tight boundaries in terms of being asked to do overtime or an extra shift. And she's a single parent of two small children, and she just says, no, I'm not going to do it. And I hope that's the new generation of nurses coming out because I feel like the generation of nurses that I came from, we felt bad, we felt guilty. We felt like we were letting people down, and so we just did it. And there's a limit to how much you can do. So I'm happy to hear that you're optimistic about some of these things that are going on.
[22:40] Sabreen: No, I agree. Having boundaries is so important. Growing up with Gen Z, we're always saying we have to have these boundaries, especially at work. When it's time to clock out, it's time to clock out. Although we should care for our patients if they need the help, we're going to stay and help, but we're not going to go above and beyond without being compensated in a safe way.
[23:09] Michelle: Thank you. Okay, so talking about clinicals, first of all, where do you do your clinicals? Where do you guys go?
[23:16] Sabreen: We do our clinicals at St. Agnes, and right now we are just doing MedSurg. I did finish up my OB clinicals at St. Agnes as well. That was super fun.
[23:30] Michelle: Okay. And when you're in clinical, you're assigned to one particular nurse for the day, is that correct?
[23:37] Sabreen: Yeah. So our instructor usually shows up earlier and looks at the assignments and then assigns us to a nurse.
[23:45] Michelle: And how has that been working out with the nursing staff? How have you been received by the staff?
[23:53] Sabreen: I have had a good experience going in, just watching over the nurses. I know some of my classmates have been denied just because a lot of the nurses have near-impossible workload assignments, so they aren't able to take a nursing student. But other than that, it's been easy. We just go on the floor, watch over the nurse's shadow, and sometimes they will allow us to do some tasks, whether that's starting IV or pass medications.
[24:27] Michelle: And you're in your second year?
[24:30] Sabreen: Second semester.
[24:31] Michelle: Second semester. Sorry. Okay. And so far the clinicals that you've had, has anything really jumped out at you? Like, you mentioned that you were an OB and you said that was really neat. Is that something that you would consider going into when you graduate?
[24:54] Sabreen: Honestly, before I started OB, I wanted to do it. I was like, yeah, women's power. Let's do it. And then I did OB and I was like, heck no. Oh, my God, that is so tough.
[25:09] Michelle: Crazy, right?
[25:10] Sabreen: Nothing I've seen. So one thing that just had me to the wall was I had seen a vaginal delivery. It actually happened, and I was just in shock. I did not move one muscle. My nurse was telling me to help put the doctor prepare the stuff for the doctor when he comes in, and I did not move. My classmate had to come in and help my nurse, and that's when I knew I could not do OB.
[25:40] Michelle: Oh, my gosh. You were paralyzed.
[25:42] Sabreen: Paralyzed.
[25:45] Michelle: It can be really scary and it can be really exciting at the same time. I'm a longtime NICU nurse, and one of my responsibilities was going to deliveries. And after I got over the initial anxiety of it, like you, I just started loving it because each delivery is so different, and sometimes I would go into deliveries and the mother would just be screaming at the top of her lungs with every contraction. And other times I would go into delivery and the mom would be pushing and not making one sound. And so each one was just so individual, and I just really loved it. But like you in the beginning. Yeah, I was just standing there with eyes wide open and saying, I don't think I want to be here right now. Oh, my gosh. So other than OB, that scared you, anything else that you're like? I'm 100% sure I'm not going to go into that specialty.
[27:00] Sabreen: I'm actually doing MedSurg and we're on the oncology floor. And I've met a lot of patients who specifically have cancer, end-of-life cancer, and I feel like although I'm not with kids, I did get a patient who was younger than 30 years old, and they had stage four cancer, and that made me tear up, but that was a tough day for me. So I can't imagine working with patients who are younger or even older who have cancer because it feels like a defeat as soon as they walk in. It feels like a defeat for me.
[27:54] Michelle: Well, I love that you know your limitations at such a young age. I think that's really important, and I think anybody at the end of life, no matter what they have, it's a very sobering thing. I interviewed Monty Anderson, and he's a pediatric complex care nurse who takes care of hospice patients. And yeah, he got really emotional during that interview, talking about kids dying. It's one of those things. It's just not supposed to happen. And I'm in awe listening to you. I think it's fantastic that you know your limitations and you know what you're interested in and what you're not. So that'll take you a long way. Do you have a favorite way to study for exams? How do you go about doing that?
[28:55] Sabreen: Yeah, so I'm a visual and hands-on learner, but of course, I have to read the textbooks and actually memorize the sentences and apply it. So what I do is I watch a video on it. I've been using Picmonic, and it's like a cartoon version of whatever you're reading and then that kind of dumbs it down. Afterward, I will watch a more in-depth video like any nursing YouTuber, and then I'll read my textbook chapter, do some Quizlets, and that's pretty much it. And I love study groups. I'll do study groups with my classmates, and we'll just go back and forth quizzing each other. And that's helped me so far.
[29:47] Michelle: Are you guys starting to prep at all for NCLEX or is it way too early?
[29:53] Sabreen: I feel like we should, but we are scared to death we should, most definitely. I did buy an NCLEX prep book, and I'm so scared to open it. I'm so scared to read it. I feel like once I open that book, it's going to be like, for real. You're going to have to take the NCLEX so I'm holding that off.
[30:18] Michelle: Well, you have a little bit of time and so that's on your side. Definitely. In preparing to talk to you today. I was remembering back when I took Boards, which was in 1985 and it was called Nursing Boards and it was a two-day affair. It was in person and so it was in a huge auditorium with about 3000 test takers and it was highly regulated in terms of security. So you had to have your ID and you couldn't bring your purse in. So you could bring like a Ziploc bag with all your stuff in it. It had to be see-through. When you went to the bathroom, you had to raise your hand and wait for one of the I don't know what they called them, but they would come around and they would accompany you to the bathroom, and they would look at your if you had long sleeves, they would make you pull your sleeves up because some students wrote the answers on their arms.
[31:31] Sabreen: Wow.
[31:32] Michelle: Yeah. Or notes like that. And they stayed with you the whole time in the bathroom to make sure you weren't pulling out any notes and reading them. It was crazy. And then after two days of that, it was super nerve-wracking. You had to wait six weeks to get your results to see if you passed or not.
[31:55] Sabreen: Oh wow. I feel much so much better now. Thank you, Michelle.
[32:02] Michelle: Exactly. Well, that was how many years ago? 1985. What was that? 35 years ago? I can't do the quick math, but it was a long time and thankfully they have improved the process and it goes much quicker now. So yay, just be thankful you don't have to do it 1980s style. Right, right, yeah. Well, you were talking about study groups. How important are the relationships with your cohort?
[32:33] Sabreen: I feel like it's really important. When I took the position of being the rep for my cohort, I wanted to make sure that there wasn't a lot of clicks. I mean clicks are inevitable, they're always going to happen. But I wanted my cohort to feel like a family. I see my cohort more than I see my family sometimes and sometimes I get sick of them too because I'm always with them. Just kidding. No, but I feel like I'm always with them, so it's so important to create that bond. And I already feel like I'm very close to them. And I know we're going to be best friends beyond nursing school, and I'm always offering to go out to eat and do study groups, and they're very nice, and we all know what we're going through, and we're doing it together. So it's been a great journey so far.
[33:32] Michelle: Are the people in your cohort the same age as you or are they all different ages?
[33:37] Sabreen: There's a diverse group of age ranging. One of my close friends in nursing school. She's 19. 19,  Wow. Yeah, and she's super smart, so good for her. And then the older students range from 40 to 30. So there's not just my age, which I like because I'm learning so much from the two different ages.
[34:08] Michelle: That's a great population that you have young, and you have kind of what we call adult learners or mature learners, and you all have your different styles, and you can all learn from each other, and you can all teach each other. So I think that's really important. Tell me about some of your professors. What kind of things do you admire about them and what might you change about them?
[34:36] Sabreen: Okay. Definitely won't drop names, if that's okay. I had a professor who actually changed my life, and I know that sounds crazy, but she changed the way I look at things. I'll name her Renteria. She actually told me about this podcast, but I came to her crying once after lecture, and it was some issues with my family. And you guys know already how close I am with my family. And she just explained to me that I am in nursing school for a reason. And every time I feel upset or I feel like I can't do it or like I'm drowning, I just have to remember why I'm doing this. And she just made me feel like I'm not alone. I need to get out of my little bubble of sadness and just look above that and see I have people here. I have friends and family, and I have so much support. So she really helped me change my perspective of how I feel and how I look at things. And then I do have some instructors that I wish I could change their way of teaching. I wish I can change a lot of things that I can't already, because they've built themselves into the school, they can't change that's how they've been for a while. Teaching is outdated, or certain stuff can come off as aggressive or mean. And I know the intentions are not to be cruel, but it's hard to come to your professor and say, hey, that was not nice. It's hard to do that when you're trying to balance so much.
[36:44] Michelle: Very difficult. First of all, I'll say Alisha is one of the most positive people that I know, and so I could totally see her having that conversation with you and just really inspiring you and motivating you to look on the bright side and to see it from a different perspective. So that's great. And I'm so excited because she's going to be my guest on this podcast, so I'm really looking forward to talking to her. But one of the things that I loved about FPU is that after every class, they would ask for feedback and so give the feedback. The only way things are going to change is if we speak up and say, I really liked this. I didn't like this, and they ask for a reason. And I believe that they really honestly try to make changes to things that aren't working. So give that a shot. When that comes around, give them your feedback.
[38:00] Sabreen: Yeah, I agree. I am a huge advocate for speaking up, especially for change. So I have been doing evaluations and inputting my opinions where it needs to be put in. And lately, I've noticed some change, which is great. But again, with the shortage of nursing professors, it's kind of hard to change.
[38:32] Michelle: Yeah, and that's something that you brought to light. A lot of people in the community, even a lot of nursing professionals working in hospitals and other places, they're not so much aware of the shortage in academia, and they should be because it's real and it's going to affect everything in our profession. If we don't have nurses to teach nursing, what's going to happen to the profession? Those are some serious things that we have to think about. But there's a lot of press on the nursing shortage in hospitals and so forth, but there's really not a lot of press on the shortage of professors. So thank you for talking about that. How do you balance your family time? You've talked about your family, I can hear that they're very important to you. School, obviously, jobs, and just playtime. How do you balance all of that?
[39:48] Sabreen: Well, honestly, I feel like it's been harder just because I'm going to my finals and med surge is getting more difficult as every week comes on and on. But I feel like the way that I manage is by letting my parents and my family know I'm going to be busy. I won't be able to do this or I won't be able to do that.
[40:18] Michelle: So just giving them a heads up, like, hey, this is what's coming down the pike, this is what my responsibility is. And talking about your family, how do they feel about you going to school and being a nurse?
[40:36] Sabreen: At first, they were shocked because I transitioned from wanting to do dental hygiene to nursing. They were proud of me. And it's actually not common where I come from for a girl to go to school. One of the first in my village to actually go to nursing school where I'm from, they're more proud of you. Not my parents in particular, but other people. They're more proud of you if you married and had kids and were a perfect housewife. So I'm thankful for my parents and my family to be so supportive, something that is so foreign to them.
[41:26] Michelle: So, yeah, there are so many cultural pressures upon you to behave a certain way or pick a certain profession or maybe not a profession, stay home and be a stay-at-home mom, which there's nothing wrong with that unless you really want to be a nurse or something else. And so sometimes it's hard to find your voice, too, with your family, because obviously you hold their opinions in a very high place, and it's hard to kind of go against that.
[42:04] Sabreen: Yeah, it's true. I have to put myself in a certain way. I can't say things. I can't act a certain way just because of all the pressure that's on me. And some people can say, well, just do what you want. It's your life. And that's true. It is my life. But also, I still want my culture. I still want that life with me. I don't want to let go of half of me just to experience the other half. I want to be a great nurse, but I also want to be a great Muslim. I want to be a part of my culture. I want to be a part of everything that my parents gave me coming here to America.
[42:54] Michelle: Well, I love that. That's admirable. So stay with that. What does your future look like Sabreen?
[43:04] Sabreen: That's scary. I don't know. All I know is that I want to be a nurse, and I don't know, maybe in the near future, I'll get married and I'll have kids, and I'll own my business, and become a nurse practitioner. I'm not sure.
[43:25] Michelle: Well, you have a lot of things in mind, and you have definitely the drive, the ambition, the intelligence, the motivation, the heart, all of that that you need to be able to make your dreams come true. So I see a bright future for you, whatever you decide to do. As we kind of finish up here, what pieces of advice do you have for students, nursing students currently, or those that are looking to get into the profession? What do you want to tell them? What message do you want to send them?
[44:12] Sabreen: I want to send them a message that would just be focused on mental health. Before you decide to do any of this, check with yourself. Are you mentally stable? Do you have a support system that you can go to because you can't take care of other people? If you can't take care of yourself, you can't wake up at 05:00 a.m. and work 12 hours or go to clinicals and work 12 hours for free if you are not there. I wish, before starting nursing school I knew that, or I wouldn't have felt so burnt out. When every semester ended, I would have definitely either had a therapist in line or just some sort of hobby that I can do to let go of any frustration or sadness or anything like painting or talking to a friend. I didn't have that before I started nursing school or the nursing profession, and that's what I want to give to everybody.
[45:31] Michelle: That is a great message. So I really hope my listeners take that to heart. And I just couldn't have said it any better. Mental health is everything, and I'm so thankful that there's so many lights being shined on mental health for everybody. And, of course, being in the nursing profession, we are caretakers. We care for people. We help people. And those people that we help, the first one has to be us. We have to help ourselves. So thank you so much for bringing attention to that, because everybody has stress nurses, nursing students, everybody has stress. And it can damage you, or it can inspire you to change what you're doing and take care of yourself. So thank you for that, and thank you for being here. I really appreciate talking to you and getting your perspective. At the end of the episode, we do the five-minute snippet. Did I tell you about that?
[46:50] Sabreen: Yes, you did.
[46:52] Michelle: Are you excited to do that?
[46:54] Sabreen: Yeah, it's up to you.
[46:58] Michelle: It's always so fun. So what it is, it's just five minutes of just pure fun. And it's a way for our audience to see kind of the off-duty side of Sabreen when she's not being a nursing student, not being a student nurse aide, not doing all these things that you do. So we will set the timer and go for it. Okay. And I guarantee you know all the answers to these questions. Favorite weekend activity?
[47:43] Sabreen: Painting.
[47:45] Michelle: I love it. What kind? Acrylics.
[47:49] Sabreen: Yes. I just love grabbing some acrylics. Sometimes I'll do it with my friend and just painting whatever I feel that's a great outlet.
[47:58] Michelle: What do you do to combat stress?
[48:02] Sabreen: I just sit on my bed. I watch Netflix. I kind of go into a mode where there's zero thinking, nothing, no brain activity.
[48:13] Michelle: Just flatline, right?
[48:15] Sabreen: Yes.
[48:16] Michelle: Do you have any nicknames?
[48:18] Sabreen: Yeah, my friends and some of my family members call me Brie, and then my mom's the only one that calls me this. And my dad, too. Sabuda. It's like an Arabic nickname for Sabreen.
[48:36] Michelle: Oh, I love it. Okay, what is one thing that you wish you'd spent more time doing as a kid?
[48:46] Sabreen: More time. I feel like I really enjoyed my childhood, but one thing would be I wish I tried more in school and read more books.
[48:58] Michelle: Yeah, that's something that we don't know at the time that we're going through it, how wonderful of an experience it is, right? Until we kind of get to be grown up, and then we go, oh, yeah, that would have been a lot more fun. What bad habits do you wish you could stop?
[49:16] Sabreen: Stress eating. When I'm stressed,  I eat when I'm sad, I don't so I don't know. I wish I could just stop my stress eating.
[49:29] Michelle: I'll tell you what. When you find a way to do that, you'll be a very rich woman. Let us all know.
[49:38] Sabreen: Okay.
[49:39] Michelle: If you could teach one nursing class, which one would you teach?
[49:43] Sabreen: Fundamentals. Oh, I would be a great teacher for fundamentals.
[49:48] Michelle: What is that class about?
[49:50] Sabreen: So, fundamentals for nursing is just the basics. It's the first class you take in nursing school, and when I'm in group studies or studying with my classmates, I'm the one that's dumbing down everything. Like, I need to make it super dumb to understand it before I can make it more complex. So I feel like fundamentals. I learned a lot in there because it was super easy in the beginning and then it started to get harder.
[50:16] Michelle: Well, you're going to be a fabulous professor one day. Stick with that. Let's see. Have you found anything yet in nursing that just grosses you out? Just like, I can't tolerate that.
[50:29] Sabreen: Probably skin flakes. I thought it would be vomit, but I've been working in dental assisting for so long that it doesn't bother me, so it's definitely skin flakes.
[50:39] Michelle: Mine is wounds to the hands and the feet. I cannot tolerate that. I feel like I'm going to faint. And that's after being a nurse for 36 years. So that's crazy. What is the best thing to happen to you this year?
[50:56] Sabreen: Best thing? I can't think of anything. Oh, I had a new nephew. Oh, that's awesome. Super cute, baby.
[51:09] Michelle: That's fun. Let's see. One more question. What was your favorite thing to do as a kid besides reading? I know you like to read.
[51:20] Sabreen: Oh, I definitely did not like to read as a kid. I wish I read more. Always had the lowest rank in my class growing up, but my favorite thing was I like to pretend that I was a Vlogger and I would wash my face and be like, hello, welcome back to my channel. Being in this podcast, I don't know, I just felt like I was a child again and I could speak.
[51:48] Michelle: Oh, my gosh, I love that. Well, you have a bright future ahead of you. You could do anything. You could be a Vlogger, a Podcaster, a YouTuber. You could do it all. So I have no doubts about that. You've just been such a joy to talk to, and I just wish you so much good everything in your future, Sabreen, thank you so much for being with me.
[52:14] Sabreen: Thank you for having me.