Batsheva Weinberger, ABSN Graduating Class of December 2023

My name is Batsheva Weinberger, a nursing student and Phillips Fellow at Mount Sinai Phillips School of Nursing (PSON). I decided to go into nursing because the field combines my two passions: helping others and medicine. Throughout the years, I have volunteered with children diagnosed with a variety of terminal and chronic illnesses. This illuminated my desire to become a nurse and to make a difference in the lives of others. My first undergraduate degree was in psychology, an area which I'm sure will be an asset to my nursing career. I chose PSON because of its focus on advancement within the field and its rigorous curriculum. The program challenges you to think critically and prepares you to excel in clinical and academic nursing professions. The faculty at the school has enhanced my learning experience with warmth, support, and assistance throughout. Thinking back to my first clinical experience, I was timid and unsure of myself, and didn’t know how to use the equipment or what to say to the patient. Throughout my clinical experiences, I have gained confidence, not just clinical skills. Now, I can confidently walk into a patient’s room, assess, and educate patients on their care.

I applied to the Phillips Fellowship because I am interested in quality improvement: how we can make existing systems better and improve patient care. I’d love for every patient to have the best experience possible from a medical and psychosocial standpoint. In this vein, I’ve developed a quality improvement project about pediatric pre-operative anxiety. I think our youngest patients’ anxiety prior to a procedure should be screened formally so we can intervene appropriately, thereby giving them a less traumatic experience in the pre-op setting. Research has shown that this can help with the physiological as well as psychological outcomes of the surgery. I hope this project will help our little patients with their overall experience.

Cammy Zheng, Class of December 2023

My name is Cammy and I graduated in December 2023.

I have always wanted to be in health care because I want to help people. I know it sounds like a cliché, but simply put, that's my reason for going into nursing. Ironically, my love for nursing slowly grew during the pandemic. I worked in a hospital at that time, and I saw what the nurses did for the patients. When visitors were not allowed in the hospital, it was the nurses who helped the patients to video call their families and held the patients' hands during their last moments. I truly felt an instinctive pull awaken inside me. I put my mind to completing my prerequisite courses while also completing my bachelor's degree, all the while working full-time. It was demanding and sometimes my flame would dim, but I never felt hopeless or "too tired" because I knew what my end goal was.

Choosing which nursing program to attend was a crucial decision. I chose Mount Sinai Phillips School of Nursing (PSON) because of its small class size and the opportunity to experience clinicals throughout the Mount Sinai Health System. Nursing school was not easy, however, it was not unbearable. I truly loved every moment of it—every laughter, tear, self-doubt, first semester competencies, imposter syndrome moments, back-to-back exams, 4:00 am clinical wake-up calls, all-nighters, tons and tons of caffeine, sighs of relief, and 50-page study guides. All those moments made me the person who I am now and have taught me so, so much.

When applying to PSON, the first sentence of my personal statement was "let no one ever come to you without leaving better and happier." I knew what that meant, but after 15 months in nursing school, I truly understand the meaning of this saying through what it is to be a nurse. As for my future goals, I thought I might change my mind about cardiology, but I still love everything about the heart. Now that I have passed my NCLEX licensing exam, I will be applying to Mount Sinai’s cardiac step-down units.   

Thank you for taking the time to read my story.

Cammy graduated Summa Cum Laude and was inducted into PSON’s Sigma Alpha Beta Mu Chapter