Why nursing?
Why nursing? is one of the most classic questions that I am asked whenever they refer to my profession and the life decision I have made.
I grew up watching famous American TV series that talked about and showed hospital life, a hectic life full of sacrifice towards your own family to stay at the bedside of unknown people. This made me grow up with a mindset determined to want to take a path that led to working in that bubble full of illnesses and desperate cases that is the hospital.
The passion for nursing was born especially after seeing this figure take care of my brother hospitalized in the ICU due to a serious past accident. A figure always present and ready to take care of both the pathophysiological and mental level of the patient. This medical-centric vision of TV series has for years hidden the most important figure in hospitals, the nurse.
In the end who is the nurse? I reply by quoting one of my university professors "The nurse is the healthcare professional who, with his own field of activity, assists, cares for and takes care of the patient in a global way, establishing a relationship of trust with him. The nurse is a graduated professional who, registered with the professional association, carries out prevention, assistance, health education, therapeutic education, management, training and research functions." The latter, defining the profession in this way, made me fall in love with it even more. Medicine is one of those sciences that is difficult to tackle if it doesn't turn out to be love at first sight, because as already mentioned you literally have to sacrifice so many things.
Also knowing how difficult this path is on an emotional and mental level, at 18 years old and having just finished high school I didn't feel like it because I didn't yet feel mature enough to take care of such sick and needy people. So the decision was to start working both to gain experience but also for economic reasons. In fact, my family would not have been able to afford to pay for three years of university due to the serious economic problems we had at that time and I decided it was time to get out of my comfort zone and so as soon as I found a job I moved to Padua , a city that has given me a lot and that I will thank for life.
Living in Padua I came into contact with a multiculturalism that I would never have been able to experience in the small country village where I lived, this allowed me to increase my level of English and to delve into other cultures such as Iranian, Pakistani, Chinese and Korean. I lived with them until the COVID period arrived.
The COVID period for Italy was very difficult, a bit like the rest of the world. Unfortunately in that period I lost my job and had to return to my country town to my family, this had a very serious economic impact on the family unit as there was only my dad's salary. Personally, thanks to this terrible pandemic, I was able to reconnect and improve my relationship with my mother and above all I finally understood that after the various experiences I had alone outside my family unit, I had to start that path that I had put on stand-by. Feeling a great desire to be on the front line together with all the other healthcare professionals, I decided to start studying during the lockdown months and in September 2020 I passed the test at the University of Padua. Thus began a journey made up of many exams, internships, many night shifts in the most disparate departments, thus always putting myself to the test and improving all my skills more and more.
Not missing the opportunity to improve and get involved, I decided to apply as a representative of the students of my course and in doing so I managed to guide everyone with great seriousness and determination, together with the help of my Tutor, until the end of this course. journey which took place on November 20, 2023. I am currently a volunteer nurse for the Italian Red Cross and it is a challenge that I am proud to have undertaken.
Certainly the most significant experience I had and which literally changed my way of seeing and perceiving things was with the fundraiser work I did for an Italian non-profit organization that deals with the homeless. Progetto Arca onlus, working with the homeless and families in difficulty, helps them regain the autonomy that they no longer even hoped to have by providing all the help these people need. Through this experience I began to evaluate differently what my parents, with so many sacrifices, managed to give me. It was a period that certainly presented me with other challenges such as having to stop strangers to talk about these projects, but above all it helped me overcome shyness and be even more determined about my future. Thanks to this work I learned about many backgrounds and life stories that I never expected to be lucky enough to know, I realized that people who have to face difficult situations are even stronger, more resilient and determined to make it.
If I have to describe one of the worst periods of my life it is certainly the middle school years. They were three difficult years emotionally and psychologically due to the bullying suffered both by classmates but above all by a professor. It will forever remain imprinted in my mind as during an interrogation he denigrated and mocked me in front of everyone. These years, considered by me to be very dark, have allowed me to do a job of introspection where I found the strength to change my character from very shy and indecisive for fear of other people's judgment to a much stronger and more decisive character, thus giving me the possibility to discover a new side of myself where I certainly never saw myself again as the failure he painted me to be. An important part of this change was sport, since I was a child I have always practiced swimming, where water still turns out to be a very important element, sometimes almost feeling the need to be in a swimming pool or sea during stressful periods, it has always been the my comfort zone. As much as I loved these sports, what really helped me change was women's football; being in a team, teamwork is important and this also allowed me to understand how team working should be and how to deal with diatribes and different opinions in the best way.
Thinking about how I got to know Korea, I could say that my father and subsequently my best friend had a fundamental role in this. My father, who has always loved Japan, raised me by reading books and stories about this country but also passing on to me his love for martial arts. Subsequently my best friend took me to the oriental festival for the first time, where every year the various countries that make up the oriental present themselves. On this occasion the first memory I associate with Korea is certainly of how much it made me fall in love with its cuisine with kimchi and bibimbap, the first an explosion of spiciness, spices and freshness. Bibimbap is a simple dish which, when mixed with all its ingredients, is full of flavour. From here I became passionate about South Korea and I wanted to experience it by going to eat in a very famous restaurant in Venice. By going there several times I had started to make friends with the waiters and they began to recommend more and more things to discover, such as films, documentaries, music and above all books.
Through cooking I began to get to know it and through Youtube I learned more and more, until through the King Sejong institute I started studying Korean with the aim of obtaining Topik level 1 by August. One thing that I have always liked when talking to the Koreans I met in Venice is that they are a very helpful, friendly and kind people.
Thanks to one of these friends of mine with whom I still have a relationship, he suggested that, knowing my desire to go and study abroad, I look at the NIIED website, telling me that I could find many opportunities there. Listening to his advice, I informed myself and learned about this scholarship. Living in Korea will certainly be an experience for me that will once again take me out of my comfort zone and will put me in front of new challenges that will ultimately be difficult at first but exciting and rewarding over time.
As a nurse, going to study nursing in Korea instead of other Western countries might be crazy, but it has never been my desire to continue my studies in the West. Korea has proven to be an advanced country both in terms of research and technology, a state that is one of the best in terms of education.
I'd like to conclude my personal statemen telling that I am sure that having the opportunity to undertake a master's degree in Korea thanks to this scholarship is the next step I need in life to improve more and more. After the master's degree I am determined to continue my studies with a PhD and start a career as a researcher, thus sharing the knowledge obtained by studying in Korea and in doing so creating a connection with Italy or Europe.
Additionally, with time I would like to become a professor at my former university to keep spreading the clinical and theoretical knowledge to the future generations of nurses and in that way give back to the society a part of what has been given to me therefore strengthening the relationship my country and Korea have not only on academic matters such as participating in educational program exchanges, but also by sharing their cultures among young individuals.
P.S: This is the first draft and i know there are a lot of thing to change so i'm waiting for the most honest review