Guidance through friendship
Nursing Student Association revives student support system
Navigating the Decker School of Nursing can be challenging for an incoming student who must get used to juggling classes, tests, clinicals and more.
Now, students don’t have to suffer alone.
In fall 2016, Shai Lev ’17 looked around at a roomful of new Decker students and saw their eager, bewildered faces. “Why aren’t we helping them?” she thought, and an idea came to her.
Lev, a member of the Nursing Student Association (NSA), an organization for Binghamton University students interested in nursing, aimed to revive a buddy system that pairs students with other nursing students a year or more above them.
Interested students sign up for the buddy system through an online form; NSA leaders pair students based on interests and hobbies. The buddy initiative propels a support system in which a student can ask questions and be offered advice by another student with more experience.
The buddy system also helps create a more intimate atmosphere among students within the Decker School; students learn each other’s names and are encouraged to help one another.
“The system really promotes communication between students from all different levels,” Lev says. “There’s no reason to have competition. We don’t have curved grades. We’re here to help each other.”
The buddy system has already made at least 130 pairs in the 2017–18 academic year and hosts a variety of events for the mentors and mentees.
Sophomore Ciara McNeill credits her mentor for establishing her sense of confidence in nursing.
“My mentor answered any questions I had and really made me feel more comfortable about my classes and college life,” she says. “Without my mentor, I wouldn’t have had the confidence to get so involved with Decker!”
Brittany Bungert ’17 participated in the buddy system last year alongside her buddy, Jenny Guan, who is a senior this year.
“Jenny typically turned to me for advice about classes, assignments, tests, clinicals and overall how to manage the stress of nursing school,” Bungert says. “Nursing school was one of the toughest experiences I had … sometimes all you need is someone to believe in you and tell you that you are capable!”