Nurse’s First Snow

It snowed today. Finally. The moment I’ve been waiting for, and…. I walked in this snow for over an hour, and survived. I may be being a tad dramatic, but this actually is a personal accomplishment.

And I had a wonderful class today (yes, Saturday) on Johns Hopkins’ ADAP (Adolescent Depression and Awareness Program). But first, let’s start with the beautiful white blanket that covered the city and school:

So I heard a rumor in the class that Baltimoreans freak out with snow. Suddenly all schools are closed, people call in sick for work, and there’s a run on bread, water, and toilet paper. HA! I’m not the only scaredy cat then. And I made it to class on time.

Well besides hearing crazy, probably untrue rumors in the ADAP class, I was very impressed with the professionalism of the program. ADAP is a class offered at the school of nursing to train nursing students, med students, and people in the community to go into high schools and teach 9th grade classes about Depression and Bipolar disorder. The program has been around for 13 years, in full swing for 10. They’ve reached over 20k students, and are going nationwide. I recently heard a story from home about three suicides in Palm Beach leading to the schools teaching about teen depression. then I come into class and hear that ADAP recently came to Palm Beach to teach! So I guess I heard about this program even before I was enrolled. It’s great to see how far reaching this project has come. There’s another full day of class tomorrow, and then we go into community high schools to teach.

I’m a little nervous about teaching a sensitive subject but I feel that this is really important information for high schoolers to know. From my own personal experience of loved ones that have suffered from depression or bipolar, it hurts that many still think these aren’t real illnesses. Being 16 is crappy enough, you gotta deal with the zit on your nose, your significant telling you – oh wait no, texting you “WE NEED 2 TLK”, and having a European history test the next day. A mood disorder is the last thing many teens think about but can be so debilitating. And we need people to be able to identify the symptoms and know how to get help.

To be honest, having to figure out rides to the school I’ll be teaching at and having another busy week will be a chore, I’ll probably complain to my family and be exhausted by the end of the week. But, it’s funny how this is something I care about enough that part of me is excited and I know I’ll have a sense of fulfillment afterwards. Like I mentioned in a previous post, I think I found my niche in psych nursing. Now I understand how some of my classmates in the Birth Companions class can help a mom through labor for 24 hours and come to school tired but content.

Time to curl up under a warm blanket and ride out our snowy weekend. This would sure help with the warmth though: