Adonis Mokom '22 to Trinity Nurses: Believe in Yourselves, Trust Trinity!

(Enjoy this one-minute video of the Nursing Pinning Ceremony on January 8, 2024)

One of our outstanding Nursing alumnae — Adonis Mokom ’22, BSN, RN — gave the keynote speech at the Nursing Pinning Ceremony on January 8.  Adonis is a nurse in the Medical-Surgical Intensive Care Unit at Medstar Washington Hospital Center in Washington D.C.

I asked Adonis if I could share the speech she gave to the new class of Trinity nurses.  Here is her speech:

Speech for Pinning Ceremony for Fall 2023
Adonis Mokom ’22, BSN, RN

Good evening, dear faculty, family, friends and soon-to-be nurses, Today, January 8th, 2024, marks the culmination of one journey and the start of another. My name is Adonis, and it is a privilege and honor to have been asked to speak at this Pinning Ceremony for the Graduating Class of Fall 2023. I stand before you as once a nursing student, but also as an observer of the hard work and devotion that each of you invested to reach this moment, and I am filled with optimism and hope that those of you here today will take those qualities forward into the nursing field.

Let’s take a few minutes to travel down memory lane to the first day in your first nursing class, be it foundation or health assessment. Remember the joy you felt and the wonderful feeling of wearing the Trinity nursing scrubs while learning about your first head-to-toe assessment. The excitement, anxiousness, and fear but yet a wonderful feeling of having made it this far was all I thought about even totally forgetting about how difficult and challenging the journey ahead was (especially the exams – hahaha). I totally felt the same way.

But you have made it so far, despite the rigorous work, lengthy study nights, the disappointment from not receiving the grades you expected, and the headaches — but you overcame all of them. You endured 4 semesters of nursing school, beginning from the introduction of nursing skills and the nursing process in Foundation of Nursing course, to learning about how to thoroughly conduct a head-to-toe assessment in health assessment, and the hard work to create and study 300 medications and their classes in pharmacology. A journey further into more challenges, which involved understanding the various diseases and combining your knowledge from pharmacology class about medications that are used to treat or manage the care for patients with those diseases. But you were strong enough to make it through successfully, even to the Capstone course to which you brought all the knowledge learned and skills from all your courses throughout nursing school during weekly tests in order to prepare for the VATI. Now to the present: you are successfully seated at your Pinning ceremony here after receiving the green light. WOW. You all made it through because you believed in yourself.

The next step of your journey is the NCLEX, which is the Nursing Licensure Examination needed to practice as a Registered Nurse. You may feel like it’s too much to handle, very anxious, or even overwhelmed by the thought of how to start studying for it or even what to expect. It is all normal because I felt the same way while studying for and taking the NCLEX. But during those difficult moments, I would constantly reflect on the words of Dr. O’Reilly and other nursing professors: “You should believe in yourself, in your skills, trust that Trinity has prepared you well, and use all that you have learned to diligently answer each question.” Truth be told, those words are 100% true, despite not constantly feeling like I was ready, but I took my NCLEX 3 weeks after graduation from Trinity and felt excited and confident because I knew I am a graduate of Trinity Washington University and I would succeed.

Secondly, you all are graduates of Trinity Washington University, and all the faculty, your family, and friends are constantly cheering, praying, and belief in you, so don’t doubt yourself even for a second. Utilize the same belief even when starting your first nursing job. I believe some of the nursing graduates here have already accepted job offers or are still deciding on a specialty. It could be the specialty you enjoyed during your nursing clinicals or by taking the course. I had an offer to a Medsurg unit, IMC (ICU step-down), and patiently waited for a response or an offer for an ICU position. One lesson I learned during the process is “delayed doesn’t imply denied” — reach out to those facilities and advocate for yourself. It could sound very confident,  but be flexible and have a positive and open mindset to learn.

Thirdly, remember you are all transitioning from a nursing graduate to a licensed RN position, and you will face more challenges, but turn to your left and right . While asking yourself, “What support do I have available?” it could be your preceptor, managers, nursing director, educators, other experienced nurses and even your fellow colleagues in residency. I accepted a job in a Medical-Surgical Intensive care unit (ICU) at one of the best hospitals here in Washington D.C. It felt surreal at the beginning because there was either an excitement component or an increased fear of being a brand new nurse stepping into the ICU (which was described as the “Lion’s den”). OR maybe it could have been the “imposter syndrome”. The Webster dictionary defines it as “persistent doubt concerning one’s abilities or accomplishments accompanied by fear despite evidence of ongoing success”.

Nursing is a very challenging profession but at the same time, a rewarding one. The rigorous and lengthy 12-hour shift providing care for both the patients, their support system, and effectively maintaining active communication with all members involved in the interdisciplinary care for the patient. It is not all about the medication or the education provided to the patient and their families, but it’s beyond the care you provide deep down from your heart. Through active listening, while using either verbal or nonverbal cues to advocate for the patient and put them first always.

I remember my first week off orientation in the ICU and walking into my patient room who was extubated (which means they previously couldn’t breathe on their own and needed ventilator support). Just listening to the joy expressed by the patient who had been intubated twice and their vacation plans after leaving the hospital.  A few minutes later, stepping away to get a warm blanket and returning to see my patient’s appearance which portrayed fear, anxiety, and loss of hope because of their intent to move towards end-of-life care at home. That was one of the scariest moments of my life. The lesson I learned from this scenario is that nursing is very unpredictable and cannot be fully understood, but your patient comes first. You will be faced with moments in which you will engage, advocate, and facilitate difficult conversations such as end-of-life wishes and care but remember you have a duty to make every patient encounter the best memorable experience, even through the little things such as dancing or singing.

Finally, when preparing this speech, I thought a lot about how the message from my speech would be beneficial to the nursing graduating class and support their transition to nursing practice at the bedside. I arrived at a few conclusions: Always put your patients first, either through your care or advocating for them, even if it entails walking up to the attending physician. Secondly, nursing will test your resilience, and take care of yourself, it is ok to step away for a few minutes when feeling overwhelmed. Reflect on the words of wisdom from the Trinity Nursing Professors, “When in doubt, don’t assume but seek out the support around you because nursing is a teamwork.” And remember, you are a Trinity Nursing graduate, strong enough to overcome anything and you are never alone. Congratulations once again to the Trinity Nursing Graduating Class of Fall 2023.