Keuka College sophomore Skyler Bishuk helped resuscitate a patient during her first hospital internship this past summer, according to the college.
Bishuk was on the intensive care unit floor at Auburn Community Hospital during orientation when a patient flatlined, she recalled in a Keuka College account. She was accompanying a patient care assistant and helped perform chest compressions.
“We got him back – it was a great experience,” Bishuk said. “And then after, the physician assistant and the respiratory therapist came up to me and said, ‘Your compressions were amazing. You really got that guy back.’”
The emergency gave her a different role from her time in the hospital’s operating room and emergency departments, where she had mostly observed. In the ICU, she participated directly in efforts to revive the patient.
Internship leads to hospital job
Bishuk explored several departments during her Field Period internship this past summer at the hospital, which Keuka described as Cayuga County’s sole acute and general care hospital. The hospital hired her part time after she completed her required internship hours.
The experience also helped clarify her career plans. Bishuk wants to become a family nurse practitioner and then, she hopes, a surgical first assistant who can assist the lead surgeon in the operating room. She is already planning the postgraduate studies needed for those credentials.
“This Field Period really helped me find where I see myself fitting in the most,” she said. “I ended up liking everything about the profession.”
Beyond clinical work, Bishuk said she learned how to present herself professionally when working with patients and their families. She described that as her main takeaway from the internship.
Her interest in nursing grew from a desire to help people in crisis and guide them through difficult situations, she said. Keuka’s nursing program was one reason she chose the college.
Bishuk had visited Keuka frequently while an older brother attended in the early 2020s. The lakeside campus and the opportunity to play lacrosse and field hockey also influenced her decision.
She is now thinking about her junior-year Field Period while balancing athletics and her studies. By then, she expects to be a nurse extern and anticipates an internship with still more hands-on work.
FingerLakes1.com is the region’s leading all-digital news publication. The company was founded in 1998 and has been keeping residents informed for more than two decades. Have a lead? Send it to news@fingerlakes1.com.
