Tara Goodman, student nurse, is the president of the Oklahoma Nursing Student Association, which is holding its annual convention October 28 in Norman.

story and photo by Bobby Anderson, Staff Writer

The Oklahoma Nursing Student Association will gather Oct. 28 at the Marriott Conference Center and Hotel at the National Center for Employee Development in Norman.
Tara Goodman, ONSA president, says the convention will provide a number of educational, scholarship and career opportunities.
Some 30 vendors including several nursing schools as well as hospitals around the state have signed on to meet with attendees.
“You’re going to have an opportunity sit in on OB nurses, ICU and Peds and ER – there’s a ton of different speakers so you can talk to them and find if you’re pursuing the right profession you’re interested in it or learn about new professions that you haven’t even thought about,” Goodman said.
Students can sign up through the morning of the convention. If your school has 25 students or more then the cost is $65.
ONSA members pay $70 and non-members pay $80 for convention admission.
Goodman has served as vice president and now president of the ONSA, a role she will relinquish at the convention.
In December she’ll no longer be a student either, graduating from the University of Central Oklahoma.
“I have absolutely loved it,” Goodman said of her time at UCO. “It’s such a good school. I love it there.”
While she was a first semester nursing student Goodman took advantage of the UCO chapter of ONSA’s offer to pay for 20 student registrations to the convention.
She jumped at the chance.
“I had only been in nursing school a couple months at this point and I was really overwhelmed when I went there but I met a couple people who would be graduating,” said Goodman, who was encouraged to run for the office of vice president, which plans the entire convention.
During her time in the ONSA Goodman has had the opportunity to go to national conventions in Phoenix, Orlando and Atlanta.
“I’ve networked with student nurses around the country and now I have this really cool group of friends from all over the place,” she said.
When she graduates Goodman will head to Kansas City and work at Children’s Mercy Hospital – a job she credits her role in ONSA as helping to land.
“I really feel like it did,” she said. “There’s a ton of bachelor’s prepared nurses right now and for me to be able to pretty much get to pick my job is a lot of knowing people. I feel like a lot of it was knowing someone. When someone recommends you they trust you more than someone they haven’t heard of at all.”
Hurst and Kaplan reviews will be two of the vendors at this year’s convention which includes out-of-state schools such as Middle Tennessee School of Anesthesia, Vanderbilt University and the University of Colorado School of Nursing.
“We’ve really been working on trying to provide students with the biggest opportunity to reach out to everyone,” Goodman said.
Some of the highlights of this year’s convention include
* Bringing Battlefield Medicine to Our Streets- Bill Justice * Forensics in Nursing- Heather Ketchum * Frisbie Shades of Gray- Stacie Frisbie * Travel Nursing- Laura Speicher * Kaplan’s Mini-NCLEX Review * Low Down on the Lub Dub of Dysrhythmias- Tonya Ballone-Walton * Medical ICU: Where things get INTENSE & Hero’s Journey- April Trenary * Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Clinical Nurse Specialist- Melissa Craft * The PhD in Nursing: It’s About Change- Barbara Holtzclaw * Nurse Entrepreneurs- Carol Robinson
* The Impact Equation: What It Takes to Truly Make a Difference- Kevin Morford * Shock Management: HURST Review’s Step by Step Approach to NCLEX Success * Neurotrauma Critical Care: Time is Brain- Crystal Yancy * Dancing With the Stars: Starting Your Professional Life Off on the Right Foot- Dean Prentice * Flight Nursing: Patient Care at 1,000 Feet- Adrian Theerham * Signs and Symptoms of Good (and bad) Communication- Kevin Morford * SCORE! From the Resume to Interview: Strategies to Help You Win- Brenda Nance
To become a member of ONSA, you must first join the National Student Nurses Association (NSNA). NSNA is the national pre-professional organization for nursing students. NSNA defines its membership as nursing students in Associate Degree, Diploma, Baccalaureate, generic Masters and generic Doctoral programs preparing students for Registered Nurse licensure, as well as RNs in BSN completion programs.
For more information about convention or the ONSA you can go online to www.oknsa.net. Information is also available on the Oklahoma Nursing Student Association Facebook page.

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