Zenaida
Flores
May 2023
Zenaida
Flores
,
Assistant Professor
Sentara College of Health Sciences
Virginia Beach
,
VA
United States

 

 

 

She starts off each day of clinical with a smile and showers us all with positive affirmations, making sure to influence a good, productive day. I've never had a professor who was so invested in my personal learning journey.
With it being the first semester everything is chaotic. She takes the time to help each person with things that they are struggling with. A lot of people would help as quickly as they can and then move on. She takes the time to sit down and make sure you have it and understand it before moving on. 

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Professor Flores serves as a role model and mentor for professional nursing by not only demonstrating effective communication skills, professional ethics, and exceptional knowledge within the clinical setting but also providing an unmatched teaching style that requires students to use critical thinking to exercise the necessary tools to provide excellent patient care. She starts off each day of clinical with a smile and showers us all with positive affirmations, making sure to influence a good, productive day. I've never had a professor who was so invested in my personal learning journey. Professor Flores never fails to guide her students in a direction where we truly could believe we would be successful future nurses. When questions would arise, instead of simply answering the question asked, Professor Flores would guide our thought process into being able to solve the question on our own. This not only gave us a sense of independence, and pride but also put our clinical thinking skills to the test, which is such an important aspect of good nursing care. She would intentionally seek patients to pair each of us with to ensure we were each able to experience such a wide array of patients and practice bedside skills as much as possible. 

I recall being told by Professor Flores, that each patient should be treated as if they were your mother, father, brother, or any other member of your family. That is a statement that has stuck with me throughout my nursing journey so far, and I'm sure will continue to for the rest of it. The passion this professor has for her career radiates, and in combination with her extraordinary teaching skills, I believe she makes for the perfect candidate for the DAISY Award. 

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Professor Flores is an incredible role model & professional nurse. Her love of nursing trickles down to everyone she teaches. She is not only skilled in her own nursing practice but she is also skilled at sharing it with her students. She makes learning fun for her students and wants her students to succeed. She acts as though every patient in the clinical setting is her very own patient. She treats them all with so much compassion & love just as she does her students. She motivates her students by giving them so much support & so much encouragement. She offers her time and attention to any student that needs it. She respects us as professional nurses & encourages us to think that way. You can tell that she desires to build all of her students up with confidence and support as we go out & discover ourselves as new nurses. She has a high professional standard & holds us to that in the clinical setting. She loves all of her students so much & is so compassionate to each of us. She is so respectful to all staff & patients while on the until. Professor Flores is a ray of sunshine in this profession. I know she will always be there to encourage & support me along this journey. I am so grateful for the opportunity to meet her & learn from her here at Sentara. She exemplifies everything that a nurse, teacher, & friend should be! 

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She’s amazing!