The Yale School of Nursing (YSN) Class of 2024 holds the distinction of earning diplomas during the school’s centennial year. As graduating students prepare for the conferral of degrees on May 20, YSN is checking in with just a few of the extraordinary students adding hoods to their regalia this year.
Bar Hass ’24 MSN
Hometowns: College Station, Texas and Beit Hanan, Israel
Specialty: Family Nurse Practitioner
You worked in education, at the front of the classroom, before arriving at YSN. How did that knowledge add greater texture to your YSN experience?
My experiences with my students and their families—in the Pine Ridge Reservation, South Dakota, and East Bank, West Virginia—are what motivated me to switch careers and stay motivated.
Much of our work, as nurses and nurse practitioners, involves educating our patients so they can make decisions regarding their health. My work teaching elementary and middle school students taught me how to present information in a manner my audience will be able to understand. Additionally, my teaching experience taught me how to navigate through difficult conversations and situations (academic and social) by using the resources available to me.
What advice to you have for differently-abled students who are considering a nursing career?
I have accepted that my deafness will always pose some difficulties in working with patients. I realize there are words I’m unable to initially catch and volumes I’m unable to recognize at first. Equally so, my deafness is a tool that helps me connect with my patients and enhance the primary care visit. I explain to my patients in our first visit that I may ask them to slow down, repeat details, and excuse me when I use my stethoscope and take my hearing aids out.
I believe this helps me to take a more accurate health history and conduct a more thorough physical exam, as it forces me to really pay attention to details. This also humanizing me to the patient, as I’m also just someone who is trying to make it through the day and help them the best I can. I encourage all differently-abled folks to push against the boundaries of what they think they are capable of and to connect with their patients.
During your years at YSN, is there a course that especially resonated with you?
Bar Hass (back row, second from left) at a Student Government Organization event at Gryphon’s Pub.
I look back fondly on my cohort’s time with Dr. McKay’s biomed class. As someone who had minimal medical experience prior to this program, it’s where I learned the foundations of how our body functions. It’s where I connected with classmates who became my study partners, friends, and now co-residents at Community Health Center (CHC).
The collaboration my classmates and I had in creating study guides and learning the content together serves as the benchmark for all my future team-based projects. Learning from and with others during the year-long class is a core memory of mine from the program. I am grateful and honored to have learned with Dr. McKay and everyone in my cohort.
What are your post-commencement plans?
I will be completing a nurse practitioner residency program with CHC, here in Connecticut.
Tell us about the team who helped you make it to the commencement finish line.
I could not have made it through this program without my friends here, the faculty, and my family. And Sophie, my first pup who passed away from cancer during my MSN year 1. She wasn’t a certified support animal, but she was every bit of a support animal for me. You can catch me any time walking my pup Maizy around New Haven.
More Commencement Coverage
To read more student profiles and advice from six decades of YSN alumni to the Class of 2024, please visit the Commencement 2024 sidebar on the left (mobile devices, scroll down).
For more information on Yale’s commencement festivities, please visit commencement.yale.edu.