Dreams Realized

For those of you who are extremely close to me, you know that nursing school has been a dream of mine for the last five years or so. Every now and then, something happens that makes me want to go just a little bit more. First, I started working in health care back in 2008...and by working I mean slaving away at a desk doing PR for free and loving every second of it because I felt, in some small way, I was helping the patients. I got to share their stories with the world. I got to take their pictures. I got to sit and talk with them, mostly about the topic for the article, but I always found a way to get to know them a little better. I apparently have one of those faces - EVERYONE thinks they have met me or my older sister (I don't have a sister) or that I look exactly like someone. And I also have a tendency to have something in common with almost everyone I meet. Something that comes up in an initial conversation, like a mutual friend or a hometown or a favorite restaurant in Colorado. I know, it's weird. But these things happen to me every single day. I think it made my job as a health care writer easier because patients could relate to me without feeling intimidated.

While still in grad school, I was hired to intern for my third health care organization, this time for a hospice. I was sad before I even started, but I thought it would be good practice for my dream job: doing public relations for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. It's been my dream job since I was in the third grade or so (well the St. Jude part, not the PR part yet). As a Catholic school, we did the St. Jude Math-a-Thon every year. It's like any fundraiser where people sponsor you for participating, except instead of walking or running, you did math problems. I hated math - always have, always will - but I loved doing the Math-a-Thon once I understood how it helped sick kids. We watched films in class explaining the program and featuring different patients. I fell in love with the place before I even really understood cancer and medical research and chemotherapy. As I got older and settled on communications as a major, I found out I could marry my two favorite things. I applied for an internship with St. Jude every semester and even after graduation. I've even applied for a job even though I didn't have the seven years of experience they required. As it turns out, the president of the Junior League in Fort Myers knows several people who work there or sit on the board, and offered to get me an interview. I have since decided that Memphis isn't where I want to be right now (hello, I just moved home to be close to my family and friends again), but I will forever keep her offer in mind.

But anyway, back to hospice. All new employees, regarding of job title or responsibilities, were required to go visit homebound patients with a social worker and then with a nurse so we would understand the mission of the organization. The "ride-along" with the social worker was OK, but watching the nurse interact with not only the dying man (who was a brilliant college professor for 50 years but was about to die from Lou Gehrig's), but also his wife, totally changed my perspective on health care. I don't remember what happened, but I started looking into going to nursing school. Silly me, I assumed I needed a bachelor's. I was less than three months away from getting my master's in PR and told myself to forget it. I couldn't spend another three or four years getting a second bachelor's. How would I support myself? I later learned you only need a two-year associate degree to get your RN, but by that time, I was finally working a real, full-time, benefitted job and pushed my silly dreams to the back of my mind.

But it wouldn't go away. I quit my agency job to get back into health care where I felt less like a corporate schmuck and a more like a contributing member of society. I took every opportunity I could to work with the nurses. I got to know the health system's chief nursing officer/VP of nursing on a first-name basis. When I left, she told me to let her know if I ever needed a recommendation for any job or for nursing school. The nurses who I worked with on the nursing newsletter all encouraged me to apply for school and begged me to keep them up-to-date on my second career plans.

The college I work at isn't a hospital. But they do have one of the best bachelor's in nursing programs in the area. Aaaaand I get free tuition after six months of employment. One of my best friends is a nurse. Every time we talk, I ask her about nursing and she keeps asking when I'm going to apply. I was at a party this weekend, and met three nurses. After a few skinnygirl margaritas, I decided I knew them well enough to tell them about my then-somewhat-secret dreams to go to nursing school and they all told me to go for it. I tell people all the time, "Really think hard before you go into the PR field." It's intense. It's not always rewarding, and it's never fairly compensated. You can never shut your phone off and call it a week. You have to lie, spin, twist, cover up and "no comment" the media...hopefully not too often, but at least once in your career you'll have to do all of those things. Other PR professionals will agree that you have to be cut out for it. Nurses have to be cut out for it, too. But I've never once in my life met a nurse who said, "Don't do it." I don't know if it's me, and they think I'd be good at it and so they encourage me, or if it's just that every nurse loves his or her job.

So, something snapped this week. I'm not "planning on going to nursing school someday" anymore. I'm going to do it. It'll be hard to balance a career, volunteering and taking classes, but I can do it. I've only taken about half of the prerequisites to get into nursing school, so I'll have to start by finishing those up. But it'll put me one step closer. I'll be the oldest person in Anatomy & Physiology I, but it's offered 8:00-9:15 a.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays with lab 3:30-5:20 on Thursdays. That mean's I'll miss 45 minutes of work on Tuesdays and an hour and 45 minutes on Thursdays...since technically my hours are 8:30-4:30 even though I've only left at 4:30 once. I can easily make up those hours by staying late or coming in early. As long as my boss is cool with it, I see no reason not to take advantage of this opportunity to take a class tuition-free. And if she's not, I can look into classes at a community college.

I realize this post makes me sound all, "I'll be a great nurse." No, not at all. I don't even know if I'll become a nurse. All I know is that I HAVE to go to nursing school. I have to take my prereqs, get into a nursing program (RN or BSN), and pass the NCLEX. Then, in 15 years when I'm finally done, I can decide if I've had enough of the PR profession or not.

By the way, Happy Nurses Week to my favorite people! The timing of this post is purely a coincidence...I realized it after writing the entire post while looking for a good picture.