Dr. Charlene Aaron following successful road in nursing career
In 1970, the single “The Long and Winding Road” was released. If anything, Dr. Charlene Aaron can relate to the title of the last No. 1 hit by the Beatles. She has traveled such a path to her current position and the new job she will be starting in July.
Dr. Aaron is in her seventh year at St. John's College of Nursing where she has served as chancellor and professor. On July 5, she will begin her new job as president for Saint Francis Medical Center College of Nursing and Saint Anthony College of Nursing.
The journey into nursing for Aaron began while a student at Fairbury-Cropsey High School. She graduated in 1976 but she took a break from her education. Her first goal was to become a licensed practical nurse (LPN). She got married to Doug Aaron and they have two children — Matt and Whitney. She began her career at Saint James Hospital in Pontiac.
“After my daughter was born, I started my journey back to school to become a registered nurse,” Dr. Aaron said. “That took what seemed a long time because I had to go part time.” She was raising her two children at same time.
In 1994, Aaron received her Bachelor of Science in nursing from Illinois Wesleyan. This helped her as she did hospital work and started working long-term care.
“I was interested in leading teams in nursing so I could organize how the care was provided,” Aaron said. “I thought I would like to be a leader in long-term care.”
Before completing her bachelor's degree, Aaron said she was offered the director of nursing position at Good Samaritan Home in Flanagan.
“I was the first one in my class to get a job,” she said, noting that it came three months before graduation. Aaron was at Good Sam for a mere six months before she had to step into the administrator's role for about year.
She liked that position but left to take the director of nursing position at Fairview Haven in Fairbury. She then moved on to the same position at Evenglow Lodge in Pontiac.
It was at Evenglow when Aaron decided to get her master's, which she got from Mennonite School of Nursing at Illinois State University. She decided that it might be time for a different kind of job while working on master's.
“I had a conversation with the dean, she offered me a job at Mennonite College of Nursing,” Aaron related. “It happened to be a grant from the program that was all about getting student nurses to go into nursing homes to take care of the residents and learn about nursing and nursing homes.”
Aaron noted that at the time, she had become a student as well as a colleague of the staff at the school. Part of her responsibilities was to take students to nursing homes for clinical experience besides in hospitals.
“This went on for five years and was a great program,” Aaron said. “It was called the 'Nursing Home Project.' It was like a pilot, or a reboot, from a program of the same at New York University. We just replicated it through this grant.”
It was this program that helped Aaron get her PhD. She said she was able to travel to NYU and made connections while there. She wrote a grant that paid for her doctorate work at the University of Iowa.
“I got into a program that's all about the care of older adults,” Aaron said. “That's my favorite population of patients to take care of.”
When grant ended, she was offered position at Mennonite as a professor. This helped her take the next step in her career. She was making a presentation at a conference about minority nurses and leadership opportunities at colleges of nursing and where strides need to be made for persons of color.
“Part of my dissertation work was on leadership and so I went to this conference and presented on that,” Aaron said. “At the end the day, someone in the audience commented on my presentation and let me know that there was going to be a leadership opportunity open in Springfield at St. John's College of Nursing for the chancellor position.”
She said she was encouraged to apply, which she did and she got the job.
While at St. John's, Aaron said she has been able to develop a lot of programs. Among those is the Nursing Pipeline program, which is a high school after-school program. It allows high schoolers to come to St. John's College after school and interact with faculty and learn various aspects of nursing.
Aaron said she started in a vocation program while at Fairbury-Cropsey. She would go to school part of the day and then work at Fairbury Hospital.
At St. John's, Aaron has been promoting work that LPNs can do in hospitals but are sometimes not allowed. She said they are not allowed to work at the full potential of their license but instead are often treated as certified nursing assistants (CNA). They are not allowed to work at the top of their license, such as passing out medicine or be in charge of a wing or ward or even call a doctor, Aaron said.
Aaron said that she went to congratulate those in the LPN program at St. John's for the first time and offered words of encouragement to keep moving forward by telling them her story.
“I told them it doesn't have to be a straight line,” Aaron said. “I told them there were times when it was really hard. I was needed at home more so I had to take a break and go part time. When I shared these stories with them, I could see I was getting their attention.”
She added that there are a lot of different ways to become a registered nurse; one doesn't have to take it the hard way like she did.
“Just think about how much better you will be and be better able to provide for your family if you put in the work and get your RN degree,” Aaron added. “Don't just satisfy yourself with becoming an LPN. It's a great accomplishment but don't stop there.
“When I said that, I really had their attention. We have some of those students in our program right now.”
Diversity is a key component to Aaron's method. She said that 60 percent of the students in her program are people of color. She wants to students to understand that they can go farther.
“We're in a good place where a lot of companies are trying to have a more diverse approach in working with people, hiring people of color and different cultures and so forth,” Aaron said. “I feel good about accomplishing this in my time at St. John's College.”
He deeply religion person, Aaron knows God is working through her and that His plans for her have created an opportunity to move from Springfield to Peoria.
Aaron said she learned of the need for a president for the college of nursing at Saint Francis in Peoria and at Saint Anthony in Rockford. Having three sisters in Peoria helped make the decision to apply an easy one.
She will start her new job on July 5.
“I'm really glad they saw the potential in me, they respect my experience and see the value of what I've done over my career,” Aaron said.
“My main goal is growing more nurses,” she added. “We have to find out how we encourage more people in the community (to get into nursing). We need to let them know it's a career that's quite satisfying. It's really an exciting time to be a nurse, to be a nurse educator and be able to influence the care of the communities.”
Aaron will be responsible in Peoria and Rockford through OSF.
“I'm very grateful that I am going to have this opportunity to continue to lead and grow more nurses throughout central and northern Illinois,” she said.
She will mainly be in Peoria but will be on contact with Saint Anthony's daily through the internet. She will make trips to Rockford.
The program she is in charge of — LPN to BSN program — is the first in Illinois.
Nursing Pipeline Preparatory Program (NP3) program is an afterschool program is that students have to apply. At least one third of the students have to come from poorer families, people of color, she said.
“We make sure that we are aware that we get those kids.”
Her biggest support in her 45-year nursing career has come from family, primarily her husband Doug. The two have created a scholarship program at Mennonite College of Nursing for nursing students interested in caring for older adults. And, they created a scholarship at St. John's College for Faculty Development.
“There's no way I could do all this without the support of my husband,” Aaron said. “I've been in school most of my adult life. He's always supported me through all these goals I've had and been able to achieve. I couldn't have done this without his support.”
This article originally appeared on Pontiac Daily Leader: Dr. Charlene Aaron following successful road in nursing career
