Opinion: 'It began with a gift.' It took a village, but I was going to nursing school.
My 30-year career as a registered nurse had a challenging beginning.
I married at 17, had a baby at 18, and was alone with her when she was 8 weeks old. Living in rural Virginia, I went to my local community college and explained my situation to an adviser: I needed a career that would help me take care of my daughter. The adviser suggested nursing.
I quickly explained why this was a bad plan. I passed out every time I saw a needle or had blood taken. I simply could not see how I could take care of sick people when I could not remain conscious at the same time. With some encouragement from this adviser, the support of close friends and family, and a little bit of gumption, I enrolled in the community college’s nursing program. At that moment, my desperate desire to take care of my infant daughter was bigger than my fear of failure.
With no money, no secure housing, and a car that barely ran, I realized I was going to need help to make it through the program. I relied on my adviser, nursing faculty, and friends and family to help me tackle each hurdle. Between a Pell grant for tuition, welfare, food stamps, and WIC, we had just enough to survive. My mom helped me buy a reliable car. I was given a grant for child care. Family and friends kept a roof over our heads while I attended class.
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I thought I had figured it all out, and then I attended my nursing orientation. During the meeting, the instructor explained that we would need uniforms, a stethoscope, and shoes to attend clinicals. I went back to the adviser, afraid that I would have to drop out of school. She found me a scholarship for $500 that allowed me to purchase exactly what I needed. It took a village, but I was going to nursing school.
Today, a small plaque is mounted on the back of a rocking chair in my office, reminding me daily that for me, “It began with a gift.” A scholarship made a huge difference in my life and helps me to realize that I should work to find ways to reach students in need now.
Being a single mother and a full-time nursing student wasn’t easy. But I was learning that I could do hard things. While I never mastered my fear of needles or blood, I learned to manage it effectively to care for my patients. I fainted in every operating room rotation I was sent to, but I perfected starting IVs, giving injections, and completing wound care. Two and a half years later, I walked across the stage to receive my nursing degree, the first in my family to have that honor. I wept as I heard my family cheering for me. As I stepped off the stage, I saw my carefree toddler spinning in her new dress, oblivious to the stress of the past few years. That day, she was just happy.
In my 30-year career, I have worked as a mental-health, pediatric, community, and even emergency-room nurse. I have been a nurse leader and educator for the most recent part of my career. I have earned three additional nursing degrees — a bachelor's, a master’s, and a doctorate.
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As someone who values meaningful and practical education, I tried to be sure that each career and educational decision I made would grow me in a new way.
Today, I find that I have come full circle. I am the Nursing Department head for Greenville Technical College, and I get a front-row seat as our program changes lives each day. Every time we have a pinning ceremony, I look at the graduates and their families, seeing enormous pride, relief, and joy. These graduates have a professional career that will serve them well because they showed up, did hard things, and had a village to support them. They will provide safe, effective, and compassionate care because they were taught by excellent nursing faculty who modeled those behaviors along their journey.
I fall in love with nursing every day. I see how my profession improves patients’ lives and impacts others. Few careers can offer a place for just about anyone who wants to care for others, enjoy a rewarding career, and make meaningful changes for our community.
National Nurses Month is a perfect time to acknowledge all of the spectacular nurses and nursing students who take care of our loved ones when they need it most. It is also a perfect time to say thank you to the villages that helped us become nurses. We are nurses because you loved us well.
Dr. Tracy Hudgins is a professor and academic department chair of nursing at Greenville Technical College. To learn more about the school’s nursing program, visit https://www.gvltec.edu/academics_learning/health-sciences/nursing/index.html. Admission questions should be addressed to GTCNursing@gvltec.edu. The phone number is (864) 250-8199.
This article originally appeared on Greenville News: Opinion: Why it 'takes a village' to become a nurse
