Inpatient Diabetes Nurse Clinician at Deaconess Gateway
USI Degrees: Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) in 2017, with a minor in Spanish
From: Evansville Indiana - Central High School
Any recent awards or recognition?
I am the 2022 recipient of Nurse of the Year for Community Service award at Deaconess.
What brought you to USI?
Initially when applying for colleges, I was interested in pre-medicine. I loved the healthcare programs that USI had to offer as well as the size/class sizes. Being from Evansville, I also liked that USI was close to home, but yet felt like I was going somewhere new/away from home as well. The campus is beautiful.
After my first year of pre-med I decided I wanted a career path that was going to allow be to pursue a career in healthcare, but also be more flexible and family oriented so I switched to nursing. USI has one of the best nursing programs, so I was very excited about the education and experience I would receive staying at USI.
Please tell us how the College of Nursing and Health Professions prepared you for your career.
USI's College of Nursing and Health Professions did an amazing job of helping prepare me for my career. As a new nurse, I don't know that anyone feels like they they know it all and are completely ready to fly solo, but looking back, I know that I was very well prepared. The nursing professors were amazing to work with. You could tell they had your best interests in mind and wanted you to succeed. They made things challenging for us so that we would learn, but they were always near to assist us along the way.
The content of our courses was in depth, detailed and presented in a way that made me excited to learn. I loved all of the hands-on experiences of clinicals and projects that helped us put our classroom knowledge into real life practice. I felt as confident as I think I could have been when taking my NCLEX and starting the first nursing job of my career, knowing that I had the knowledge and the critical skills to figure out the rest. Part of being a nurse is being a lifelong learner, and I'm thankful I got to start that learning at USI.
Were you in any clubs, organizations, athletics?
I was a member of the Student Nurse Association while at USI.
What has been your favorite memory of your time at USI?
One of my favorite memories from my time at USI is from our class lunch senior year before graduation. Our graduating class met in Carter Hall for lunch and got to hear from our professors and each other about our time together. We watched a slide show of memories from our four years together and got to hear about where everyone was headed to next in their nursing career after graduation. You become really close to your professors and classmates who have become friends spending so much time together for four years, so this was a really sweet memory for me.
What would you tell someone who is thinking of coming to USI?
I would definitely encourage someone thinking about coming to USI to pursue this further. USI has so much to offer and I am so thankful I chose to spend my college years at USI