Professional Beginnings I would like to invite my readers to join me take a short trip and trace the beginnings of my nursing career. I have been a nurse for more than 20 years, with nursing as my third profession. I was a schoolteacher and a consultant in training and development in my past life. As can be seen, my passion for teaching and education had been rooted in me long before becoming a nurse. When I got my diploma in nursing from Holy Name Hospital School of Nursing in Teaneck, New Jersey, I gave myself five years to link the three “me’s” into one “me”. In my fourth year of working as a staff nurse, I was offered a nurse educator position in the Education and Practice department in the Medical Center where I worked. It was an opportune time that early in my nursing career, I was given the chance to combine all the three professions into the role of a nurse educator.
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Throughout the time that I sought for a nurse educator job, I had a rude awakening that my experience and the two national certifications I had, were not enough for me to get hired as a nurse educator. My bachelor degree in a non-nursing field did not help either. There was always one requirement that I did not meet: a Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) degree!
Feelings About the Change
After five job interviews, I became fully aware that most hospitals have begun to heed the Institute of Medicine’s (IOM) recommendation to raise the bar for the nursing profession, e.g., to increase the number of registered nurses with Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree from 40% to 80% by the year 2020. Thus, the hospitals’ preference for BSN-prepared nurses, initially threw my world into a tailspin. I was unprepared for the change that I felt was forced upon me (NDC, 2007). Thereupon, the impact of the change dawned on me in stages, as illustrated by Whitney
Throughout the time that I sought for a nurse educator job, I had a rude awakening that my experience and the two national certifications I had, were not enough for me to get hired as a nurse educator. My bachelor degree in a non-nursing field did not help either. There was always one requirement that I did not meet: a Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) degree!
Feelings About the Change
After five job interviews, I became fully aware that most hospitals have begun to heed the Institute of Medicine’s (IOM) recommendation to raise the bar for the nursing profession, e.g., to increase the number of registered nurses with Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree from 40% to 80% by the year 2020. Thus, the hospitals’ preference for BSN-prepared nurses, initially threw my world into a tailspin. I was unprepared for the change that I felt was forced upon me (NDC, 2007). Thereupon, the impact of the change dawned on me in stages, as illustrated by Whitney