Peggie Reinhardt
Whenever I think back all I can ever remember wanting to be is a nurse, the pictures of nurses in my early years was one of a woman in a white hat carrying a tray into a patient's room. Stories of Florence Nightingale brought wonder to my mind and determination that I too was going to be one to make a difference in the medical field.
The challenge came when I was twelve, and my brother had an accident and got a pocketknife stuck in his arm from carelessness, this had me second-guessing my decision. I panicked. My mother stayed calm, pulled the knife out and cleaned the wound; never once did she loose her cool and methodically did the first aid that was needed. I was impressed and promised that I too would be just like my mother and handle the situations that arise with calm and gentle hands.
Thus my career started at sixteen; I became a candy striper in a local nursing home and fell in love with the residents, often spending entire weekends helping them, feeding them, and talking with them. This love of helping people continued to bloom after high school and when I attended school to become a Licensed Practical Nurse. The hardest day through that year of training was to sit with a dying patient in the hospital and hold their hand, often I cried with the family; but the elderly woman thought I was her daughter that had died years ago and the family understood so I stayed long after my training shift until the patient passed away. While this was very exhausting both mentally and physically I walked away feeling as if I had helped that family in a way no one else could. This experience influenced the direction of my education. I was determined to go further and get my RN degree, but my career would be put on hold for several years due to raising a family.
After graduation as an LPN, I became a nurse in a retirement home, became too attached to my patients raising doubts that maybe nursing wasn't meant for me, for no matter what I did eventually my favorite patients died. Looking around my area I was hired at a local hospital and began the exciting job of working in the emergency room. Most days it is not like the television series, but at times the adrenaline kicks in during a true emergency and it is better than TV. This was my niche, I loved everything about the ER; the slow times to catch your breath to the wild times when you hold your breath, working as hard and as fast as you can to save lives. And those small thank you that you get from the family make all the difference in the world. This is why I became a nurse, to help, to listen, to teach, to just be there; this was what that picture of a nurse represented and became to me.
One of the most important experiences I had was while on shift one night when a small child of four came into the ER with multiple lacerations from an attack by a pit bull. At that point I was calm, collected and very supportive of the patient and family. Through my staying calm and comforting the child we were able to get him transferred quickly to surgery. The nurse practitioner, who was the primary care person, quickly stitched the small lacerations and talked with the family and child in a professional and personable way that impressed me most of all. This episode helped me to make the decision to go back to school.
I planned to get my nurse practitioner degree and began the long road of first getting my RN degree, then my Bachelors of Science in Nursing, and now to finish my life-long goal of Masters of Science in Nursing with a Family Nurse Practitioner degree. It has not been easy and has spanned many years, and I feel has influenced both my children to go into the medical field; with my youngest child now in Pre-med at Shawnee State University. I feel this determination to learn and to help others was passed to them, just as my mother passed this to me.