Janice Sykes
I am applying for the RN to BSN online scholarship. I would like to give you a little background and tell you why this is so important to me.
At the age of nineteen young years I got married. I didn't have to but just wanted marriage and children more than anything else. I had graduated from high school at seventeen and gone to college for just one semester. I then began a job working as a pharmacy technician at the local pharmacy. It didn't surprise me that I enjoyed this job because in addition to having children, I had also always wanted to be a nurse. After a year, I became pregnant and stayed home to care for my daughter and eventually two daughters. I did this for eighteen years. Everyone knows that as a mother you are also a part-time nurse.
My next step in the medical field was to get hired at a local family physicians office as his receptionist, progressing to insurance billing and doing some work as a medical assistant. I was trained to do phlebotomy, allergy injections, and some health histories. This was enough, combined with the fact that my daughters were both in college, to entice me to sign up for the nursing program at the local community college. I was 42-years-old.
After graduating, with honors, and passing my state boards, I began work at a residential home for abused and neglected children. I am very interested in psychiatric nursing and this seemed like a wonderful start to my nursing career. I also love working with children so this was a perfect fit. When the nurse manager mentioned to one of the psychiatrists that she had hired a nurse fresh out of college he expressed concern. She noted, She's a Mom. She later told me he just nodded and said, Oh, that's good. He no longer had concerns.
After a few years and change in management, I found myself doing less and less nursing. I moved on to home health. Having been out of clinical nursing for a few years, I wasn't completely comfortable with some of the more technical aspects of nursing, particularly IVs, trachs, etc. However, being very compassionate and with maturity and good people skills, I was offered the opportunity to be a care manager at the home health agency. This agency dealt strictly with neurotrauma. While there I became certified as a brain injury specialist. I learned a great deal. I was hired as temporary when someone had quit but was asked to continue as permanent because of the good rapport I had with the patients and their families. I also worked very well with the team of specialist involved with neurotrauma patients. I had requested part-time and when the position became full time after two years, I chose to move on.
I ended up working for one of the major hospitals in the area; all in management type positions, ranging from health educator in the worksite wellness program, to case manager in the wound care center. After seven years of nursing, I realized that I had never worked much as a nurse but more as a nurse manager. I believe I received these positions due to my maturity and general knowledge of medicine. I also believe I subconsciously sought them out. I knew I never had any strong desire to work on a hospital floor. I am more of what I refer to as a paper nurse.
I continue to work as an independent contractor for a neurotrauma patient with diabetes in a home health setting. I handle all her medical management and act as her patient advocate. I have reached the point where I need to expand my nursing career. I recently became certified as an insulin pump trainer after working with my home health patient as she began the use of a pump. However, there aren't many opportunities to use this skill.
As my patient is becoming more independent, I am finding myself looking for expanded positions and finding that isn't possible without a bachelors degree. I have been out of nursing school for too long to be considered a new nurse and yet I haven't kept up my clinical skills due to the nature of the positions I have held.
I feel that I have an important role in nursing. I have the compassion, the medical knowledge-always seeking to learn more, and the ambition to take my nursing to new heights.
This scholarship is very important to me because without it there is no way I can achieve my dream of working in the capacity of nursing I would like. I am very interested in working in research or teaching. I will need a bachelors degree to fulfill the role of nursing I am most deeply interested in. I wish to take my nursing skills to depths that I am not as able to obtain in a hospital or office setting.
Please consider me for this scholarship. I am now 53-years-old and have committed to everything I've done. I have remained married to the same person since I was nineteen, I devoted my young years to my children, and then to my grandchildren. Now the grandchildren are starting school, my daughters are busy mothers and also pursuing their other dreams.
I am in the next phase of my life. As a working mother, grandmother, and wife, I feel I fit the criteria of this scholarship even though my children aren't living at home at the present time. I baby sit for my four, soon to be five grandchildren, and am juggling family with work as much as any young mother at home. I will also be having the new baby to assist with care for very soon. I feel that at 53-years-old, this is my last chance to achieve this goal I have set for myself. If I don't get this opportunity, I might never get the chance.
Thank you so much for considering me for this scholarship. With the commitment I have to my home health patient and to my family, online RN to BSN would be the best, if not the only way, to get this degree. Having my bachelors degree in nursing would mean so much to me.
Sincerely,
Janice Sykes, RN