Terry Satchell
Why Getting an Advanced Degree Is Important to Me
I was raised the youngest of five children by a single mom, as my father died when I was four years old. From a very early age, I remember my family working to help others. Either by being members of local volunteer fire departments or having jobs that required being available twenty-four hours a day. If someone needed assistance, all they had to do was ask. That was instilled in all of us from the very beginning.
When I turned eighteen in 1981, I joined the local volunteer fire department. Within a very short time, I began riding the ambulance and enjoyed it. I became an emergency medical technician, EMT, and gave many hours to my community. In 1985, when it was time for our organization to advance to the next level of emergency medical service, EMS, I entered the program to become an EMT-paramedic. Going to school nights and all day on weekends to complete our classes to become certified. Our instructors were the doctors and nurses within the hospital. Our small group of seven paramedics, once certified, was the first in a seven county area on the Eastern Shore of Maryland.
I have worked several full time jobs as a paramedic working for a small town, mid-size town and a hospital. I worked from staff positions to management positions all the time knowing that if I wanted to advance in my career I needed an education. I completed my Associate Degree in Allied Health in 1998, seventeen years after graduating from high school. Going to college nights and weekends, taking one course at a time, toward my degree. But still, I was not satisfied I wanted more.
In 1998, after talking to my wife, who is a nurse, and my college advisor, I entered the nursing program, one of only five males in a class of forty females. I continued to work full time and go to class at the same time for the next two years. In 2000, I graduated with my Associate's degree in Nursing Science and passed the exam to become a registered nurse. Graduating, only two of the original men in the class.
As a nurse, I began working in the intensive care unit of the local hospital. I wanted to work in the ICU because I liked working with the challenging patients. I enjoyed the technology of working with truly sick patients and working with a great group of nurses and doctors. Every day there was a new challenge.
I also have worked with a team to develop a new computer documentation system for the hospitals. The team worked in phases to develop an electronic medical record for reviewing of data that had been collected on patients, such as lab values, diagnostic reports, pervious hospital admission reports and other valuable data. The second phase was the paperless documentation of care by all staff and physicians. I worked with the team to develop the screens that the staff members would see on the computer. Then the team would have to educate and support the staff about the computer system and be available to assist and answer questions.
I currently am working as an educator. I coordinate all of the American Heart Association programs for both of my hospitals and the local EMS community. I am responsible for 150 instructors for programs such as basic life support, advanced cardiac life support and pediatric advanced life support.
As a male in nursing, I represent only 5 percent of the total number of nurses. Males make up only 5 percent of the nursing population in the United States. In Maryland, males make up a total of 10 percent of the nursing population.
Nevertheless, to advance as a nurse you need an education. Not just a Bachelor's degree but a Master's degree. I received my Bachelor's degree, BSN, in 2005. While working towards my BSN, I achieved a grade point average of 3.75 and graduated Magna *** Laude. I was inducted into the Sigma Theta Tau Honor Society for Nursing.
Now I am setting my sights on a Master's degree in nursing education or health system management. Striving towards a position in nursing administration, trying to make a difference as a nursing leader that has worked from the most basic level up to the top. Coming from the eighteen-year-old advanced first aid kid in the ambulance all the way up to hospital administrator. Having a very different prospective than most administrators. As a forty-five year old father of two young boys, I am working to instill the same qualities in them. They both play baseball. My wife and I are both volunteering on the Board of Directors. She has been the president for the past three years and the secretary this year. I am the Safety Officer for the Board as well as a coach and umpire. Therefore, they are seeing us being active in the community as volunteers and working with kids of all ages.
I am also involved with an organization known as Talbot Partnership. They are involved with drug and alcohol awareness for kids in the community. I am a member of the Board of Directors. We are trying to educate the community on the dangers of drug and alcohol abuse. Trying to change the "norm" of teenagers to drink alcohol, smoke cigarettes and experiment with drugs.
I am interested in an online program because of having a very busy lifestyle. My family is very important to me and there is no Masters degree programs offered near where we live. So to do a program that requires going to class on a weekly basis would mean driving a great distance to Baltimore, Washington, DC, or Wilmington, DE. To drive to those places would mean at least one and a half hours each direction; attend class and then one and a half hours home. With an online program, I could complete work evenings after the boys are in bed and weekends. I could continue to work full-time and provide the income that our family requires.
My fire departments motto is "Service for Others." I believe that I live that motto everyday. I am interested in financial support that will allow me to obtain my Masters degree. I would like to further my education and to continue to give back to my community and my profession. I want to raise two young men that will not take twenty years to get their degrees and will give to their communities as much as my wife and I do.