Hello world!

Greetings! Welcome to my portfolio, I am happy to be sharing with you. A little background on me; I live in Grove City Ohio with my husband and two sons, Wesley and William, I have two step-daughters as well, Jaden lives on her own and Zara graduates high school this year! I became a nurse in 2007 with a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Mount Carmel College of Nursing. I began my nursing career on a busy med-surg unit and after several years I moved into women’s health, working in labor and delivery. From there, I found that I loved the babies greatly and found a job in the NBICU at Mount Carmel West. This was my original “Mount Carmel home”, as I had worked as a secretary in the NBICU during nursing school. I loved my work family in the NBICU, and in the spring of 2019, I had the privilege of assisting my management staff in setting up our new unit at our brand new hospital that opened in April of 2019. During this time, I was also nominated for and received the Excellence in Nursing award for my unit, this was a true honor to me coming from such an amazing group of nurses. Although I loved my days in the hospital, something was calling to me from the school world. I found myself substitute teaching at my boys school on my days off and filling my days with volunteering at their school to be apart of the educational day. 

I have always had an interest in school nursing. My kids like to joke that I am perfectly cut out to be a school nurse, as I do not let much slide past me; they know they cannot fake illness to miss school. My daughters used to say that they had friends that would miss school, and they would tell them they clearly did not have a nurse for a mom! My time spent as a mom and in the schools helped me to realize that I have a love for working with children and that I would be very happy in a position where I could make a difference in children’s lives.  I didn’t make the time to go get my school nurse certification until 2018, after I had interviewed for a school nurse position and did not get the job. I was told that I could be better suited if I worked on my certification before working as a school nurse. I thought about it a lot and decided this is a career that I have always wanted to pursue, so I took the initiative and got accepted to OSU for the certification program. The first semester taught me things about school nursing that I never dreamed existed, after all, school nurses just pass out band-aids and ice packs, right? The job is complex with many working parts. I am excited to complete my final semester at OSU this spring, and learn so much more about the world of school nursing.  In May of 2019 I found that Columbus City Schools was hiring school nurses, and I decided to jump out and apply for one. To my surprise, I got an interview and got hired for the job the next day! It seemed like a good time to transition to a new position after the hospital move, so I accepted the job with extreme excitement! I was worried at first, Mount Carmel had been my work home since I graduated high school. It is where I met my husband, birthed my babies, laughed, cried, learned and grew up.  The chapter had closed though, and I anxiously awaited my new job to start in August. 

August came soon enough, and I found myself tossed into a world with new abbreviations and lingo that I was unfamiliar with. I found a new use for my organization skills and went to work organizing my new spaces. I was placed in two schools, one elementary and one high school. Oh the difference between the kids, but also a shocking amount of similarities! Teens have similar complaints to younger children, they just express them differently. Often, being the only health professional in a building, I am asked a variety of questions through my day. I find the need to rely on information that I learned back in nursing school frequently, things that have been tucked away within the banks of my mind that I thought I would not ever use again. I never know what is going to walk through my office doors; fever, rash, abdominal pain, suspected strep throat, suspected ear infections, etc. I learn something new every day and add it to my growing knowledge of nursing.