Let's face it, nursing is hard. We give a lot of ourselves for our patients and it often can feel thankless, exhausting, frustrating. . . just plain hard. But, as our guest today explains, that's okay. Remember your teacher asking you to write down your dream job for when you grew up? If we all made those childhood visions come true, there'd be a lot more pro athletes and princesses in the world. Janie is one of the rare few who stuck with her plan. She knew she wanted to be a nurse since the second grade (around age 7) and has made that happen, discovering in the process a passion for helping the elderly.

Show Notes:

• Janie earned a BS degree in Biology and worked as an EMT before earning her RN
• Working in the float pool is not for every nurse, but it does give a breadth of experience and skills that specializing does not.
• Ever heard of Nurse Care Management before? Janie shares with us her experience working in this role in a internal medicine setting and the impact she was able to have in her patient's care.
• Working your way through your education can be a long process. Janie shares how and why she earned a BS in biology, then went on to earn her associate degree in Nursing and worked for a while before going back to earn her BSN. Finally culminating in earning her DNP in geriatric care. 
• There are many online or hybrid options out there for graduate programs in nursing. Janie walks us through how she chose her program and her school.
• Janie is passionate about caring for the geriatric community where she lives. Listen in to discover how she is planning to use her knowledge and skills to help this patient demographic. 
• Near the end of our chat Janie shared a few nursing stories and experiences to remind us nurses that the basic cares for our patients are our concern too. If your patient has a need, take care of it! Don't leave it for the CNA's to do later.

Show Links: 

1. https://www.weber.edu/majors/nursing.html The Nursing program where Janie earned her ASN.
2. https://www.wgu.edu/online-nursing-health-degrees/rn-to-bsn-nursing-bachelors-program/ranking.html#close  More on the Western Governors University RN-BSN program
3. https://online.maryville.edu/nursing-degrees/np/adult-gerontology-primary-care-nurse-practitioner/ The online DNP program Janie completed.