Oram Outside

Deciding on a career path is a difficult task for anyone to do; especially 16 to 18-year-olds that are trying to focus on high school while trying to plan out their future. As with many people, I struggled with the decision of what career path I wanted to take.

As a child, I wanted to be a bird breeder. Breeding, raising, and selling exotic birds was what I wanted to spend my life doing. (This stemmed from an odd obsession with avian species but that’s for a separate blog post). As I grew older the idea of going into the medical field entered my thought process. I recall in grade school when we had assignments researching careers, I always chose to become an anesthesiologist since they had the highest salary. As high school started, I become friends with the daughter of the local family practice doctor and this is what solidified the medical field for my future.

It wasn’t the salary that was the direct motivator, but rather the things the doctor was able to accomplish and the freedom he had in his life. The family had a cabin in McCall, ID, a boat for skiing, and all the outdoor recreation gear you could imagine. This was very attractive to me from the outside.

This doctor also made it a priority to serve medical missions and provide medical care for underserved populations around the world. The doctor took each of his children on a trip to Peru for a medical mission and I remember thinking “I want to do that”.

With the idea of a medical mission on my mind, I knew my career needed to provide two things: one, knowledge and skills to provide medical care, and two, the financial freedom to be able to donate and go on medical missions. This helped narrow down the decision to medical school or nursing school.

After I graduated high school, I was in limbo. I had aspirations of serving an LDS mission but had to fix some things in my personal life as well as save some money. During this time I got a job with a plumber which I did not enjoy one bit. It was the Fall of 2014 when my sister, an RN living in Pocatello, Idaho, had an emergency delivery of my nephew who was born 10 weeks premature. She convinced me to move in with her family, help take care of my nephew and get my CNA license and work at the skilled nursing facility that she currently worked at. So that is exactly what I did.

It was a difficult few months in Pocatello but I learned a lot. I dealt with seasonal depression especially being away from all my friends that were still in Emmett. I learned that I enjoyed taking care of the elderly population and helping improve their quality of life. This gave me the insight needed to determine that nursing school was the direction I wanted to move in. After about 6 months. I moved back home to Emmett to work towards going on an LDS mission and left in February 2016.

After serving for two years, I returned to Pocatello to start my undergrad at Idaho State University. ISU’s traditional nursing program is set up with 2 years of prerequisites, and then a 2-year nursing program resulting in a Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN).

This is essentially the path that got me into nursing school though nursing school has just been the gateway of my career path. I will post more blog posts regarding my bedside experience and what lead me into nursing education.