Mom Trades Science Degrees for Nursing Career
By the time her kids have all gone off to kindergarten, Olivia Dawkins plans to be finished with nursing school and working a flexible schedule around the needs of her family.
“I know I won’t have to worry about finding a job when I graduate,” says the 32-year-old mother of two toddlers, who expects her third child this spring. “There’s a big demand for nurses, and it’s only getting more and more intense. Nursing is a portable profession. It’s something I can do anywhere.”
Although Dawkins already has a bachelor’s degree in biochemistry and molecular biology and a master’s degree in biotechnology, she believes her earning potential is greater as a nurse. She also hopes that the nursing profession will give her more opportunities to make connections with others.
“I worked in an academic lab for five years before I met my husband, Richard, and we started our family,” she says. “After our second son was born, I began thinking about going back to work. I had already decided I didn’t want to be in a lab the rest of my life.”
Dawkins had always dreamed of going to medical school, but the realities of family life made her rethink that option. “It would take me ten years to become a doctor,” she says, “and that kind of life isn’t compatible with the way I wanted to raise my children.”
Even so, she continued to feel a strong pull toward the medical profession.
“When I was growing up,” she recalls, “I watched my mother go back to school to become a nurse midwife. It was a good decision for her, and seemed like a good decision for me, too.”
Even though she’s in her 30s, Dawkins has no concerns about returning to school later in life. She is currently taking prerequisite courses at Contra Costa College and plans to start nursing school in 2006, when her third child is a year old. Her ultimate goal is to continue her nursing education, earn a master’s or doctorate degree in nursing, and follow up her clinical career with a teaching position.
“I think I will make a good nurse,” says Dawkins. “I want to help people, to make a connection with them, to be a part of their lives. I want to be an advocate for people who aren’t feeling well. I’m a good listener, and I know what it’s like to not feel well.”
(Posted October 1, 2004)