"Second Degree" Program Offers "Second Chance" for Nursing Career
Jodi Bartholomew credits what she calls “a very early midlife crisis” for illuminating a meaningful new career path in nursing.
“When my husband and I moved to Colorado two years ago with the idea of spending the rest of our lives here,” she recalls, “I had to ask myself, ‘am I doing what I want to be doing with the rest of my life?’ I had a great job, a successful career, and a decent income – but I just wasn’t happy. I didn’t feel like I was making a difference.”
In February, Bartholomew, 31, enrolled in the Accelerated Nursing Program at Metropolitan State College in Denver. The “second-degree” program allows students who already have a bachelor’s degree in another field of study to earn a Bachelor of Science degree in nursing within one year.
Bartholomew, who left her job as a corporate trainer to enroll in nursing school full-time, earned her first bachelor’s degree in organizational communication and human resource management from the University of Wisconsin in 1996.
“I realized that earning the big bucks wasn’t enough for me,” she says. “As a nurse, I can provide direct care to people and educate them about becoming well and staying well. As a corporate trainer, I was educating people about how to make more money for their companies. That wasn’t rewarding for me. I wanted to come home at the end of the day feeling like I’d really helped somebody.”
Students in the Accelerated Nursing Program at MSCD complete their clinical rotations at Saint Joseph Hospital in Denver and Kaiser Permanente outpatient medical facilities throughout the Denver area. Since the first day of her clinical rotations, Bartholomew felt the void in her life beginning to fill with meaning.
“The ‘thank you’ I receive from my patients at the end of a shift, the look they give me that shows they’re appreciative – I know I’m really doing something important for somebody else,” she says. “I’ve never felt so sure of myself, so confident about what I’m doing with my life day in and day out. Even on bad days, I still go home feeling happy, knowing I’m part of something good.”
The Accelerated Nursing Program is made possible in part by area physicians with a strong desire to support nursing education. The Colorado Permanente Medical Group has contributed more than $600,000 to help build the state-of-the-art Kaiser Permanente/Exempla Saint Joseph Hospital Accelerated Nursing Program Laboratory, where Bartholomew and her fellow students do part of their training. The Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, Inc. has contributed another $250,000 to the program.
Elizabeth Olson, 30, who holds a bachelor’s degree in speech pathology from Moorhead State University in Minnesota, is cashing in an eight-year career as a flight attendant for a degree in nursing.
“I started out as a nursing student when I first went to college,” she recalls, “but then I switched majors and got sidetracked by the allure of travel and adventure. By the time I hit 30, I was bored with it all. It wasn’t fun anymore to go from hotel to hotel. I was ready for something more challenging and more fulfilling.”
Olson says her experience of college the second time around is very different from the first.
“At 18, I was still trying to become independent from my parents,” she says. “Everything was happening at once – making friends, the party scene, trying to grow into my adulthood. I don’t think I really knew what I wanted at that age. But now, I know what I want to do, and my heart is really in this. School is my main priority.”
Nursing student Alecia Brynda, 28, also considers experience a great teacher when it comes to preparing for a new life path. With a bachelor’s degree in microbiology from Texas A&M University and a successful career as a water quality analyst for zoos and aquariums, she feels well equipped to communicate effectively with patients and colleagues, make critical decisions, and adapt quickly to unexpected turns of events.
“I love science,” she says, “but doing bench work in a lab gave me limited exposure to other people. I like the idea of bringing my science background to the nursing profession and having an opportunity to give something back to others.”
All three students plan to get general experience on a medical/surgical hospital unit before choosing a nursing specialty.
“I’m leaving my options open in terms of how I will specialize,” says Brynda, “but so far I’ve enjoyed the cardiac telemetry unit the best. With my microbiology background, I’m also very interested in infectious diseases. That’s the beauty of nursing — it’s so diverse that you can do a ton of different things.”
(Posted October 1, 2004)