The age-old question of “What will you be when you grow up?” continues to loom over students throughout their high school journey. Some have no clue what their plans are after high school, but many have dreams of colleges and career paths. For senior Chloe Loughridge, the future holds a nursing career.
“I want to be a nurse because I’ve always had a passion for helping people. My family has always had lots of health issues, and that’s made me realize how important nurses really are, and the lasting impact they make on families,” Loughridge said.
Loughridge also spoke about the benefits nursing has to offer. While nursing school can be difficult and time-consuming, the benefits outweigh the downsides.
“To start with schooling, honestly, depending on what kind of nurse you want to be, a lot of RN [registered nurse] and LPN [licensed practical nurse] programs are only two years long, and if you do your pre-reqs in high school, you’ll only have to do those two years to get that degree. Nursing also provides so much room for career advancements, specialties, and flexibility. People are always going to need nurses, and it’s a job that you can do anywhere in the world. Nursing is a really great field for people to go into if they love people and making a difference. It provides so many great benefits, and it’s so much fun to learn about,” Loughridge said.
Similarly, nurse Lacey McBride, a new faculty addition to the high school, believes in the versatility of nursing. In 2011, she began working as a pediatric home health nurse. Two years later, she went back to school to receive her RN. Then, in 2017, she began working as a school nurse at Wyman Elementary before joining RHS this school year. For McBride, being a school nurse is different from what she initially thought.
“It’s a lot harder than I expected. There’s a lot of paperwork on the back end with immunizations and chronic letters or restrictions and more severe conditions that you have to keep track of. I’ve always said it’s kind of like a mini ER, where you never know what you’re going to have. No day is the same. You can have broken bones, stitches, concussions, things like that. You kind of have to learn how to triage, like what is the most important, what can wait, what can go back to class. And it can get pretty busy. It’s not just ice. And I mean, we do that, but there’s a lot more that goes into it that I think other nurses don’t really understand, which I did not whenever I started,” McBride said.
McBride didn’t start out with a passion for nursing. Originally, she planned on becoming a teacher. But, in the end, the appeal of the flexibility that nursing allows convinced her to switch careers. She reflected that nursing programs are strenuous, and studying hard is necessary.
“The only thing is, nursing school is tough. You are definitely pushed to your limits,” McBride said, “But if you can get through school and figure out what direction you want to go into, there are so many different options, and that is why I did go more towards the nursing route versus just the teaching route.”
Conversely, Lacey Marz, a student teacher currently helping at Rolla High School, started out as a nurse before changing career paths to teaching.
“I loved nursing. I did emergency room nursing, for–this will be the sixth year. I did most of my time as emergency and trauma at a level-one trauma center in Springfield. And so I saw everything…,” Marz said. “But my mom passed away, and things started feeling too familiar to that experience. And before my mom passed away, she said—and she was delirious almost the whole time, but the last little piece she said was—‘Do what you love. Don’t waste your life doing something you don’t love.’ I thought about it for months, and then I was like, ‘You know, my favorite part of being a nurse is actually teaching: teaching patients about things, teaching new nurses things.’ And I’m like, ‘I think I want to be a teacher, because I love English. This is just what I want to do with my life.’”
Marz believes strongly in following a career that you fully enjoy. Whether nursing or another job appeals to you, pursue an occupation that you have a passion for. Marz shared one last piece of advice to students choosing a profession.
“Don’t be afraid to do something that other people think is crazy… life’s not a race. You don’t get extra points [in] life for getting somewhere faster. So take your time. Figure out what you love and what’s going to fill your soul, and that you can keep doing without it eating away at you, and then chase it,” Marz said.
