What is your favorite memory from when you were at the UNM College of Nursing?
Graduation is at the top of my memories, but I have so many precious moments, that come to mind related to patients, projects, papers, other students...
Where did your nursing career take you?
All over the world!
What was your favorite part of your nursing career?
Patient care, patient education, and patient advocacy! Endless possibilities!!!
What advice would you give future nurses?
Nursing must be more than a job...it's a tremendous responsibility based on trust.
Quote
"Patients don't care how much you know until they know how much you care."
What is your favorite memory from when you were at the UNM College of Nursing?
Being from California, coming to UNM was a big adventure. The sights, sounds, tastes and aromas were all new and exciting! Receiving an excellent education, making new friends (some longstanding) and developing my lifelong career in this new environment all blend into many ("favorite memories")
Where did your nursing career take you?
My clinical love was oncology. Upon graduation, I returned to California and worked in the cancer research unit at Stanford Medical Center. Most of my career was in managed care, in hospitals, medical groups, and health plan settings.
What was your favorite part of your nursing career?
I truly enjoyed helping people, either at the bedside or ensuring quality care by navigating and advocating for patients in the managed environment.
What advice would you give future nurses?
Many more nursing roles exist today than when we entered the field. Future nurses can look forward to choosing from many more setting options and roles. Nursing continues to offer flexibility, reasonable compensation and an opportunity to make a positive difference in the world. Nursing was and is a great career choice.
What is your favorite memory from when you were at the UNM College of Nursing?
My favorite memory is meeting my best friends. My favorite subject was public health.
Where did your nursing career take you?
When I graduated, I started in homecare at the VAMC in Albuquerque, New Mexico. From there, I worked in Cuba, New Mexico as a public health nurse. I then took time off to raise my four children. I began back at work and worked at Lovelace Hospital, Heritage Hospice and Presbyterian Hospice for a total of 20 years.
What was your favorite part of your nursing career?
My favorite part of my nursing career was working in hospice. I worked in very rural areas of Albuquerque and surrounding areas, and it was a pleasure to care for those in my service.
What advice would you give future nurses?
My advice is to try different aspects of nursing. Whether that be patient care, writing, teaching or traveling.
What is your favorite memory from when you were at the UNM College of Nursing?
I was selected as a Project Porvenir participant in the first semester of my senior year. A senior medical student, a senior pharmacy student, and I ran a clinic in the small town of Truches, NM, to provide health services in that remote area with no doctors. It was an entirely different culture. The people were mostly poor, many didn't speak English, they revered their elders, and were very down to earth. I learned a lot about these Spanish-speaking people and their culture, and serving them was enjoyable and very fulfilling.
Where did your nursing career take you?
My nursing career took me to several places. I worked as a nurse in northern Wisconsin, Phoenix, and several hospitals in Albuquerque. I taught pediatric and medical surgical nursing in Marquette, Michigan, Santa Fe, Las Vegas, NM, and at the Career Enrichment Center in Albuquerque.
What was your favorite part of your nursing career?
Several years working as a neo-natal ICU nurse in Phoenix, and 12 years teaching high school students in the LPN program at the Career Enrichment Center high school in Albuquerque.
What advice would you give future nurses?
Patients need to feel you really care about them as individuals. Talk to each patient as you are caring for them. Touching people is very important.
What inspired you to be a nurse?
I decided to be a nurse at fourteen when my nine-year-old sister Norma was badly burned over more than half of her body. Norma spent more than four months in the hospital, and during that time, one nurse, Sister Daniels, really inspired me. I have never regretted my decision; nursing is a very rewarding profession.
What is your favorite memory from when you were at the UNM College of Nursing?
The relationships I had with other nursing students. Learning cultural health practices.
Where did your nursing career take you?
I started at age 22 as a charge nurse in the medical ICU. (Woah!). Then to ER for four years...loved the ER. Then, I taught the Paramedic program at the UNM EMS academy. I got married to my love Tony Brazis and had baby Val. Then, I became the clinical research coordinator for the Lynn Pierson therapeutic research and treatment program, studying the efficacy of marijuana for the treatment of chemotherapy-induced nausea in terminal cancer patients. (google it) This study was funded for four years by the state of NM, and it was the first of 4 in the US. I testified of its efficacy at the federal court hearings in Washington. After funding ended, I was the RN coordinator for many clinical research studies at the UNM Department of Psychiatry. I then went on to the Institute for Biological Research and Development, which is independently based and monitors research studies across the southwest. Too much travel to sites, so then worked for Novartis Pharmaceuticals monitoring their new drugs at sites in Albuquerque, Santa Fe and Farmington. The only Novartis monitor in NM. Then I retired with nice benefits. As an RN, I had opportunities I never dreamed of. Networking made it possible to change my direction. In retrospect, it was a wonderful, exciting career of self-discovery.
What was your favorite part of your nursing career?
Comforting people who are suffering
What advice would you give future nurses?
Don't stay in a job where the boss is a bully, mean, or shows favoritism. Move on. Stand up for your rights!! Get rest, listen to music, dance, and love your life—you only have one!
Nancy Willig Adam
Bonnie Jean Ambrogi
Karen J. Bartmess
Deborah Jean Benson
Joan Fulcher Bradley
John Breuninger
Mary Joan Browne
Mary Ann Church
Denise Clapp
Patricia S. Cone
Elizabeth H. Crawley
Judith Crook
Dawn Demarest Czapski
Marn Kellogg DeLarue
Mark Edwards
Hall Ellenbecker
Deborah Mae Fisher
Marie Fuentes
Elizabeth Gendron
Sara Elizabeth Gutknecht
Diane Frances Harmon
Susan C. Hiller
Ann L. Jones
Marcia Fay Kalinsky
Carolee Kidd
Elizabeth S. Kozlow
Judith K. Lestyk
Marjorie Litchfield
Arthur Sebastian Manzitto
Aurelia Rogers Marek
Pamela H. Mares
Vicki Barcliff Mercer
Janet Mewshaw
Christine C. Naranjo
Marian Jeanette Nordberg
Jill Renee Pacini
Barbara June Perdikakis
Linda Dianne Pershall
Elaine B. Pettengill
Juanita Piro
Nancy Puksta
Jan Marie Radoslovich
Mary Reeves
Anna M. Reinhardt
Deborah A. Rokosz
Judith Ann Ruekberg
Karen Schele
Ava Jean Shapard
Myra Dee Simmons
Carolyn S. Simon
Mary Jo Solon
Marjon H. Stewart
Betty Kay Taylor
Armida Torres
Carol Lynn Tracy
Cheryl Kay Truitt
Marta C. Vickers
Georgia Maye Bradshaw
Karen E. Carter
Ann Manning Heinrich
Hank Henry Lewis, II
John E. Retzlaff
Jan Elaine Tyler
James C. Wilhelm
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