The 'S' in STEM: Taylor
This year, I will graduate with my Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Metropolitan University in Denver. My path to this degree has not been one without hardship, but I appreciate every step of the journey that got me to where I am today. My freshman year of college, I was an 18 year old entering a university without much direction as to what I wanted to be when I grew up. I had always admired my father, who worked so hard to climb the corporate ladder and had found such great success for himself atop it. It seemed only natural to follow in his footsteps, and so I majored in business. A year into my degree, and my grades were less than impressive. I wasn’t interested in the material, and so I struggled to retain it. That summer, I desperately discussed this lack of focus with anyone that would listen. The advice that most resonated with me that year was my mother’s, and it was to chase my passions. That if I found work I truly loved, it wouldn’t feel like work at all. This was the beginning of a wonderful epiphany. I had spent some time volunteering in special education classrooms throughout my middle school and high school career, these classrooms held such a special place in my heart. I had most enjoyed working closely with speech pathologists in these programs. And so, feeling inspired…come fall I switched my major to Speech, Language, and Hearing Science in the hopes of pursuing a career in speech pathology. This was a step in the right direction for me. I very much enjoyed my classes in this new major. The clinical experiences were wonderful, and I have never forgotten all I learned during my time in this program. However, as I grew nearer to graduating, I began having doubts once again that I had truly found my passion in my work. I had begun to see the role nurses had in the patient care setting during my time at Swedish Medical Center as I shadowed various speech pathologists. It intrigued me, the idea of such direct patient care. Just as I had begun to have these doubts, my father suffered a hemorrhagic stroke while he was on a business trip. His recovery was long, and made more difficult by the fact he could not travel home and was in a state without family. My family rallied around him, and we spent turns that summer living in a hospitality house adjacent to his rehabilitation center. It was my time spent here that solidified for me the role I wanted to take in patient’s lives. Watching nurses and nurse aides care for my father around the clock, I was in awe. These women and men gave themselves so totally and completely to their patients. I was sure they went home with tired feet, but not a word of this was spoken aloud to us. Instead, they provided my father with the most wonderful, complete, and compassionate care I could ever imagine. They made the days that seemed impossible somehow lighter, and they celebrated with us through all the victories my father achieved. After my time spent with my father that summer, I returned to school and finished the last few semesters of my speech, language, and hearing science degree. The moment I had my degree in my hand, I turned around and started working towards applying to nursing school. I took pre-requisites at a community college while I worked full time as a CNA at a family birth center in Boulder. I tirelessly applied to what felt like every nursing school in the state of Colorado before being accepted to the program I am now
months away from completing.
Nursing is such an important field. As nurses, we are responsible for providing compassionate and safe patient care, advocating for our patients, and help to oversee efforts ranging from community health improvement initiatives to implementing safer patient outcome programs in hospitals. Nurses work as an important part of a healthcare team by implementing physician’s orders and function independently to assess patients, keep the patient’s medical chart accurate and up to date, and educate patients on healthcare and lifestyle related topics. My journey to become an RN was not an easy one, but it was an important one. I hope to be the kind of nurse we were lucky enough to experience in the journey of my father’s recovery, and I hope to inspire others to chase their passion. Every day I go home with tired feet, but my heart is full. I am grateful for this profession that brings so much comfort to so many, and brings me such joy. When Taylor is not busy with school, she and her fiancé and like to take their dog Chloe on adventures. She loves catching up on the latest novel her book club is reading, and when go to trivia nights hosted at local bars with her friends.
