Video Transcript – April’s Life After Graduation
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Boise State University Adult Gerontology Nurse Practitioner Alumni Testimonials
AGNP Class of 2016, April May, MN, ARNP-BC
I’m April May and I graduated in 2016. So I was part of the first AGNP program. And I live in Yakima Washington, and I work for an organization called Senior Residential Care it’s part of Community Health of Central Washington, and we’re the primary care providers for patients in long term care facilities, assisted livings, and adult family homes in the community homes in the community.
So we make rounds on all those patients daily so. I’m kind of like on the road a lot. I have a cubicle in the morning that I go to and like take care of faxes and stuff and then I go out and I’m on the road the rest of the day. So I was a nurse in long-term care basically my whole career prior to applying to the program. I did have a few years working in the hospital on the labor and delivery, mother/baby side which is like one end of life to the other.
But just really enjoyed long term care, the elderly, that whole facet of nursing was really where my heart was. So when I saw the AGNP program come open I never really had nurse practitioner on my radar, ever. But then when I saw the AGNP program come open I thought, hey I think I can do that because I really know elders and love them, so that’s why I joined.
Kind-of a funny story, so I was actually looking at- I was an associate degree nurse looking to get my bachelor degree and eventually my master’s because I did a lot in the nursing home with nursing students coming in with the local colleges, and um I didn’t, I wanted to work with them maybe in the future and I didn’t want to get turned down because I didn’t have the right degree, and so I was actually on a little hopper flight from Yakima to Seattle, going to a conference and Boise had put in a little ad in the Alaska Air magazine about their BS program and so I started with that program and then it was at the end of that program we were in that class where you have classes with like respiratory therapist students, and PT students, and stuff. I think it’s called a Capstone class or something.
And one of them had mentioned that Boise State was opening a AGNP program and I was like, what? And so I clicked over and looked at it and I was like well I still get a master’s degree I really didn’t my nurse practitioner but maybe this will work and so. I just, I love Boise State I thought they had a great online program, lots of support, and so it was easy to just transition right over there, just keep pushing through.
That’s all you can do. Keeping your eye on the goal and just knowing that at the end of the day that you’re going to be helping people even more and you’re going to take your nursing skills to a whole new level and it’s scary and it’s crazy, but it’s super rewarding too. And so I think just not to get intimidated by, you know. That’s kind of what I did, I’d come on campus and then we’d, they’d be like put in this chest tube, and I’m like on this dummy?
Oh my God I’m gonna kill the dummy, so I was kind of freaked out with some of the labs and stuff, just to know that that’s all great experience and I thought that that was really cool how we got to do all that stuff, but that, you know, they don’t make you go out then the next day and put a chest tube in somebody, you know there’s a lot of support as you’re building your nurse practitioner self as well.
I thought the program did really well preparing me, I had to basically find my own clinical sites, I mean Boise State was helpful in getting them all set up and all the paperwork done and all that stuff but I had to find where I wanted to go or where I could go and so I think the clinical sites and the clinical experience is really what prepares you, I mean the bookwork and the and honestly the on campus lab stuff and where they have the people come in and they’re actors, and you, you know that was super helpful too, but I think just your clinical experiences are really where you get your experience and you have to just put yourself out there, you just have to tell your clinical person like I need, I want to do everything I can, please let me do what you feel comfortable with, you know putting yourself out there versus just standing in the corner of the room and letting them do everything you know.
But I felt Boise’s program was awesome I felt very ready to go, of course I had like over 20 years nursing experience too, so it might have been a different story if I only had like five, three to five years, you know, experience as well, so. Yeah, I’m pleasantly surprised how much I enjoy being a nurse practitioner, the first year is not fun I’m just going to put that out there and it’s not to discourage anybody it’s just to like- I didn’t really, like- wasn’t prepared for that and, because basically I ended my job that I’d been in for 25 years on Friday.
And I started my new job on Monday so I went from expert on Friday to novice on Monday and it was really overwhelming there were plenty of nights, you know, where I came home and I was like I can’t do this, I can’t do this, you know. And, so just to again keep pushing through much like school just keep pushing through you know, just know that first year is going to be tough it’s not going to be easy but it gets easier with every day and you get your confidence every day and umm just find a good mentor in your clinic or wherever you land for your job, because those are the people that are just going to, like really change your life and change your career, you know, so just really latch on to those people that want to help you and are a good mentor for you.
And feel free if you have anybody that has like, questions or wants to talk to someone before they started the program or anything like that you can totally give them my information
I’d be happy to talk to anybody. Just, enjoy, you worked hard for this, enjoy it!
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