Profiles in nursing
Profiles in nursing
When you ask someone what they do for a living and you get the answer, “I’m a nurse,” the response doesn’t explain too much about the job.
That’s because these days nursing offers so many different options in terms of job functions, work environments and specialties.
The following profiles highlight jobs with four different focuses in the nursing field – just a sampling of what’s possible in this high-growth area of health care.
Frostenia Milner, nurse educator
N.C. A&T School of Nursing
After graduating in 1969 from N.C. A&T with a bachelor’s degree in nursing, Milner passed the state board examination required to become a registered nurse (RN) and began a career with Moses Cone Health System.
Generally, in a hospital setting “the registered nurse is the coordinator of care,” Milner explains. “So we create the plan, we involve others and we delegate tasks to non-RNs.”
Over the years, Milner served in multiple roles, ultimately moving into nursing administration. Along the way she earned a master’s degree in nursing from UNCG, volunteered in different areas of the hospital to learn more about them, and eventually worked her way up to service director, where she was in charge of nine departments in the cardiovascular intensive care unit.
During her final years at Moses Cone, she also served as N.C. A&T’s clinical coordinator, which opened a door to full-time teaching last year. Now Milner is a clinical assistant professor at A&T, where she conducts student clinical evaluations and teaches nursing skills, management and leadership. Having experienced and enjoyed many areas of nursing, she encourages would-be nurses to explore broadly and be willing to change and grow.
“It’s all so interesting, and there’s so much to learn,” she says.
Jennifer Black, certified nursing assistant
Critical care unit, Wesley Long Community Hospital
When she and her classmates at Northeast High School received their diplomas 11 years ago, Jennifer Black got an additional boost that proved worthwhile. She entered the world of work having already completed the necessary training to move into her chosen career.
“I did it in high school, my 11th and 12th grade year,” says Black, referring to a program through Guilford County Schools that prepared her for a transition into the health care field. It was during that time that she also took and passed the state nursing assistant test leading to certification in the field. “When I graduated, I was a CNA,” she says.
She first went on to work as a nurse technician at Wesley Long, where she took readings of patients’ temperatures, blood sugar and blood pressure levels; replaced catheters and colostomy bags; bathed patients; and helped nurses move patients and reposition them in their beds.
In the critical care unit, she serves between 15 and 20 patients a day, which can be a challenge.
“You’re pulled (in) all different directions, so you have to be organized and have a positive attitude,” she says.
It’s the patients themselves Black enjoys most about her job. She enjoys “just being able to talk to them and know that I’ve helped them at the end of the day.”
Brenda Summers, licensed practical nurse
Physician’s office, private practice
For more than 30 years, Summers has worked as a nurse in the office of Greensboro endocrinologist Dr. Preston Clark, who specializes in disorders of the endocrine system like diabetes and hypothyroidism.
“Basically, I care for the patients with appointments — getting them in and preparing them to see the doctor,” she says.
Summers has a lot of contact with patients with diabetes and has developed extensive knowledge in that area.
“I do a lot of teaching,” she says. In addition to taking vital signs, drawing blood and giving injections, she educates patients on such things as how to use glucose monitoring machines and insulin pumps.
A graduate of GTCC’s licensed practical nurse program, Summers first worked in a hospital, which she says she didn’t enjoy as much. She loves her current job largely because it allows her to help improve the health of patients who often are troubled by physical symptoms and anxiety when they first come to the doctor’s office.
“I get them back here and talk softly and quietly,” she says. “The difference in their faces — especially after they see the doctor — is beautiful.”
Tomasita “Tomy” Jacubowitz, nurse practitioner
Hospice and Palliative Care of Greensboro
Jacubowitz, 53, was looking for a second career after climbing the ladder with the U.S. Department of Labor. She joined a nursing program at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia in the late 1980s that allowed those with bachelor’s degrees in another field to earn their bachelor’s and master’s degrees in nursing in three years.
Nurse practitioners, who are authorized to perform tasks such as prescribing medication, suturing wounds and reading X-rays, often specialize in particular areas and must have a minimum of a master’s degree.
Jacubowitz specialized in gerontology at first, but in the early 1990s she received her adult health certification from UNCG, authorizing her to practice on patients 14 and older.
“Since then I’ve been working mostly with adult and geriatric populations, and I can’t say I’ve ever been without a job,” she says.
Jacubowitz visits patients in long-term care settings such as nursing homes. Working closely with patients’ families and physicians, she assesses their symptoms and helps determine treatment options. She loves her job largely because each case is different, despite common misconceptions about the nature of Hospice work.
“Most people fear that we’re coming in to start the oxygen and the morphine. If that’s what’s needed, fine, but there are so many other things,” she says.
Find out more
■ Nurse educators
www.nln.org/FacultyCertification/index.htm
■ Nurse practitioners
www.mayo.edu/mshs/np-career.html
■ Licensed practical nurses
www.bls.gov/oco/ocos102.htm
■ Certified nursing assistants
www.bls.gov/oco/ocos165.htm
Education:
■ UNCG School of Nursing
Program with various focuses leading to bachelor’s degrees, master’s degrees
and doctorates
http://nursing.uncg.edu/
■ N.C. A&T School of Nursing
Program with various focuses leading to bachelor’s degrees, master’s degrees
and doctorates
http://son.ncat.edu/
■ GTCC
• Associate-degree nursing program, leading to state certification as an RN
www.gtcc.edu/programs/healthSciences/nursing/index.html
• Diploma-level practical nursing program, leading to state certification as an LPN
www.gtcc.edu/programs/healthSciences/nursing/diplomas/practicalNursing.html
• Nursing assistant I program, leading to state certification as a CNA
http://www.gtcc.edu/programs/conEd/nursingAssistant/index.htmlFastFaxFind out more
■ Nurse educators
www.nln.org/FacultyCertification/index.htm
■ Nurse practitioners
www.mayo.edu/mshs/np-career.html
■ Licensed practical nurses
www.bls.gov/oco/ocos102.htm
■ Certified nursing assistants
www.bls.gov/oco/ocos165.htm
