My name is Kayleigh Taylor, and I am a twenty-nine-year-old nursing major currently enrolled in the associate degree nursing program at Delgado Charity School of Nursing. From a young age, I knew I wanted a career that allowed me to help others, but I struggled to pinpoint exactly what that would look like and how I could excel in it. My passion for healthcare sparked in 2014, right after I graduated from high school and began attending the University of Louisiana at Lafayette (ULL). At first, I declared my major as pre-nursing, but after my orientation, I doubted my ability to succeed and decided to switch to a less challenging major. I left ULL in May of 2015, unsure of my next steps. After some time away from school, I pursued a more practical path by enrolling in a medical assistant program at a trade school, from October 2017 to January 2019. This experience eased me into the healthcare field and provided me with valuable hands-on training. In September 2019, I began working at Ochsner Health System in Louisiana, initially as a medical assistant in primary care. Then, when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, I transitioned to the hospital’s COVID unit as a patient care technician from March to April 2020, and again from August to October 2021. It was during this challenging and uncertain time that I realized my true calling—to do more, to be more, and to make a greater impact in healthcare. The pandemic fueled my desire to return to school and pursue nursing, despite lingering fears about my ability to succeed. At a time when many healthcare workers were leaving the field, I felt a strong commitment to push myself forward and continue serving others. In October 2020, I enrolled in courses to complete the prerequisites needed for nursing school. I was accepted into the nursing program at the Delgado Charity School of Nursing in the fall of 2022 and began nursing classes in January 2023. Balancing nursing school with working three jobs—full-time as a medical assistant, part-time as a waitress, and part-time as a bartender—has been incredibly challenging. Yet, it has taught me resilience and helped me appreciate my own strength. I have had the privilege of assisting in patient care both through my clinicals and my work experience, and it has brought me a sense of fulfillment I never anticipated. Helping others has not only allowed me to contribute to their healing but has also helped heal me in ways I could never have imagined. Looking ahead, I aspire to further my career by eventually becoming a nurse practitioner. My experiences so far have solidified my commitment to making a difference in people’s lives, both as a nurse and as a nurse practitioner. To quote Derek Shepherd from Grey’s Anatomy, “It’s a beautiful day to save lives.”

My name is Kayleigh Taylor. I am twenty-nine years old and I am a nursing major in an associate degree nursing program through the Delgado Charity School of Nursing. Growing up I knew I wanted to have a career where I could help others but struggled to figure out what I could do that would allow me to do this and I would be good at. I fell in love with the idea of working in health care in 2014 when I first graduated high school and went to the University of Louisiana at Lafayette (ULL). When I applied to ULL, I applied as a pre-nursing major. However, after orientation on the first day I got scared I couldn't succeed and went to the registrar's office and changed my major to something easier until I left school in May of 2015. After some time off, I went to a trade school to become a medical assistant from October of 2017 through January of 2019 to ease my way into health care. I began working for Ochsner Health System in Louisiana on September 16th of 2019 shortly after I graduated. A few months after I began working in primary care as a medical assistant, the Covid-19 pandemic landed in Louisiana and shut our state down along with the rest of the world. In order to remain working and helping, I switched to working in the hospital as a patient care technician in the Covid unit from March through April of 2020 and again in August through October of 2021. This is where I decided I wanted to do more and be more in health care and decided I wanted to try to go back to school to become a nurse despite still being scared that I would not succeed. In a time where so many were leaving health care, I felt a strong desire to push myself further and be more in order to get to help others. In October of 2020, I registered to go back to school to complete my prerequisites required to apply for nursing school. I applied and got accepted to the nursing program at my school in the fall of 2022 and started nursing classes in January of 2023. Through this program I have struggled juggling nursing school while working three jobs, working full time as a medical assistant, part time as a waitress, and part time as a bartender. It has not been easy but it has made me appreciate my strengths and resilience more than ever. I have had the incredible honor of assisting in the care of patients through both my nursing school clinicals and through working in health care. This has brought me more joy in my life than I ever thought was possible. Helping others has helped heal me in ways I never expected. Along the way I have decided I want to eventually become a nurse practitioner down the line as well. I hope to keep making a difference in lives as a nurse and eventually as a nurse practitioner. To quote Derek Shepherd from Grey's Anatomy, "It's a beautiful day to save lives."

Pursuing nursing as a career path is important to me because I have spent my entire life wanting to take care of and help others. According to the Myers-Briggs personality test, I am an INFJ which is the advocate personality type. It also suggested nursing as a career when I first took the test in 6th grade and every time since then. I have always wanted to treat people how I wanted to be treated and be there for them in a way that I wish people would been there for me if I was in that position. I do not know how to be anything less than caring or empathetic. Unfortunately, a lot of my generation is not like this and I have been called too nice by many people I have grown up around. In my personal life, my caring and kindness has not always been appreciated. Instead it was sometimes criticized and I was made to feel like I was too much for simply wanting to help and be there for the people in my life. I was depressed for a long time because of this disconnect. But then I went to school to be a medical assistant a few years ago and started working in the medical field in 2019. Since being in the medical field, I found a healthy outlet for my desire to help people and make a difference in their lives and I found others who are also caring, helper, and advocate types. My desire to help and take care of others finally felt good. Then the beginning of the covid-19 pandemic happened and I was transferred to my health care organization’s hospital from my primary care clinic and trained to work as a CNA to assist with the overflow of covid patients. I saw first hand patients needing our help to get better in a more drastic way than I had previously seen in primary care and I was ready to help in any way I could. I also saw many health care workers all over the world leave the medical field during this time. It made me upset for the world’s patients and feel a strong desire to go back to school to become a RN, but I was scared to try to pursue nursing and fail. A few months went by and by October 2020 my desire to be a nurse out-powered my fears and I registered to attend school for my prerequisites. I am now in my school’s associate degree nursing program. I now have decided that I want to go right back to school after completion of this program to pursue my bachelors in nursing once I pass the NCLEX and begin working. My long term goal is to go back again to become a nurse practitioner, whether it be for my masters in nursing or DNP. My work in health care over the last four years has been the most rewarding part of my life thus far. Making a difference in the lives of the patients I’ve encountered has given my life a sense of purpose and meaning. It has helped heal me from the depression I’ve had for the majority of my life and created joy in my life. It’s created a fire in me stemming from my desire to help others and has made me become dedicated to pursuing my education to not only become an RN but also a nurse practitioner in the future so that I can continue making a difference in the lives of patients I encounter along the way.

I am pursuing a degree in nursing because I have always wanted to help people and make a difference in their lives. I discovered the show Greys Anatomy a few years ago and became more and more fascinated with the medical background of the show as I was watching. I found myself following the Greys Anatomy medical twitter to read tweets explaining the medical terminology and procedures being named in the show. The more invested I got in the show the more I wanted to pursue a career in the medical field. I then went to school to be a medical assistant from 2017 through 2019. Upon graduation, I began working for Ochsner Health System in New Orleans, Louisiana in podiatry and primary care. I started learning about many chronic conditions that people are affected by and living with. In 2020 during the pandemic I deployed from the clinical setting to the hospital to work as a patient care technician on the Med Surge floor of our hospital, which had become a Covid-19 unit. In a time where many people were afraid of encountering and contracting the virus to a point they were leaving the medical field, I saw patients firsthand fighting for their lives. Seeing this caused me to apply to go back to school to pursue a degree in nursing. Upon completion of my current program I will have earned an associates degree in registered nursing. My goals for my nursing career include working as a registered nurse while going back to school for my bachelors and masters of nursing. As a registered nurse, I would like to work in the emergency room, a neurology unit, or pediatrics. I hope to be a charge nurse. I would consider being an RN supervisor in a clinic setting. I would also like to become a nurse practitioner some day and work in either primary care or psychiatry. My biggest goal for my nursing career is to make a difference in a patient's health outcomes and their lives. I chose this profession because I advocate for others and I am an empath, so I take the feelings and worries of other people on as my own. I would like to be a friendly face in a patient's treatment that motivates them to want to improve their health outcome and work with them to ensure that they achieve progress towards a healthier life.