Dear reader, My name is Mark Duesenberg, and I am a profoundly deaf immigrant who relies on two strong hearing aids in order to immerse myself in society. I am about to begin my university course at the Troy, Michigan campus of Chamberlain University, where I will be studying for a Bachelor of Science in Nursing. As a hearing-impaired adult, I have spent a lifetime of difficulties ensuring that I do not miss any information relayed to me by those around me. I worked as a hairstylist for 16 years, and faced a surprising degree of discrimination throughout my professional career, to the point that I had plastic surgery to decrease the size of my ears, and was fitted with the strongest possible inner-ear hearing aids in order to buy myself time with first impressions. Although this has helped a lot, I have still faced terrible comments, such as "if I had have known that you were like this, I would never have hired you" or "we are hiring you because we won't discriminate against you...for that" (with gestures to my ears). Luckily I have thick skin, and have never taken these comments personally, but the audacity of these bosses/managers still shocked me. Given that I had extensive speech therapy as a toddler, and my strict parents ensured that I never slipped up with my pronunciation, I have been fortunate enough to be able to pass as a regular-hearing/speaking person to a certain extent. However, in a learning environment, I have had to excuse myself from many activities, especially when whispering was required in a task, or if I have softly spoken teachers/professors. Ignorance from students and teachers has been a regular part of my schooling years, but I choose to calmly educate people, rather than take offence. My hearing impairment also requires a different form of learning for me. I have spent my life mostly surrounded by people who do not speak English as their first language, and with learning any other language I need to have a combination of reading the written word whilst also hearing the sound too. In my case, I 'see' words in my head, so although I have pushed through this and continue to learn the four most required languages for my professional career, it still means that I miss a lot of words/phrases that others can easily pick up when they simply hear it. This same problem can flow into my education at college and university, where relying on hearing information can mean that I miss words and concepts that others grasp with no issues. I choose to keep trying to repeatedly absorb the information, and not give up. While technology has improved significantly since my childhood (when I had chunky hearing aids as thick as my thumb) and subtitles have become normalised in our day-to-day lives, I still face difficulties even in this era. Luckily my family never allowed me to see my disability as a blockade, but rather as a hurdle that I must face and overcome. I want to continue my education and graduate as a multi-lingual nurse whose patients will always have their voices heard, and to encourage the next generation of hearing-impaired students to realise that our hearing impairment only impairs us, but does not stop us. Thank you for taking the time to read this. -Mark Duesenberg.

I'm changing my career after 16 years of hairstyling to become a nurse, for I feel the need to contribute to the medical field as we as a society continue to battle a new era of viruses and diseases. My life has been shadowed by the deaths of many of my very close relatives, and their friends and extended family, due to the injustice of cancer. Whilst this had been a deterrent for my entry into nursing, I am now emotionally and psychologically ready to be there to help patients and their families through their journey of care in a hospital and beyond, be it through battles with cancer, heart disease, genetic disorders, or the novel coronavirus. My career as a hairstylist has trained me in managing the interactions between myself (and fellow staff) and clients, from all walks of life, and the personalities that come with them. This gives me a higher level of patience and understanding, as my job has been to sincerely listen to clients for over one and a half decades. This patience is especially needed in the nursing industry in this current time of fear and distrust towards the medical industry, due to misinformation spread via some members of authority and social media. I come from a country where healthcare is accessible to all, and education on nutrition and healthcare is a regular facet of the schooling system, but there is not this equal sharing of information in the United States. I believe in encouraging the community around me to seek reputable sources of information on their health and diet, in order to not only benefit their quality of life, but lessen the load borne by hospitals and clinics wherever possible. I plan to be a voice for not just the patients, but also for the doctors and nurse practitioners whose advice and guidance needs to be readily accepted and adhered to by their patients. With support for the medical professionals above me, and backing up their words, I can help patients grow a deeper trust for the industry that is in place to help the community as a whole. I also have a strong belief in ensuring that as many voices of patients are heard, regardless of their native tongue. For this reason I am continuing my education in several languages, so that a broader range of patients can readily speak of their symptoms/grievances without the time constraints of seeking translators. As an individual who grew up with profound hearing loss and an inability to speak until I had countless hours of speech therapy, I know the sentiment of feeling as though my voice is just a sound that is not listened to. Thanks to powerful hearing aids and my strict parents, I am able to speak as a regular person (albeit with my accent from my country) and hear almost the exact same as a regular hearing person. With these core feelings and beliefs in mind, I am driven to not only complete my Bachelor of Science in Nursing, but also to continue with further education so that my assistance can be broader and more beneficial to the community as a whole. I want to not only fill the gaps of the roles of the nurses who have recently left this industry, but also encourage the next generation of nurses to follow in my wake.

The decision to enter the world of nursing is one that I explain on a daily basis, given the career change that I am taking on. Supporting many close relatives as they neared the end of their individual battles with cancer has been my reality from birth, but when the pandemic forced me to end my 16 year career as a hairstylist, I knew it was time to give back to the community in a far more tangible, meaningful way. Although I had been apprehensive about pursuing a career in nursing, due to the repeated trauma of watching my family members pass away, I finally realised that nurses aren't just there to be challenged with the experience of people dying every day: they are there to provide comfort, attention and care for those in their vulnerable time of need. It may sound cliché and obvious, but that realisation finally hit home, and motivated me to begin studying the prerequisites for nursing school and change my career at last. During the Coronavirus pandemic, I was helping my Father-in-Law with his own battle against Pancreatic cancer, and the nurses who cared for him inspired me more than ever. These were individuals who were pushed to their limit with hours worked, through an unprecedented pandemic where the rules were being updated/changed constantly, while trying to manage patients and families who were often combative/difficult due to their own fear, and yet the nurses maintained their composure, compassion, and patience. Even as my Mother-in-Law recently had surgery for a non-cancerous brain-tumour, the entire staff proved to me that I had made the right decision in beginning a career in healthcare. With every day that I sat beside her as she recovered, while I studied quietly, I was able to see how nurses in the United States are leaders in the world with their skills and knowledge. Coming from a country where healthcare is largely subsidised by the government (Australia), my previous view of the U.S. medical field wasn't particularly positive, but this has changed with every experience that I have here, be they from my own healthcare needs, or for those who I care for. I am taking on this career to gain the skills and knowledge to be able to care for my own family, and to be the nurse that everyone would want to have, given the feedback that I have listened to over the years. And finally, the last inspiration is my age. At 35 years old, I have to consider a career that I can continue to work in until my retirement. Nursing has such a broad scope of career opportunities that would enable me to work consistently for many years, while taking into account how my body will respond with age. I am not going to give up on this journey.