Hello, my name is Whitney Lundell. I am a single mother to two incredible young teenagers. My kids and I make a great team and are each other’s greatest supporters. Motherhood has made me simultaneously strong and incredibly fragile. It has taught me life’s most challenging but most rewarding lessons. I strive to be an excellent example of self-improvement and determination for my children by embracing continuous life-long learning through pursuing knowledge, setting goals, and building new abilities and skills. By embodying self-improvement and determination in my own life, I can create a positive and inspiring environment that encourages my children to do the same. I want to show my two boys that education is essential, goals are achievable at any age, and that the future is what you make of it. I still have a mountain to climb in my school, and my children have been a part of the journey and process every day with me. I wouldn’t be able to continue with this path if it wasn’t for their continuous love, encouragement, and support. I want to be a patient advocate by showing people how to take control of their health and how to navigate the healthcare system to better benefit them as a patient. There are a lot of things patients don’t understand regarding their health or understand how to get help with paying for their medical needs. Part of nursing is educating the patient in these areas, and so far in my education journey, I have enjoyed sharing my knowledge of the body, health practices, and how to navigate paying for the healthcare system with friends and family. I hope to continue to do this when I become an RN because educating the public on their rights as a patient is so important, and I want to help them to understand how to take their health into their own hands. I want them to thrive, not just survive. Along with sharing knowledge of the healthcare field, I would like to be a forensic nurse. This means taking care of patients that are victims of crime and being an advocate on their behalf, whether in the medical room or courtroom. This field also can go into being a death investigator position where I can be an advocate on behalf of the deceased. I want to help others, whether enriching their lives or helping them in death.

Hello, my name is Whitney Lundell. I am a single mother to two incredible young teenagers. My kids and I are a great team and are each other’s greatest supporters. I returned to school after a 15-year absence and am working to become a nurse while caring for my two kids. I want to show my two boys that education is essential, goals are achievable at any age, and the future is what you make of it. I have two instances in my life that I would like to share that have influenced me to pursue the nursing field. I did not have the most uncomplicated pregnancies and started preterm labor around week 21 for both of my pregnancies, for which I got put on bedrest for the remainder of the pregnancy. My water broke at six weeks preterm, and I spent a grueling three days getting steroid shots to help develop my little one’s lungs before he entered the world, and we did it! He came out healthy and only needed time to grow to 5 lbs before we could go home from the NICU. That took us three weeks to achieve, and we worked through it over Christmas and New Year, for which I stayed at the Ronal McDonald House. Not only did the nurses help me emotionally, but they also advocated for me at the Ronald McDonald House as they were concerned about me driving back and forth in the winter as I lived on the outskirts of town in Montana. I lived a bit far from the hospital, but not far enough to necessarily qualify for Ronal McDonald Housing, but they fought for me as they were concerned about me driving back and forth during the stormy season. The nurses also set me up in a room in the hospital while I waited for a room at the Ronald McDonald House and made beautiful keepsake Christmas ornaments for us for the holiday. I still get teary-eyed thinking about this moment; it was emotionally challenging for me, and I appreciate the nurses who helped me through it all, and I want to be there for others in their time of great need as well. My second influence towards nursing comes from a job as a caregiver at an assisted living home in Montana. I loved that job and the people I took care of very much. I worked graveyards and had several that would stay up late or wake up early, allowing me to spend time with them. I also had residents that had dementia, and I dealt with a lot of deaths. That job has given me some of my fondest memories and lessons in life. I gained immense sympathy for the situations, whether it was a dementia patient having a moment of clarity, the grieving family having to say goodbye, or a resident going through hospice and then having their last breath. I felt honored to be there in those challenging moments with those residents and their families, and I felt so much love and support from the NICU nurses in my most vulnerable time of need. These instances were the spark that started my journey into nursing. I feel I have the capacity to be able to handle challenging situations such as death and can offer comfort to those in need as well as advocate for their needs like those NICU nurses did for me.