

At age eleven I stood in the hallway as the paramedics took my unresponsive mother out on a stretcher. What always stayed with me was the compassion of the paramedics, their faces, and words as they tried to console us hurrying out to the ambulance. I didn’t realize it then, but that was the moment that ignited my desire to be of service to people in a time of need and have a career where I could make a difference.
I became a registered nurse at the age of twenty-one, working in long term care and hospice. Although I found the medical side of nursing very interesting, what brought me...