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WILKES-BARRE — Katrina Organ (yes, she introduces herself by saying “like a heart or liver”) and Kyle Poray already had degrees and jobs in chosen fields. She graduated in International Studies, spent two years in the Peace Corps in Ecuador and five years working with a physician. He studied psychology and did therapeutic support staff work. Yet both decided to make a major change and become nurses.
“There are always job openings,” Kyle said, “There is so much you can do.”
The profession has expanded to a wide range of options, he added, including the possibility of returning to school to become a medical doctor.
“It’s a very stable career,” Katrina said, noting her goal is to earn a master’s degree and “become a midwife,” but that it will be easy to switch to many other roles in the medical field.
Katrina and Kyle are enrolled in Wilkes University Accelerated Baccalaureate in Nursing program, designed expressly for those who already have a bachelor’s degree and even a career but want to switch to nursing. In one year of intensive study, a student is prepared to take the National Licensure Examination for Registered Nurses to become an RN. The university announced last week that every graduate who took the exam last summer passed.
“The pass rate is an indication of the hard work done in the program,” Katrina said. “It is an accelerated program, not an abbreviated program. You learn everything you would in the regular 4-year program.”
“The students who took the test afterwards say ‘that was really easy’,” Program Coordinator Maria Grandinetti, an associate professor of nursing, said. “This is such an exciting program, It’s very successful.”
“They help push the person through,” Kyle said. “They develop a plan to make sure you succeed.”
The nursing field is in a boom, with the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics projecting demand will soar by 26 percent by 2020. The numbers suggest there will always be a greater need than the available supply.
Katrina is so interested in dealing with pregnancies, she sported a necklace representing oxytocin, a hormone that stimulates contractions at birth. “I have estrogen earrings, too, but I thought that would be too much,” she laughed.
She also noted that she will graduate and get her registered nurse license at the same time Geisinger Community Medical Center in Scranton opens it’s new $15 million maternity center, which will include hiring midwives. “Its very good timing,” she smiled.
Kyle wants to land a job in an emergency room, the busier the better. “I like the challenge and excitement, being constantly on the move.” His ideal job, at least now, would be in the Lehigh Valley Health Network Burn Center.
But both kept pointing out the boundless opportunities a nursing degree opens. As Katrina put it, “Everything relates to health.”
