Nursing: The Family Business

Less than a year after graduation, she is working as a registered nurse at Sanford Health in Cardiac Intensive Care. We asked her to tell us about her experience at Concordia and the role this shared connection with her father has played in her life.

A FATHER’S INFLUENCE

I had always planned on going into the medical field. I’ve always had a drive to help others, but I wasn’t one of those kids that grew up knowing exactly what they wanted to do.

Once, when I was young, my dad took me shopping and he came across an individual who was having a medical crisis. Since he had the skills and knowledge needed to help this individual, my dad handed me off to a store employee and stepped in to assist.

I think it was the fact that he knew how to help people in need that made me realize nursing was the career that would give me the opportunity to help people the way I wanted to.

THE RIGHT FIT

After visiting several different colleges, there was something about Concordia that felt like it was the place to be. I toured campus with my dad and I remember how inviting and comfortable campus felt.

He strongly encouraged Concordia not only because it was where he attended, but also because he thought that it was the best place for me to be personally.

He knew from his experiences at Concordia and from the Concordia nursing graduates that he worked with that it was a great nursing program and that I would get an excellent nursing education from this school.

WHOLLY PREPARED

The nursing program at Concordia pushed us to be the absolute best we could be and it challenged us in more ways than I think we will ever fully understand. I learned how important it is to learn something new every single day and to ask questions when you do not fully understand.

I was pushed to really understand what my patients were going through, not just the disease and the process it was taking, but how it was affecting them on an emotional and spiritual level. Each clinical we had was focused on the patient we were caring for that day. Our job was to know as much as we could about why they were in the hospital and what we were doing to care for them as individuals.

I learned how important it is to learn something new every single day and to ask questions when you do not fully understand. – Cassie Scherer '15

SPECIAL CONNECTION

When I was young, my dad worked a lot of strange hours, so my sisters and I didn’t get to see him as much as we did our mom. I didn’t really understand what he did and why he had to work the hours he did.

As I got older, I started to understand how serious of a job he had and I learned that because he worked in the Intensive Care Unit he had to care for the sickest patients in the hospital.

During my time at Concordia, my dad was one of my biggest supporters and encouraged me to keep trying my hardest when I got discouraged. It was so comforting knowing that he had completed the Concordia nursing program and knew the challenges I was facing.

The connection I share with my dad goes beyond sharing an alma mater. We share a dedication to helping others and an understanding of how physically and emotionally challenging this career really is.

I am so proud to be his daughter and to be following in his footsteps both as a Concordia nursing graduate and as a nurse.

^{Published September 2015}