Monica is a second year doctoral candidate in the University of Illinois at Chicago’s Doctor of Nursing Practice program pursuing a clinical concentration as a Family Nurse Practitioner. Prior to enrolling at UIC, Monica worked as a full-time nurse at Northwestern Memorial Hospital’s Pulmonary ICU Step-Down Unit. We were struck by her dedication and ability to juggle a full-time job, pursuit of education passion, and life in the Windy City!
So to be honest, up until my freshman year of college, I was gung-ho on becoming an orthodontist (considering I hate teeth, I don’t exactly know why this was the case). I wish I had a fabulous story that explained my epiphany to become a nurse, but the reality is that one random day freshman year I vividly remember waking up, calling my mom, and saying “I think I’m going to apply to nursing school.” My mom is a nurse, my aunt is a nurse, and both my grandmas are nurses, so it’s in my blood per se, but I’ve just decided to call it divine intervention.
Your personal and professional brand is ultimately how you want the world to perceive you, which is so incredibly important and not nearly emphasized enough in the world of nursing. I’d like to think my “personal brand” revolves around inclusive leadership – through being aware of my own thoughts and behaviors, creating a culture of curiosity and empathy, structuring processes to mitigate bias, and holding myself and others accountable for addressing bias in words and actions.
We only get one shot at this crazy, beautiful thing called life! In every single day, there are endless possibilities to learn, grow, and love.
As nurses, we truly have the ability to impact people’s lives in unimaginable ways and it is such a privilege to care for them.
I always tell people one of hardest parts of the whole process is actually applying. Researching programs and writing applications can be so daunting, but don’t doubt yourself for one minute, you absolutely can do it!
I actually really enjoy going to work while in school. It’s interesting to learn about let’s say, cardiology, from a provider’s perspective and then go to work and have a patient with cardiac disease. I’m able to kind of pick the MD, NP, or PA’s brain on their reasoning for ordering certain tests or medications, that way it sticks better in my brain. Something that was super challenging for me in the beginning was balancing my personal life, and I have to give a big shout-out to my friends and family, specifically my twin sister, Melanie, and my boyfriend, Colin, for making me take study breaks to relax and have a little bit of fun.
I believe nurses have a central and critical role to play to address the frequent issue of health inequity locally and abroad; we have an ethical responsibility to provide excellent care, to acknowledge inequities, to emphasize that everyone’s life is of equal value, and to push for change. I am not so naïve to think that, I, a single person can solve the kinds of massive problems we have in healthcare, but a single person spearheading many others can. I believe becoming a doctorally-prepared family nurse practitioner will further equip me with the knowledge, skills and experience I need to become a strong activist for health equity.
I expect nursing to absolutely explode in the next few years. Not only are so many more people obtaining their terminal degree in nursing practice, whether it be a DNP or PhD, but nursing careers now range from informatics to public health to midwifery, offering a little bit of something for everyone. In the short-term, my goal is to provide primary care focused on risk reduction in underserved patient populations and to work with a university hospital to construct processes to combat health inequities in both local and global capacities. I’m not exactly sure where that will take me long-term, but I’m just going to roll with it!
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