From the December 2024 RNFA eNews
Credentials
FNP
Student Status
Current student in NIFA’s RNFA program
City & State
Stockton, CA
Current Position
I work part-time as an FNP in a procedural care unit at St. Joseph Medical Center in Stockton.
How did you get into nursing in the first place?
I grew up in Cameroon. At about 7 years old I started noticing that women during childbirth would be screaming and yelling. As a child, I wanted to do something for those women. Women shouldn’t be in that much pain giving birth. I wanted to become an OB/GYN doctor.
What was your path to becoming an FNP?
After coming to the U.S. at age 21, I took pre-med courses at Cal State Stanislaus in Turlock, CA. But after I graduated with a bachelor’s degree in biological sciences, I looked at my children and decided I wasn’t going to pursue my medical career; I was going to raise my children. I had become an LVN with the idea that I could work while in medical school to keep from being overwhelmed by bills and student loans, and during my pre-med training I worked as a pharmacy tech for 6 years.
After receiving my bachelor’s degree, I started looking for an RN program and it was very difficult. No university would accept me after looking at my transcript; they couldn’t understand why I wanted to be an RN. Finally, Delta College accepted me and I finished my RN in two semesters because I already had a degree. I got hired at St. Joseph in the ER and worked in the ER for almost 3.5 years.
At that point, my kids said, “Mom, we’re all grown, why don’t you go ahead and finish your degree? You always wanted to do this.” That’s when I got into a nurse practitioner program through the University of Texas-Arlington. The didactic part was online; the preceptorship had to be done in the clinic, and I had to find different preceptors for the various specialties: family medicine, geriatric, pediatric, OB/GYN. This was also during COVID; nobody was accepting students. It was hard. But I did complete more than the required 720 clinical hours.
How did you come to choose perioperative nursing?
After completing and passing the boards, I took a position in a clinic working four days per week. The insurance and bureaucracy really bothered me. Patients wait and wait for a procedure, waiting for insurance approval. People work all their lives here in America and they can’t afford their meds. What kind of system is this? The system is really bad. I was having headaches and realized I needed to find something else.
A friend of mine said, “Addie, maybe we can first assist.” I was reluctant. I thought, “That’s not me.” And then I said, “Let me go and try.” The training is like a whole different world. In surgery you have to re-learn everything. So I started doing that. I went to my first SutureStar workshop in March. Dean and Stephanie are great. I learn a lot through them. It’s about practicing, practicing, practicing. As I am going through the training, I am liking First Assisting more and more.
You participated in a medical mission to Uganda this year. How was that?
It was an amazing trip! I am so grateful for the scholarship granted to me through NIFA. You can read my Volunteer Reflections on the Mission to Heal website. Going on the mission also helped me continue to learn skills for First Assisting. Woah! I didn’t know this can be done like this! I really wanted to do missions, and now, no matter what I’m doing, I want to give maybe three months out of the year to missions. I was very, very happy I did it and I am participating in another one this coming February.
And what about your kids, who told you to go back to earn your advanced degree?
My four boys are all grown now. One has a master’s in mechanical engineering; one a bachelor’s in civil engineering, the third is working on a PhD in biomedical engineering, and the fourth one just started college. I gave up my medical career (at least, the idea of being a doctor) for them, but I don’t regret it at all.