Melanie Kasper

I attribute all my medical knowledge to Dr. Thomas Lessaris, a lead physician I worked for in an internal medicine and PEDS office in North Carolina. When I first started, Pam and I did not get off to a good start - he reminded me of Dr. House, and we all bought him a cane for Christmas one time for that exact reason. But once we got past our differences, he taught me so much about just everything. We did in-office procedures and different things, and there were 4 different doctors, but he was just a doctor that really knew a lot of things in depth. There's another doctor who actually gave me the chance to get into what I'm doing now, and I'll never forget that doctor. I kept getting turned away because I didn't have experience, and when he was about to do the same thing, I said, look, you're gonna turn me away because I don't have experience, but how do I get it? No one's gonna give it to me. He said, because you were bold enough to even ask me that question, I'm gonna hire you. And he did. They really just were very influential in my nursing career.

The best career advice I received wasn't really advice in the traditional sense, but came from a doctor I worked for in North Carolina named Dr. Thomas Lessaris. He was our lead physician in an internal medicine and PEDS office. When I first started, we did not get off to a good start - he reminded me of Dr. House, and we all bought him a cane for Christmas one time for that exact reason. But once we got past our differences, he taught me so much about just everything. We did in-office procedures and different things, and there were 4 different doctors, but he was just a doctor that really knew a lot of things in depth. I attribute all my medical knowledge to him. There's another doctor who gave me a chance when everyone else turned me away because I didn't have experience. When he was about to do the same thing, I said, look, you're gonna turn me away because I don't have experience, but how do I get it? No one's gonna give it to me. He said, because you were bold enough to even ask me that question, I'm gonna hire you. And he did. They were both very influential in my nursing career.

The advice I would give to them is to be sure that your heart is in it, that you're dedicated, and that you go in compassionately, and continue to use that compassion throughout your career. Focus on the fact that what you're learning in school is only the meta, the portion that you have to be taught, but the real world experience is where you're going to learn everything. So you always want to stick with someone during your rounds that doesn't cut corners, because you don't want to learn that way.

The biggest challenge is trying to find a job if you have no experience. Another thing would be probably that there's just a lack of nurses right now, just in the industry itself. As for opportunities, I feel in this industry you have a plethora of opportunities. I mean, you can advance your career all the way to a PhD now, I believe. There's tons of certificates out there you can get that can enhance you in whatever field you want to be in. If you want to specialize in pediatrics, you can get a specialized pediatric certificate, so there's a lot of opportunity to move around in the industry once you get in to where you find something you really like, and then you can get more certifications to be looked at over other people that might not have those, but still have that same experience.

I would say definitely authenticity, like being authentic, being your real self, being honest, being accurate and thorough. One thing for me at work and outside work too is I constantly double-check. If I don't know something, I'm gonna research everything I can before I have to go ask somebody. I like to try and find it myself. And dedication - that's a huge one for me. Because if you don't want to be here, and you're not gonna work, you shouldn't be here.