Stephanie Clarke, BSN, RN

Honestly, a lot of it I would attribute to my parents. They've been so supportive to me throughout my whole life. Even through nursing school, I would go home and I would just break down about how stressed I was, and I would get down upon myself, and I would be like, I can't do this, I'm not gonna be a good nurse, and they were always so supportive and encouraging to me throughout those 4 years and throughout my whole life. They've always believed in me and given me the confidence to keep going and feel like, okay, I'm having a bad day, but I can do this, and I don't need to give up on myself. My husband too has been instrumental in my success. We've been together since high school, and he's definitely seen me at my lowest points in my life, and he's always supported me. Even when we went to different schools through college in different states, he would drive up from Indiana if I had a bad weekend, and he would sit with me and study with me and quiz me and ask me questions that were gonna be on my test. He was really my rock throughout those four years. I would say if it wasn't for my parents and Ben, I don't think I would have gotten through nursing school, or even been able to have the confidence in myself to take on this new supervisor role.

The best advice I've received from all the nurses that I know is that you just have to find what you're passionate about, find your niche, and go to work every day excited to be there and wanting to make a difference. Not everyone's the same, and not everybody is gonna love what everyone else loves. For me, I know a lot of people probably wouldn't enjoy my line of work, but I love it. Some of my friends work with kids, or babies, or adults, or do home healthcare, and I think in any career in general, there's not just a cookie-cutter way of doing it. You just kind of have to listen to your heart and find out what you're passionate about, because I feel like a lot of times you work harder in places that you're more passionate about. No matter what your profession is, just go to work every day working your hardest and trying to make a difference in what you do, and just leave work feeling good about the day that you had. Whenever I clock out, I want to feel good and feel like I made a difference within those 12 hours of being there.

The best advice I would have is that you always need to advocate for yourself, in any industry, especially as a woman. I think, especially being young out of school and not really being super familiar with the workplace environment, it is easy to get taken advantage of and to have people walk all over you, or for people who are older than you to try to push stuff off on you that isn't your job. A big thing that I've learned being almost a year out of school and being a nurse for about a year now is that you have to be an advocate for your patients, but you also have to be an advocate for yourself. I think sometimes, especially soft-spoken girls, can just kind of be like, oh, I don't want an issue, I don't want this, but I think it's important as a young woman to be able to advocate for yourself and stand up for yourself and set boundaries in the workplace. One, you're going to earn people's respect, but also, you don't want to put up with things that aren't acceptable in any workplace environment that you're in. As a young woman coming out of school, people are thinking that, you know, oh, that's somebody that we can just kind of push around, and setting it off from the bat that you have boundaries and you're nice but you also want respect, I think is an important thing. Actually setting boundaries for myself in the workplace has made my coworkers and management respond better to me, because I think they respect me now more. So I would say being an advocate for your patients, but also being an advocate for yourself, and setting professional, respectful work boundaries is super important.

One of the biggest challenges I've faced is learning to stand up for what's right. I've always kind of been a non-confrontational person throughout my entire life, and a little more soft-spoken, and I just want to get along with everybody and I don't want issues. But I've realized that being a nurse, a lot of it is see something, say something, and you have to be an advocate for your patients, and as hard as it is, you have to stand up for what's right. For me, that's something I've struggled with just because I don't like having issues, I don't like conflict, but I've had to have that because I've known it's the right thing to do. Especially in the supervisor role, I unfortunately sometimes have to write people up if they're not doing what they're supposed to do, or step in when treatments haven't gotten done or the nurse is off the floor and I can't find her. As hard as that is for me, I think about it and I'm like, well, if I keep letting this go on and nothing gets done, the person that's getting hurt at the end of the day is the patient, and that's not fair. I've had to grow more of a backbone and be more vocal about things. As for opportunities, there's a lot in nursing. You can really do a lot with nursing. There's management, home healthcare, case management, telehealth nursing, multiple floors in the hospital you can work on, teaching level like becoming a clinical instructor or professor, IT nursing, school nursing, aesthetics, hospice nursing. There's a lot of opportunities in this field, and it's really just kind of where your passion lies.

I'm Catholic, so a lot of my values fall into my religious beliefs, but a big one is that work is important, but it's not your entire life. I really think work-life balance is super important and making time for the people around you. On my off days, I try to make an effort to go and see my parents. I'm an only child, so I make that a big priority to go home and spend time with them, and see my friends, and spend time with my husband too. I think it's important to recognize you're a person out of work, and you have your own life and other things besides just your profession. Another big value is trying to look at the glass half full. Not every day is going to be a great day, but waking up and being like, well, at least I'm alive, at least I'm healthy, at least I'm able to walk, at least I'm able to provide food for myself. In my line of work, there are some people that are so down bad, and it really puts things in perspective. I go to work and I have a patient who's a paraplegic who can't do anything for themselves, and it really makes me realize we are so fortunate, and sometimes I don't think people realize what we have, a lot of people wish that they had. A big value of mine that I've tried to be better at is looking at the positive of things, looking at the glass half full, and just being appreciative of where I am in life, and not comparing myself to other people, and just focusing on what I'm doing and my goals and my life, and realizing I'm super fortunate to have what I have.