STORY #1
An Interview with Dorothy Bowers, RN, RCC Class of 2000, who is working on completing her BSN

About Going Back for Higher Education in Nursing to Reach One’s Personal Goals

“I missed it when I left it and that’s why I knew I needed to go back. I definitely knew that was a part of me; it’s a piece of my personality being in a classroom environment, a setting of learning enriching myself but naturally part of me but I didn’t know it until it was gone, and I was lonely, and a little sad seeing my friends going to school knowing I wanted to go…. I had to get back to it.”

“You have to decide to make the cut of your hours or adjust your schedule. I didn’t have much of a problem with that. You need to have that support of your boss behind you, you really do. It could be a disastrous situation trying to keep employment as well as trying to better yourself. So I always say, if your boss is for it, do it, as well as with the tuition reimbursement. That’s another challenge in life, the financial management. Being a single mom and having a home and a mortgage yet knowing that I needed to pay for my education it’s a little tricky but I am willing to work at it. You also have to drop the bad baggage because you need to know when you have to cut, and make the change, you just got to.”

WE MUST FINISH THOSE DEGREES

“So I see my educational piece fulfilling me but also helping any client that I come in contact with. I remember one of my professors talking about that and I wasn’t believing her, but now I believe it. We must finish those degrees. Sometimes along the way with graduate programs it may take longer than usual; that’s the good thing because we can pace ourselves compared to before, racing against the challenge of time. I can do this according to my needs and expectations but yet time availability is always the question when you already have a job in the field and you are trying to get that higher degree.”

“Now I think it is time for us to be fulfilled and enriched professionally and I’m at that point right now where the money, yes, is good but I need something a little bit more. The money has to be there for me to live but right now but I know that it’s really that final piece, the BSN and Masters where I am able to help my clients to get the knowledge that they need to help better themselves. What’s the long term goal? I’m looking at the long term, preventative health and nursing, and to be honest that brings it back to community.”

A BACHELOR’S DEGREE IS A DIFFERENT TYPE OF SCHOOLING I APPRECIATE IT- A LOT MORE THINKING

A BSN is a different type of schooling, which to be honest, I appreciate. It’s a lot more thinking power compared to the physical work in the lab and at the sites. It does give me less stress than being the original nursing student. I think if some the associate graduate students and graduates hear that that will spur them to want to go on.

“A lot of us got out of that program and said, “Oh my God I’m free. I’ll never go back. But going back is less stressful. As a BSN student it’s nice to know that you already have it but that I’m going on with it. I like that.”

About Becoming a Future Nurse Educator and Faculty Member having come from RCC

“RCC nursing graduates need to know that the door is always open, or even have a sense of responsibility, that they should come back. I just can’t seem to break this relationship with RCC. I love it but also I feel that the door was open and welcome to me. I think with this mentoring program that we have here right now, that that will happen a lot more. I’m actually talking and encouraging others who graduated from the school and letting them know about the alumni web base as communication to bring us back in.”

BE PROUD OF RCC, GIVE BACK TO RCC

“The database of the alumni is a good focus to show the wonderful things that we are doing out there to represent the school. It’s not just that I am a nurse but I also represent Roxbury Community College very proudly, very outwardly as well as with my actions, and I think we should start taking credit for that as a school. We have many nurses out here… here doing things that others have not been exposed to yet and I think the students and graduates as well as the school should get the credit for that really.”

“I would just encourage the alumni again to give back, to remember where they come from.You hear that old saying but never have I felt that stronger than with this institution. I say that because Roxbury’s classic symbol is helping each other, helping others that may have fewer resources of help for themselves. I feel like we can do more by making sure that the students and graduates are ready and able to give back, to further their education and to come back to RCC to teach.”

An interview with Dorothy Bowers, RN, Diabetes and Asthma Nurse Educator at Roxcomp Community Health Center, working per diem at Mass General and in home care too, raising two teens, a BSN student, a mentor, a member of the RCC Nursing Advisory Board, and former RCC Nursing open lab facilitator, along with Dean JoAnn Mulready-Shick, March 2006

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