MBU Nursing Grad Shares Experiences Providing Cardiac Care
Not every nurse gets to work with the heart every day. But for MBU grad Alysha Howard (’13), employed at Wilson Memorial Hospital in Binghamton, New York, touching or seeing the body’s most important organ is all in a day’s work.
“The heart and cardiac care have always interested me,” she says. “My grandfather was a cardiologist, and I remember my cousin and I running around the house playing with his old stethoscope. We would listen to each other’s hearts, even though we had no idea what we were doing!”
After graduating from college, Howard worked in the Special Care Unit at Mercy Health Hospital and Trauma Center in Janesville, Wisconsin. “I got my first introduction to cardiac nursing,” she says, “and I loved it.
In 2015, Howard and her husband, Todd (also a 2013 MBU grad), moved to Conklin, New York, where she started working in Wilson Memorial Hospital’s Intensive Care Unit.
“Working in ICU was a good learning experience,” she remembers. “I learned how to treat very critical patients. I also had to put my critical thinking skills to the test.” But as she says, “There wasn’t much specific cardiac care, and I missed it.”
A year later, she was offered a position in the Cardiac Catheterization Unit. She has been working there for the past six months.
“I love my job,” she says. “It’s the perfect balance of patient care as well as a new aspect of procedural nursing.”
But it’s also challenging. “I have already been in some very ethically challenging situations,” she says. “I am thankful [the nursing staff at MBU] had us contemplate how we would handle such situations.”
Howard enjoys serving with her husband in their local church. They also enjoy camping and playing sports together and look forward to more outdoor adventures with their new puppy, Hunter.
Go here to find out more information about the nursing program at MBU: https://www.mbu.edu/major/nursing/