Taking a second to gloat

I am not someone who likes to talk about my success. I think that can come off as arrogant even if I’m not trying to be. However, in this instance, I’ve got no problem gloating about my wife’s success. (She’s going to hate that I’m writing about this by the way).

She’s in the same boat as me. Outside of a social media post, she probably wouldn’t bring the topic up to anyone. However, my wife can now proudly call herself a doctor and that’s something to be proud of. She got her doctorate in nursing practice from UW-Oshkosh over the weekend.

She walked the stage with nearly 60 other doctoral graduates and was hooded by faculty members that had achieved their own doctoral degrees before her.

She has received a lot of “congratulations” messages whether via social media or directly but she also sacrificed quite a bit to be able to get through the program.

There were plenty of nights where her friends had been together while Kaitlyn was at home studying for a test the next week. She had to quit her job and work as an unpaid intern for nearly 40 hours a week over the last year. She did most of the work her doctor was doing while she visited with patients. All the while, she was recording notes for both the clinic and her school after her shifts.

She instituted her DNP scholarly project which aimed at educating and ultimately reducing falls in a clinical setting. Her project helped staff discuss falls with their patients and allowed for at-risk patients to be better educated on prevention techniques. She has attended conferences educating others on her project and has even said that the education field might be something she’s interested in as she goes through her career.

All of this combined with classes that were actually teaching her about the diagnosing and treating of illness or injuries, billing and insurance and any number of other things that go along with being a provider.

She loves nursing and she said she will always love nursing first. She said the experience she has gained from actually working in the clinic for five years will help her when she begins her job as a nurse practitioner. She also generally loves helping people and working as a nurse, nurse practitioner and maybe an educator down the line allows her to fulfill that passion.

It’s cool to grow with someone who is as motivated and hard-working as she is. In doing so, she motivates me to be a better person and to work harder. However, I will not be going to get my doctorate any time soon. We joke that we both spent the same amount of time in school, but she just happened to get a much more prestigious degree than my bachelor’s degree.

Speeding Through Life

Neal H ogden Editor