Mariel Day’s Path to Nursing
Mariel Day, a unit nurse manager, always had an idea that wanted to be in some type of healthcare. She originally thought that she wanted to be a physician assistant. However, Mariel shadowed a PA at a local PCP’s office, only to discover that this wasn’t the career for her.
Later, Mariel took a health science technology course at her high school. This class applied the teachings of an anatomy and physiology course to the healthcare world. This course, which she enjoyed tremendously, was taught by a former nurse. It was this class and teacher that inspired her to go down the path of becoming a registered nurse.
Mariel’s education began directly following high school. She attended the University of Rhode Island Nursing program where she received her Bachelor of Science in Nursing in four and a half years. Following the completion of this degree, she was required to pass the state boards to become a registered nurse.
Mariel now works in a more administrative role as a TeleICU nurse manager. She typically works in the office Monday through Friday every week, where she virtually monitors ICU patients both within the building and within the region. Her role as a TeleICU nurse manager is to provide continuous monitoring and support for these patients, as well as helping to support the staff and help them to troubleshoot with technology and answer any of their questions.
In addition to this, Mariel works in the role of a nurse when there are staffing issues and works as a bedside ICU nurse a couple of times each month to keep up her skills. This allows her to make sure she is up to date with both the program and what it takes to care for ICU patients.
Although she enjoys working in administration and helping to make a change, Mariel’s favorite part of her career is ultimately the clinical work. She loves getting to care for and support patients, as well as their families, clinically.
Mariel’s least favorite part of her job would have to be some aspects of the administrative part. Having to enforce new policies that she doesn’t feel is in the best interest of the staff or having to ask the staff things that she doesn’t necessarily agree with.
Mariel wholeheartedly believes that health careers are a wonderful option. She also believes that there is a great amount of opportunity in healthcare and that you can almost always find a position that will be the right fit for you. However, Mariel recommends that if you are interested in working in healthcare to spend time shadowing and/or interviewing professionals within each field so that you can get a good feel for the work required in those roles and determine which one is your fit. She also says that while any health career paths require quite a bit of education, none of which are particularly easy, the energy and effort you put in will pay off in the end.