After graduating from the University of North Dakota with a degree in biology, Bemidji native Nicole Anne McKinnon thought she had her career path mapped out. She would leverage her biology degree to build a career in eye care. But a trip to Ethiopia brought her back home to Bemidji and opened her eyes to what she really wanted to do with her life – take care of others as a nurse.<\/p>\n
“I was working at an eye clinic in Grand Forks and I had the opportunity to travel to Addis Abada in Ethiopia for a medical mission trip,” the 27-year-old Bemidji High School graduate said. “It was on this trip I discovered that nursing was what I wanted to do. I was able to help a lot of people on my trip, and I kept thinking that if I had more knowledge and skills, I could do even more for the people I had gotten to know.”<\/p>\n
After returning home, McKinnon’s parents had a conversation with a Northwest Technical College staffer at a local recreation center. That conversation led her to NTC, where she found the knowledge and skills she needed in the college’s newly launched direct-to-RN track.<\/p>\n
“It would be a great fit with my previous degree, as I would have all the other requirements finished and would just have the nursing-specific courses to complete,” she said.<\/p>\n
NTC’s program allowed McKinnon to leverage the degree and experience she already had to become a registered nurse in just two more years of study, rather than another four.<\/p>\n
Having completed NTC’s two-year associate’s degree program in Generic Track Nursing, McKinnon is now ready to pursue a career as a public health nurse.<\/p>\n
“My travels confirmed for me that I really want to work in the public health field, and mainly with those who are underserved,” she says. “I really hope to get a job with Indian Health Services, either in Red Lake or Cass Lake. I hope that I will get the chance to help more people in our community.”<\/p>\n
McKinnon says NTC’s program has prepared her for the next step in her nursing career.<\/p>\n
“I really enjoyed all the hands-on experience. Not only in the lab setting, but also during my clinical time. I had the opportunity to learn a lot and experience many different nursing settings and situations.”<\/p>\n
The smaller size of the program ensured she had the chance to build close relationships with both her classmates and her instructors.<\/p>\n
“If I needed any extra help or clarification, if there was something I was unsure about, they were there to help,” she said. “The professional relationships I was able to build with my instructors have been wonderful. They have been able to help with networking, the job search and with exploring new opportunities in the nursing field.”<\/p>\n
“I have greatly enjoyed my time at NTC,” McKinnon says. “It was a big change coming from the University of North Dakota to NTC, but the transition was smooth. I feel very confident to go out into my nursing career with how my instructors prepared me.”<\/p>\n
Learn more about the Generic Track Nursing program at Northwest Technical College at (218) 333-6600, <\/em><\/strong>admissions@ntcmn.edu<\/em><\/strong><\/a>, or by visiting the college<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" After graduating from the University of North Dakota with a degree in biology, Bemidji native Nicole Anne McKinnon thought she had her career path mapped out. She would leverage her biology degree to build a career in eye care. But a trip to Ethiopia brought her back home to Bemidji and opened her eyes to what she really wanted to do with her life \u2013 take care of others as a nurse.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":616,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[31,3,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-422","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-success","category-people","category-top-story"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ntcmn.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/422","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ntcmn.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ntcmn.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ntcmn.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ntcmn.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=422"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.ntcmn.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/422\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1812,"href":"https:\/\/www.ntcmn.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/422\/revisions\/1812"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ntcmn.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/616"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ntcmn.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=422"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ntcmn.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=422"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ntcmn.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=422"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}