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Interviewer: Are you considering a career as a nurse, but you don't quite know where to start? Matthew Anderson is a nurse at Ï㽶ÊÓƵ of Utah Health Care, and we're going to ask him how he got to where he is, what kind of education it took, his experience with finding a job, and what he's learned about being successful. First of all, thank you very much for taking time to give us an insight into you, and your life and your career.

Matthew: Absolutely. I'm glad to do it.

Interviewer: What made you decide to pursue this path, to become a nurse?

Matthew: Yeah. So I was actually born with a congenital heart defect called coarctation of the aorta. At six days old I was life-flighted and had a surgery, and so I've had frequent contact with health care since. You know, I've a yearly check-up with cardiologist and everything and had a few procedures throughout my life, and as part of those was in contact with nurses. And having that right nurse that just demonstrated appropriate compassion, responded to you appropriately, made all the difference. And that's kind of where my desire to become a nurse, again, was just from those nurses that I had that made a difference in my care.

Interviewer: So you knew you wanted to do that. You had some very specific reasons why. What was the next step at that point? Was it to start looking at schools, or was there some preparation to do before that?

Matthew: Well, actually what I did was when I was in high school, my school offered a CNA course, Certified Nursing Assistant course. And so I said, "You know, that's the bottom of the food chain. I'll take that course." And because I wasn't quite sure if I wanted to do nursing. You know, there's kind of the stigma of a male nurse and everything on that. So I said, "Hey, I'll take this course. If I enjoy that, I'm pretty sure I'll enjoy nursing." And I did, and I really liked it. I love having a personal contact with people, you know, and just being able to help people in their time of need, in that really vulnerable state.

And so that's kind of what started it for me, and then I guess for it to continue on with education and everything, I actually did a little bit longer of a route. I went to community college first and got an associate's in pre-nursing, but then I transferred to Brigham Young Ï㽶ÊÓƵ, and their nursing program once you get in, is three years long, as opposed to most universities it's two years once you're in their program. And so it actually took me about five years to get my degree.

So a little bit longer than most paths, but you can get an associate's in nursing. That's what my wife did, which it took her about three years. Usually it takes about a year of prereqs, and then two years in the program. Or if you get a bachelor's, you do about a year to two year prereqs, and then two to three years once you're in the program.

However, the Institute of Medicine recommends that all nurses get their bachelor's. So whether you start with an associate's and then go back and get your bachelor's, it is recommended that you get that higher degree. It just gives you more, kind of, a global training, and helps you kind of see a bigger picture than just direct patient care.

Interviewer: Yeah. So it sounds like you could get a career or a job in nursing, and then continue your education if you wanted to continue it that way.

Matthew: Absolutely.

Interviewer: And so, how difficult was it to get into nursing school? I'm of the impression that I've heard that it's difficult.

Matthew: It is. Yes. And it really depends on the program you apply to, but it's pretty competitive nowadays. It's one of those careers that's been growing. It's expected to continue to grow. The average GPA for the program I applied to at BYU was 3.88 to get in. So it's pretty high. And I think that's probably the highest in the state, but you know, I work with CNAs who've worked in the hospital for 10 years and they haven't even been able to get into nursing school. So it can be difficult. So you have to prepare and do really well in your prereq courses, kind of the GPA. Some prefer work experience. It kind of depends on the school. They all have a little bit different criteria, and that can be difficult for training people as well.

I have a co-worker who took classes here at the U, and then she's trying to apply to SLCC's program, but they didn't accept her classes at the U because it didn't have a lab. Even though they weren't different credits, it didn't have the lab, and so that can be really frustrating as well. And so, you kind of have to do your research in advance, know where you want to go and figure out, and talk to people who they're advisors, everything like that, really figure out what you need to do.

Interviewer: If somebody doesn't have that huge GPA, are there other routes that you are aware of? Or is that really kind of a roadblock right there?

Matthew: Well, for some programs. So BYU, that's a big part of theirs. It just kind of depends on the school. Some weigh in work experience more as part of their application. There are, you know, service and leadership components that kind of help with the application. Also, some schools will let you buffer at the SAT and your GPA. So if you do really well on the ACT or SAT or something, that can kind of buffer your score as well. So there's different things you can do. Really, just knowing your school, you know, your target market if you're trying to get into.

Interviewer: Yeah, and maybe talking to an advisor and just saying, "Hey, my GPA is not that strong, but I'm really passionate about it. What can I do here?"

Matthew: Absolutely. And it really depends on the semester too, because you know, as the average . . . I had friends at BYU that had a 3.4 and got in. And so it just depends on the year as well. Even not as many applicants apply this year, and there's a number of factors that go into it as well.

Interviewer: How hard is it then to get a job?

Matthew: It really goes . . . it fluctuates. So you know when there's nursing shortages, it's not hard at all. You can pretty much work wherever you want. They'll hire new grads to ICUs and EDs where they don't typically hire new grads to, and so it really just depends. You know, back in 2008, when there was kind of a hiring freeze on nurses, really hard to get a job initially.

When I got out of school, it was a little bit harder. So it took some of my classmates a few months, which really is not long. We took a few months to find a job, but in that hiring freeze, it was difficult to find a job. And so, it just kind of depends. Right now is a pretty good time. You can find a job pretty easily.

Interviewer: So there are opportunities then to move up and move around. I mean, what does that kind of look like then?

Matthew: Yeah, absolutely. It really . . . I mean, there are so many avenues. I remember when I graduated, one of my instructors gave us a list of things you could do in nursing, and it had like over 200 different positions. But just here, I work at the Ï㽶ÊÓƵ of Utah here, and you know, on each unit you have your nurses, but then you also have charge nurses.

Also, they have clinical nurse coordinators, who are kind of are quality or scheduling, nurse managers, nurse educators. And there's quality nurses, there's infectious disease nurses. As far as advancing, leadership is a big thing as well. Education is a big thing. Research is kind of another field. Procedural areas, all kind of different areas you can go.

And so sometimes people are like, "You know, I did this for five years, and I got tired with this. So I went over here." And I love that flexibility in nursing.

Interviewer: It's also kind of cool that there are so many opportunities I think. A lot of people just think of the bedside nurse as the nurse, right? But there's a lot of responsibilities and roles that nurses will play and that's . . . continue to expand from what I understand as well, in health care. Yeah.

Mathew: Absolutely.

Interviewer: So what advice would you give somebody, you're at a party, somebody is talking about that they're considering becoming a nurse. What advice would you have for a person considering that career?

Matthew: I guess going back to that, just remembering your "why," remembering why you're doing it, because you'll have times you're like, "This is not what I signed up for. This isn't what I want to do," you know. Every program of study has their challenges, and in college you're like, "What did I do?" But I think sometimes, you really also kind of have a spiritual journey as well because you're working with people who are near death. And sometimes that can be really taxing, especially when it's somebody young or somebody who's close to death.

Or if I take care of a child who's the same age as my child, and maybe they pass away, that can be very difficult to deal with. And so those things that you don't really think about, that can be emotionally taxing, and so you have to just remember why you did it, and that you're there regardless of the outcome. You're there to care for them the whole way.

But also again, just going . . . If you're preparing to go to nursing school, just do your research. You work hard, but you've got work smart as well. Because I've known people who've worked really hard, and they've gone the wrong direction, and so they have to retake all these prerequisite courses to try and get into nursing school. And it's taken them much longer than it has to have.

Also, sometimes it's better just to plow through things. And we all have different circumstances with families and different things, where you have to take care of needs, but sometimes it's better just to get it done. I've seen people who have stayed in school for far too long, as well. They take the 10 year route, as opposed to a 2 year route.

Maybe work part time, and go to school full time, as opposed to working full time and going to school part time. And get through school, because the difference between HCA pay and RN pay is a big difference. And so just get it done, get it out of the way, and then also it opens opportunities further for advancement once you're a nurse, much more than when you're an HCA if that's kind of the route that you're doing.

But really, like I said, know your schools you're going to be applying to. Know what they need. Know what kind of sets them apart, especially if you're GPA is not as strong. Know what can set you apart, leadership things you can have, everything like that.

Interviewer: It sounds like try to get through school as quickly as possible, if you can work in the field while you're going to school. I'd imagine that there are a lot of advantages to that.

Matthew: For sure.

Interviewer: Not only, you know, being able to pay for your education as you go, but really, making what you learn in the classroom stick because you're using it.

Matthew: Absolutely.

Interviewer: And then just remember that "why."

Matthew: Yeah. Absolutely. Remember that "why." It makes a big difference.

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