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How to become a nurse: Career advice from 3New Orleans-area nurses

Updated July 20, 2017 Posted July 20, 2017

By Jennifer Larino, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune

More than 65,000 nurses are employed in Louisiana, making it one of the state’s most common professions. This year, thousands more students and adults will consider entering careers in nursing.

We spoke with three New Orleans-area nurses as part of a series we’re calling The Career Project to learn about how they got their start, their career path and to get their best advice for aspiring nurses.

Photo "EMT/Nursing Pediatric Emergency Simulation - April 2013" by College of DuPage Newsroom licensed under CC BY 2.0

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What is The Career Project?

Photo by Ted Jackson, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune

Kimberly Wilson

This post is part of The Career Project, a long-term series we hope will linkstudents and professionals to share valuable career advice.

Check back with NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune in coming weeks and months toread advice from wide range of professions.

Have an idea or suggestion for a profession that you want to see featured? Know aprofessional who would be a good fit for this series? Contact reporter JenniferLarino at [email protected].

Title: Registered Nurse

Workplace: University Medical Center

mailto:[email protected]



Photo by Chris Granger, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune


Kimberly Wilson, 48, knew she either wanted to be a teacher or a nurse growing up.The Warren Easton graduate opted for nursing after completing two years ofvocational training in health care as part of her high school curriculum.

Education: Wilson grew up in a single-parent home. She enlisted in the U.S. Navyas a way to afford college, serving 4.5 years as an operations specialist onwarships. She used her GI Bill to pay her way through her licensed practicalnursing, or LPN, degree at Orleans Regional Technical Institute, now a part ofDelgado Community College.

Wilson went back to school to become a registered nurse in 2009. LPNs providemore basic nursing care, while RNs administer medication, treatments, and offereducation advice to patients.

Military: Wilson knew she was not interested in a career in the military, so her Navyrecruiter advised she go into a high-need field so she could advance in rank morequickly, hence her role as an operations specialist. She notes there are manymilitary paths, and urges young people to consider it as an option.

Don’t stress about: All nursing programs have a research component. Wilson wasnot a fan of hers, but she plodded through. She said she rarely uses thatinformation in her work today, but it helped her push herself. “I’m not aresearcher,” she said, laughing.

First nursing job: Right out of school at East Haven Care & Rehabilitation Center, anursing home in New Orleans East. “That place sparked my love for the geriatricpopulation,” Wilson said. “I felt like every day I was going to work I was helping mygrandmother.”

Pet peeve: Nurses who don’t take the time to smile and chat with patients. “Youcan’t treat all patients the same,” she said. “This person may need a hug, this onemay not.”




Tough day: Wilson lost her first patient at East Haven on Christmas Day 1996.Losing a patient is always hard, whether they’re older or younger, she said. “Youjust feel sad about it,” she said.

Good day: Wilson had a patient last year who was unexpectedly diagnosed withcancer and had to have a colostomy. For the first part of her month-long hospitalstay, the patient was sad, rarely getting out of bed or moving. Wilson keptencouraging her until and one day the patient has an “aha moment,” smiling,talking and caring for herself.

To this day, the patient calls on Wilson every time she visits the hospital for follow-up care. “It’s things like that that make you smile,” she said.

Pro tip: Nurses who work in a hospital setting, especially in low-income areas,often see the same people return with problems stemming from the same chronicillness, whether diabetes or high blood pressure. Wilson encourages young nursesto persevere with a smile and take the time to educate patients on how to take careof themselves.

“They still need somebody to care, to be able to say ʻHey, don’t do this becausethat’s why you’re here,’” she said. “Sometimes they just don’t know any better.”



Kodi Craft


Title: Registered Nurse, Director of Critical Care Services

Workplace: Touro Infirmary

Kodi Craft, 38, admits he had “no clue” what he wanted to do in high school. Craft,a graduate of John Ehret High School, signed up for a half-day nursing assistanceprogram at Cullier Career Center in Marrero during his senior year of high school.He was hooked.

Education: Craft chose to study nursing at Southern University in Baton Rouge. Itwas an affordable, in-state school, had a good nursing program, and was ahistorically black university, which was important for Craft. He later earned hismaster’s degree in health care management and administration at the University ofNew Orleans.

First nursing job: Craft knew he wanted to work in an intensive care unit, but noNew Orleans hospitals were hiring recent grads in ICUs at the time. He startedlooking in Atlanta where his sister lived and landed a job in the ICU at EmoryUniversity Hospital. “It was a great foundation,” Craft said.




Challenge: Communicating between physicians. Craft said physicians often havedifferent opinions on what to do with a patient, and nurses are often “the middleman to deliver the message.” You have to “help get everybody on common groundto do what’s best for that patient,” he said. “Sometimes it’s hard when we’re put inthat position.”

Tough day: Craft was working in the neuro-ICU at Emory when he cared for apatient with a massive head bleed who was the same age as he was. “I justremember thinking that ʻWow this could be me,’ and now I’m trying to keep thisperson alive,” he said. “I was on my feet for 11 hours of my 12 hours that day, justconstantly on my feet working.”

Good day: A former patient returned to the hospital and recognized Craft. Shethanked him for putting lotion on her feet when she was on a ventilator. “It’s thesmall things,” he said.

Male nurses: “Don’t think that it’s a woman’s job. A lot of time that’s how it’sdepicted. A nurse is always female. There are men in this job. There are men whoare compassionate.”




Monica Bologna

Photo by David Grunfeld, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune

Advice: It is easy to get lost in books in school, but you also have to prepareyourself emotionally, Craft said. “Sometimes our hard days are much harder thanpeople working in an office,” he said. “You could have worked hard to save a life andyou didn’t do it and that sticks with you.”

Title: Chief Nursing Officer

Workplace: West Jefferson Medical Center

Bologna, 44, remembers taking a trip to a local hospital in elementary school andwatching the nurses care for newborns in the nursery. She was drawn to the idea ofcaring for others, though later she would learn she was better suited emotionallyfor working with adults.

“I felt that was kind of an innate ability of mine to be able to be empathetic andcaring,” she said.

Education: Bologna, a young mother at the time, wanted a school that was close tohome in New Orleans and offered an accelerated bachelor’s degree program fornurses. She chose William Carey University School of Nursing in New Orleans,which offered an 18-month nursing program.

Study hard in: Intro to nursing courses, which teach assessment skills and basicskills like how to put an IV in. “It’s those basic skills you build on every day fromthat point forward,” Bologna said.

First nursing job: Bologna was 23 when she started working at Charity Hospital inNew Orleans, in the neuro step down unit, which provides care to patients who arein between the Intensive Care Unit and the general medical-surgical ward.



Photo by David Grunfeld, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune

Good day: Seeing young, passionate nurses in training on her floor.

Tough day: One of Bologna’s patients went into cardiac arrest multiple times inone day. She had to care for the patient as best she could while keeping the familyinformed and calm. “That becomes very trying on someone. It’s a lot ofresponsibility.”

Mistake young nurses make: “Feeling like you’re supposed to know everythingonce you get out of school,” Bologna said, adding it took her and most nurses sheknows about a year-and-a-half to feel comfortable in their job.

Required reading: Any biography of Florence Nightingale, considered the founderof modern nursing. It will help you “refine your thoughts to what the fundamentalsof her nursing practice were: To care for the sick, to relieve suffering and to heal,”Bologna said.

Pro tip: “We’ve become a task doer profession. We need to re-humanize it. Stop,make eye contact, smile, have a discussion, sit down when you’re talking to apatient. That makes all the difference in the world.”

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