Current MSN-FNP Student
Tell us your name and your expected graduation date.
My name is Miranda Kerley. My expected graduation date is Spring 2021.
What's your favorite part about being a nurse?
Oh my goodness, I don't know if I can say favorite parts. I work in the ER, so I get to deal with anything and everything. Every patient's different, every experience is different. I just love the variety of what I get to deal with every day I go to work. Never the same.
When did you decide you wanted to become a nurse practitioner?
Oh, that was a couple of years ago. I actually started a program, but due to clinical placement I stopped because I couldn't find anywhere to do clinicals and then my husband actually pushed me to try to go ahead and get my Master's, 'cause he feels like I'll be really good at it. So I agreed and started back this summer, so that was probably four years ago.
Tell us about your educational background.
2008 I started at a tech college and I got my Associate's degree. I worked for two years in the hospital and I did my Bachelor's with the University of South Carolina and then like I said, I started my Master's about four years ago. I was able to complete some classes and then took - probably be about a two-year break - and then I started here this summer.
What attracted you to the program at Carson-Newman and how did you know it was a good fit for you?
One of the big attractions of course, was advertisement for clinical placement. The area that I'm from, Charleston, South Carolina, we have probably five to seven different nursing programs, so there are students everywhere. We have the Medical University also, so we're just kinda jam-packed. So finding clinical placements is super, super hard. You could wait six months before you can actually get in somewhere, so, it really slows down your progress. So when I saw that Carson-Newman was willing to find placement for me, I jumped on board very quickly.
What advice do you have for potential students considering the program?
If you're considering the online program, you need to be very tab-oriented, you need to have set schedules for yourself of when you're gonna have family time, when you're gonna work. And when you're gonna have school time. Be very, very organized.
Have you been able to integrate what you've learned from the program into your current career, and if so, what have you been able to incorporate?
So because I'm just starting, really, with this program this summer, I would say as a triage nurse in the ER, my assessments, writing up subjective and objective, have very much increased instead of just kind of blank comments like "patient looks fine, we're good to go." I'm very, very descriptive with details in my subjective and objective when I'm doing triage on patients.
How did working with a dedicated student support advisor impact your educational experience?
So working with Amy has been absolutely fantastic. She responds to everything super quick and she's very friendly. She's made actually joining Carson-Newman probably the easiest experience I've had with school, so it's been fantastic. I can't picture having to work with anybody any better at their job.
Do you find the faculty to be accessible responsible, supportive and professional?
We are the first online class so of course there's humps and bumps that we're all trying to get used to, but as far as having any issues, I mean, every teacher has been able to get back to me if I've had any questions. We're all kind of adapting to the new program, but so far so good.
