Name: Kat Davis
Year: Sophomore
Major: Nursing
Hometown: Raleigh, NC
Kat Davis is a sophomore who was recently accepted into the prestigious nursing school at UNCG. She is a North Carolina native, who grew up in Raleigh and moved to Greensboro last year when she started college.
Why do you want to become a nurse?
“I didn’t even really know I wanted to become a nurse. Originally, I came to UNCG to be a dance major. When I came to SOAR, it was dance stuff and everything. But my idea was that I was going to go to grad school for occupational/physical therapy. And then someone started to explain to me what you could do with a nursing degree and what nurses could actually do. And I was like ‘Oh, you know, that’s a shorter degree; it sounds a lot more inline with what I wanted to do’ so I was like, I’ll give it a try. I dropped all my dance classes and picked up all the pre-nursing ones. And who says I can’t do dance on the side? And then I really knew I wanted to be a nurse when I got my CNA (Certified Nursing Assistant) last summer and did some clinicals at WakeMed and then started working as a CNA this semester. It feels like what I’m meant to do, you know?”
Did you know how competitive it was to get into the Nursing school here?
“Not when I first came here. I was like, ‘Oh, whatever. I’ll just take these classes’ and then everyone started freaking out and I realized it was actually hard to get into. For the number of applicants v/s acceptances, people like to amp it up and say it’s like 1000 to 1 but they do accept anywhere from 80 to 100, depending on how many they accepted the year prior. And there are several hundred that apply.”
How difficult has it been for you personally? Is it as hard as everyone says it is?
“I think it depends on who you are as a person, because I always try and do too much. And I did do too much but I still got in. You can tell that some people get in and they don’t have any people skills because all they’ve done is study for the past two years so problems may start cropping up when you’re at clinical and you actually have to talk to some other person. As far as how it was to get in, it really depends on how much you can handle but if you don’t have or build, at least, a good work ethic and you don’t utilize that, you’re not gonna do well in general. So I think it lives up to the hype, but take it with a grain of salt. With time managment, anything is possible.”
What is your goal/dream job that would come out of this?
“Honestly, at the end of the day, I just want a cute little family, with a cute little dog, and as far as a career goes, I would like to go to grad school but I’m not married to the idea of it. I think I would like to get my doctorate in nurse practitioning but, at the end of the day, if I’m completely content with being a nurse and I’m loving life and I’m finding that I’m able to use myself according to the gifts I was given, then that’s where I’ll stop. If I find a role in nursing that’s like ‘Yes! This is exactly what I was meant to do. I can stay here forever and be okay’ or if I’m like ‘Well, I kinda hate having other people tell me what to do, so it makes sense to go back and get a degree,’ then I’ll do that. It’s open-ended which is another really good thing about nursing versus something like therapy, because for that you have to go to grad school and even then you’re set in that job, but with nursing you can literally do anything. Personally, I know I don’t want to stay on a floor the whole time like a cardio flood, so I think something like labor and delivery or ER would be really cool because you’re on your feet, you have to use your brain. I think I’d like something quick paced. I think I’d be scared out of my mind the first couple of times but that’s something I’d really like.”
Kat Davis is an example of how hard work and determination can truly help you on the road to finding your passion.