Woody Georges, DNP

FIU Nursing provided a great opportunity for me, especially after I was honorably discharged from the Navy. I was a Corpsman, so I was looking for a program that would be tailored to my past experiences. FIU Nursing had a BSN program that was interesting, and I wouldn't have to start from scratch. It would allow me to piggyback off of my past experiences and put them toward my nursing degree, so that was great. I had a better understanding of disease processes and pathologies because I was exposed to different clinical settings when I was in the service, which helped with the didactic learning. I figured I would go down the nursing route and then eventually become a nurse practitioner, where I'd be able to do a lot of what I did in the service. All of the professors were great. This program was separate from the traditional BSN program that FIU Nursing had, as it was more accelerated. The professors were more patient and knew we had some background knowledge coming into the program. They helped the students get through it to the point where it seemed like there was no time lost. It was an opportunity to harness what we already knew and put it in the clinical or inpatient setting as a nurse. Doing my rotation at a hospital while working in the emergency department for my clinical was memorable. Graduation day was a huge relief. It came at a moment when a lot of restrictions from the pandemic were starting to come down. It was surreal because we could barely find clinical sites toward the middle of the program. Getting to that moment and realizing we were all able to complete this during the pandemic was a huge feat. It felt incredible.