The need for nurses continues to grow. As the health care industry grapples with a nursing shortage—projected to eclipse 78,000 this year—a new generation of nursing students is helping to fill the gap. Although each student is driven by their own experience and will follow a different path, all want to make a difference in patients’ lives. Several St. Louis nursing students recently shared their stories, which illustrate not only the rigor and dedication needed to enter the profession but also the opportunities that come with it.
Critical Decisions
Gavin Wood grew up in a family of nurses, but it wasn’t until his father underwent an intensive spinal cord surgery during his freshman year of high school that he knew he wanted to pursue a career in health care. “After the surgery, there were months of rehab, and the nurses made that patient-care experience supportive and calming,” Wood recalls. “Seeing firsthand how they shaped that experience, I knew this is what I wanted to go into.”
After studying nutrition and dietetics at the University of Arkansas, Wood returned home to St. Louis to enroll in the accelerated 12-month bachelor’s degree in nursing program at Saint Louis University. Initially, Wood was interested in exploring the different roles that nurses play in hospitals and how they compared to his limited exposure to primary care.
“My family has been very fortunate to have excellent health, so being at the hospital and seeing people with sometimes six different diagnoses has definitely grown my empathy and increased my awareness of how everybody has their own unique experience,” he says. “It’s on the nurses to come in with a judgment-free headspace and provide the best care possible.”
Being on an accelerated track means early mornings at the hospital and late nights studying. “It’s absolutely the hardest academic thing I’ve ever done,” Wood says.
In his current clinical rotation, he spends Tuesdays focusing on pediatric health care, Wednesdays in labor and delivery, and Fridays in psychiatric care—three vastly different areas of medicine. Last fall, his rotations had more in common, but they’re now more specialized. He’s learning about developmental milestones, how diseases present differently in adults and children, and maternity care. “Everything in maternity is its own world,” he says.
His favorite clinical rotation has been the trauma unit at SSM Health Saint Louis University Hospital, a Level I trauma hospital. “I was able to work with gunshot-wound patients and people who have suffered severe physical trauma,” he says. “I loved working with those patients.”
After he graduates in May, Wood plans to join the trauma unit at Barnes-Jewish Hospital, where he’s eager to continue working in critical care.
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Full Circle
Elizabeth Kemp moved to St. Louis with her parents from Zambia when she was 1 year old. She grew up dreaming of being a surgeon—but when she started the coursework, she realized it wasn’t the right fit. Instead, she pursued a degree in health care administration and worked as a patient care tech at Missouri Baptist Medical Center after graduation. She cherished the relationships she formed with patients and realized she could do much more as a nurse.
“I loved watching the nurses interact with their patients and how they took care of them,” she says. “It made me want to go into nursing because I felt like I would have that compassion and care.”
Kemp attended Barnes-Jewish College Goldfarb School of Nursing as part of the BJC Full-Ride Scholars Program, which provides free tuition in exchange for a three-year commitment to BJC HeathCare. When Kemp started the program, she was already familiar with the health care industry but was surprised to learn how many opportunities are available in nursing and the many ways in which she could grow in the field.
Since graduating in August, Kemp has been working at Missouri Baptist Medical Center—on the same floor where she started as a patient care tech. “It was definitely full circle,” she says. “When I went to nursing school, I said, ‘I want to come back to this floor’ because I had such a great experience. I made a lot of friends with the nurses I worked with, and we work well together. I knew that I was going to come back.”
Transitioning from nursing school to her first full-time position isn’t without its challenges. “In school, you have the instructor there in case you need anything or have any questions,” she says. “Now there is a preceptor, so you have to learn how to do the critical thinking on your own.”
With her passion for patient care and the strong foundation she’s built, Kemp is eager to continue growing in her career, right where it all started.
Rising to the Occasion
There was a time when Alex Wright avoided signing up for 8 a.m. classes. Now, as a student in the accelerated bachelor’s degree in nursing program at SLU School of Nursing, her alarm typically goes off at 5:30 a.m. “Waking up early is the hardest part,” she says with a laugh.
She plans her mornings, so they run like clockwork: She arrives at the clinical site by 6:30 a.m. to review patient files and meet the nurse she’ll be shadowing for the day. “We’re always with a different nurse, so we get to see how everyone thinks and how they individualize care,” Wright says. “I worked in a doctor’s office before, so I thought I had an idea of how it was going to go, but there are so many different facets. Every day I learn something new, which surprised me.”
Wright earned her bachelor’s degree in health sciences from the University of Missouri–Columbia in 2021, during a time when shadowing medical professionals was nearly impossible due to COVID-19 restrictions. Initially, she considered physician assistant programs but ultimately decided that nursing was a better fit because of its flexibility and career mobility. Wright’s mother is also a nurse, so she had a helpful sounding board as she determined a specific direction.
After she graduates this May, she plans to join the medical ICU at Barnes-Jewish Hospital. “I like the ICU because it’s very organized, and that’s how I am,” she says. “I like working with high-acuity patients. The work is more intricate, and there’s more problem-solving. I want to feel like I’m at the forefront of helping people when they need it.”
