As a child, Lauren Thompson wanted to be a veterinarian when she grew up. She lived on a ranch and always had lots of animals around. Her first job at 16 was at a vet hospital. She eventually worked her way up to the Emergency & Surgical Specialty Center in Reno. She worked in the field for so long until, as she says … “I didn’t want to be a vet anymore.”
What changed her mind? She wanted more opportunity; she felt there was a limit to what one could do in the veterinary world, but then again, she wasn’t sure what she wanted. She just knew something was missing. Whatever was driving Lauren’s ambition, she needed to find out.
Her father was in the business world, in finance. She thought she’d try that next. So, she changed her major and graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Management. That led to a job at Allstate Insurance, where she managed an office, worked as a marketing director, and spoke at conferences about their training program. But she discovered it still wasn’t what she was looking for. “Honestly, I was getting tired of sitting at a desk all day.” She knew she wasn’t as fulfilled as she was in the medical field; she knew she missed the medical part, the science behind it.
Lauren and her now husband had been together for twelve years. They had not started a family yet. If she wanted to make a move, i.e., go to school for something else, now was the time.
How did you decide you wanted to be a nurse?
It had always been in the back of my mind. We had a lot of good family friends when I was growing up who were nurses and nurse practitioners. I remember one of my mom’s girlfriends – who knew me all my life – used to tell stories about her experiences. I reached out to her to discuss the idea of switching to nursing. She said she had never regretted the decision. And that was the sentiment I heard over and over from every single nurse I talked to. That it was the hardest job ever, but they would do it all again in a heartbeat. I knew then this was what I should do.
How did you decide to go to Carrington College?
I did a LOT of research. I had many choices, out of state too. I wanted a program that would get me out pretty quickly. A friend of mine was also interested in nursing and said she was going to an info session at Carrington College in Reno. So, I went with her. It seemed like the kind of college I was looking for – with a fast track. My credits would transfer over and I could be done in less than two years. I took the entrance exam, and they called me and said I was one of the highest scorers so I had a choice to do the day program or the night program. I chose the night program because that would allow me to work full time at the vet still.
What did you enjoy most about the ADN program?
It’s really the professors and the instructors that made such a huge difference. Wherever you go to school you learn all the same things; so it’s really about the people that make the difference. I had great professors and clinical instructors that were inspiring and showed us what kind of opportunities there are in the field.
You are working at Renown Health now; how did you get that job?
I was assigned to Renown South Meadows in the ICU for my externship in school. Because I came from working in emergency critical care in the vet field, I knew that’s where I wanted to be. It’s fast paced and requires critical thinking. Luckily, I got it! That’s when I left my vet job for the externship and started in June 2020 in the first few months of COVID. I dealt with people dying every day; but I didn’t want to be anywhere else. It solidified where I wanted to be.
Now that you are working as a full-time nurse, is there anything you can tell the readers here about the difference between what you thought nursing would be and what it really is? What was it, in the end, that you found that you were looking for?
Well, as the years passed, one of the things I began looking for was a stable career, one I could raise a family with. I knew nursing would provide that, but I didn’t expect how incredibly fulfilling it would be. I had worked in the vet field, but taking care of someone’s loved one at their worse time on their worst day – you can’t compare anything with that. And now that I’m a supervisor for the same ICU unit where I began, I’m able to be that support for my team; to lead them and help develop new nurses and touch more patients through that has also been so rewarding. I didn’t expect how fulfilling it would be.
And have you started that family yet?
Yes! We have a baby son named Brayden who turned one year old on July 29th.
Hear more from Lauren and what it’s like to work as a nurse in Carrington College’s Real Graduates, Real Stories series:
