How I'm Here:

My journey as a nurse began at a young age. My father is an EMT so he'd tell me stories about calls and he was the one to go to for medical problems. My mom was just too squeemish at blood or puke so she just sent us to dad.

When I turned 16, I was required to get a job. I had thought about being a CNA but I didn't know where to work. As a freshman in high school, our choir toured local nursing homes and sang for the residents and we went to one particular nursing home and I thought to myself as soon as I walked in the door, I want to work here.

I was so excited when I got my first pair of scrubs. I asked mom to take a picture of me. Here's little 16 year old Kalissa...

I got a job there after I took my CNA class AND paid for the class with my own money, and I absolutely loved it. Honestly, starting out I was in it for the money but I fell in love with the residents and the environment. I knew I wanted to work in the medical field.

I had started out that I wanted to go to NICC's nursing program so I started taking gen-eds through NICC. As a sophomore in high school I took Dosage Calculations. The next year I took Nutrition, Medical Terminology, and Anatomy and Physiology I and II with a lab. I actually accidentally put myself on the waiting list the summer after my junior year, I just happened to get all of the pre-requisites done for the nursing program without realizing it. Senior year I completed more gen eds for the nursing program including Composition I and Intro to Computer Business Apps.

In the meantime, I was dead set on being a paramedic. I applied to the University of Iowa's paramedic specialist program and did a college visit and everything. I loved it so much.

I graduated a semester early from high school and worked full time in the nursing home on first shift. On January 22nd, I got my acceptance letter to NICC's nursing program to start in August 2013. Incidentally, on the same day, I got an email from U of I wanting to schedule an interview for their paramedic program. That's a lot of decisions to make for a 17 year old.

After asking around and taking advice from everyone, I decided to go to NICC. Nurses get paid better, have better hours, have more opportunities for job advancement and also for continuing education. With that in mind and my deposit paid, I took an accelerated Microbiology course with lab, and Speech this past summer, more gen eds required for the nursing program.

Overall, I'm happy with the decision I made. I wouldn't have met my boyfriend Craig or my best friend Clare if I hadn't gone to NICC, I love my instructors, the content of the class, and I'm generally happy with where I'm at right now. However, I'm looking at other LPN-BSN programs, RN-BSN programs and even RN-MSN programs. I might just end up staying at Calmar for my RN to but as for now, I'm researching options. The only problem is I struggle with online classes which is a large majority of what is available to me for continuing my education.

Wouldn't it be great if I could just snap my fingers and be an RN? If only...