Corah Johnson is a Registered nurse at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Virginia. She has been working in this position since 1975. She has her Associate’s Degree in Science of Nursing, however she also has just recently received certifications in both preaching and preaching teaching and has hopes in becoming a minister.

When I asked her what inspired her to join the medical field, specifically being a registered nurse she replied, “What started me in the field I was young. I was a child when I wanted to become a nurse. I was actually at the hospital and I thought it was, so neat that the nurse was taking my blood pressure. This is, soo neat that she is able to do this and then from that point on it became my passion to become a nurse.” Although she is my aunt I never knew this was the reason in which made her join the medical field. I just assumed that it was because she enjoyed helping others just like me. However to her, helping others is only a small piece as to why she does what she does.

As stated before Ms. Johnson has been nursing since 1975. Yes, 1975 meaning she has been a registered nurse, for over 43 years. However, after 35 years she retired and this is what she had to say about her path in her current job, “I retired and then I went back to work and since then I have had fun at my post retire job. With my post retire job I give vaccines to college students and make sure they are not only receiving the correct dose, but also making sure they are receiving the correct immunization shots. Additionally, I  recently in 2018 obtained certification in ministry from Virginia Union University.” Although she is retired she still presses forward and continues to help out her community and more. Therefore, after asking her what she does in her current line of work I had to ask her what her favorite aspect of her job was.

Now, for me I feel as if my favorite part about a job such as hers would be that I continue to make an impact on those around me. That only turned out to be half of her answer. Corah responded to me and said the following statement, “I get to pick and choose when I would like to work and I don’t have the feeling of I have to work and it eases my mind with the financial peace. Also, knowing that no matter how hard it gets you still have to do it. Additionally, the most rewarding part about my job was being able to take care of my patients with compassion and knowing that I was able to provide the proper care, for them along with take care of them like I would do my family.” I thought that was a wonderful response because what is better than being able to treat your patients as your family away from home. Corah loves taking care of others and has always had a strong head full of pure determination when it came down to handling business, so I had to ask her what her responsibilities were.

I could only imagine how much she has to do on the daily basis although she is retired at the moment and only working part time as an RN. However, I was curious about the roles and responsibilities that she upheld while working both full time and now part time. Her response was far from short to say the least, “As a working nurse when I  worked many different departments anything from the emergency room to the ICU, I worked it. The last department I worked in was Orthopedics and trauma and I was there, for 15yrs. While working in orthopedic and trauma department I had to not only manage myself, but I had to manage those around me as well. I also had to make sure I had enough staff to cover each unit(s) at all times and had to make sure that when we had new nurses coming in that we weren’t giving them the difficult patients and if we were we would only give them one. Additionally, the last 3yrs I took care of a man, and I worked with a doctor, another nurse and that was your clinic. A lot of the responsibilities they would hand over to me once they had spoken with the patient. So, then I had to set up the Chemotherapy, for them, explain the process to them, setting up the appointments for the chemotherapy, sending in lab works and teaching the patients about the process and the side effects to chemotherapy. It was a never ending job.

Corah Johnson really does love her career, so it’s needless to say that nothing really surprised her about the job however, she did have a couple of encounters with patients that shocked her in a way. “Something that was shocking was before I became a nurse and was an agent I had to deal with something that was confusing because I had a patient that just started attacking me and she was beating me up and it actually pushed me harder to become a nurse. Nothing really surprised me, however when I first became a nurse I was a nursing student and there was this little elderly white lady that I was assigned to. When I first walked into the room she told my instructor to get me out of there with a racial slur and my instructor informed her that I was gonna be her nurse. The hardest thing about that was that by the end of the week she had died.” After explaining this to me she explained how even those encounters were not even her most challenging aspects of her career additionally, she explained to me, “It was hard dealing with not receiving the credit or the support from my supervisor or manager(s) in which I was expecting. An seeing those around you that aren’t working as hard receiving the praise and not doing the same qualities of work. Therefore, it was hard seeing the amount of inequality in which was portrayed in the workplace. However, the most challenging part would be first that the pay could be low to start but also working with the younger employees. That was because their work ethics wasn’t the same as the older people’s work ethics. It wasn’t just about working smarter it was about some of them not wanting to work when it was time and having the attitude of wanting the pay, but not wanting to provide the necessary compassionate care, for those they were taking care of.” That last statement did not surprise me at all.

I have always been told that if I do not love the job I am doing I either need to change my job, or change myself because a person never truly does their assigned job and, or task unless they truly love what they are doing. Once I told her this and asked her what advice would she give someone like me that is trying to either follow in her footsteps, or just go into a position in the health field she responded with the following statement, “You have to remain pretty organized to be in this line of work. However I believe the best advice I can give I guess would be that I think you have to be a good compassionate, caring person and not look at the salary. You have to want to care for, love and take care of your patient. If you are incapable of doing these things and you are just looking at the job for the money then you don’t need to be a nurse because the lack of compassion you have, for you patients and the job you are working the less productive you will be and not only will you be unhappy but you will make your patients unhappy, or feel as if they can not depend on you to take quality care of them.” An with that we ended the interview.

I can truthfully say that my interview with her could not have been any better because she reiterated what I have always known. That I need to love the job that I am trying to do. However, most of all I need to love and care, for my patients. If I lack compassion and love I might as well not want to be a nurse because you have to have those things in order to complete your job on an everyday basis. It is hard depending on the field that you want to go into, or the department you want to work in, but if you are just there, for the money your mind is in the wrong and you need to work and think with your heart.

Incase you are interested here is the recording of me and Ms. Corah Johnson’s interview held on November 4th of this year.