Endless possibilities

Like Kurz, John Mikkelsen entered MSU' s nursing program after exploring other options. The 30-year-old North Dakota native earned his first degree, in elementary education, from the University of North Dakota in 2001.

He then moved to Telluride, Colo., where he was a substitute teacher and snowboard instructor, but he soon decided to move to Missoula so that he could be closer to home while still enjoying the Rocky Mountains.

After subbing for several years in Missoula, Mikkelsen decided to explore nursing, a career he also had considered while working as an orderly in a hospital during college.

"When I moved to Missoula, I heard it would take three years to get a teaching job. I didn' t believe it at the time, but it was true," he said.

"Meanwhile, as I was searching for teaching jobs, I saw 40 jobs (for registered nurses) advertised in the paper every day," he said. "I also got to know some male nurses in Missoula; two were on my hockey team and one was always at the golf course where I work."

Mikkelsen worked as a substitute teacher for two years, and was offered a permanent position in his third year. But by then, he had just been accepted into MSU' s nursing program.

"I didn' t want to give away my place in the program," Mikkelsen said. "It was kind of a 'now-or-never' feeling at that point. I knew I could always go back to education if I wanted."

Mikkelsen likes the nurse' s schedule of working just three long days a week. He' d eventually like to have a family, and the financial security and diverse opportunities nurses enjoy appeals to him for that reason, too.

Mikkelsen also likes how nursing requires both scientific skills and an ability to work well with people.

"As a nurse, you have to be analytical, scientific and meticulous, but you have to remember the patient, too," he said. "You can' t forget who you' re taking care of."

Down the road, Mikkelsen envisions combining education and nursing, perhaps by becoming a professor in a program like MSU' s.

"I loved education, but I couldn' t see doing that for 30 years," he said. "With nursing, the possibilities are infinite."

A career for Montana men

Diverse career opportunities available to nurses might be one reason the field is growing in states like Montana, said Jean Shreffler-Grant, director of the MSU College of Nursing' s Missoula campus.

"I think the West has more men in nursing," she said. Nationally, approximately 6 percent of nurses are male, she added, while males make up about 10 percent of the upper division students in MSU' s nursing program, a statistic that has held steady for a number of years. Shreffler-Grant suspects that' s because many of the state' s traditional male careers, such as forestry, haven' t been doing well economically.

Men also have more of an opportunity to see other men as role models in the profession than they used to, she said. "We see men practicing nursing here,"

Shreffler-Grant contends that the combination of art and science skills necessary to be a good nurse occurs in both sexes.

"Lots of technological and physiological details must be understood, but we also need people who have excellent caring and communication skills," she said. "The art of nursing involves caring for people —making someone comfortable, soothing someone' s pain, dealing with families and dying patients."

Return to regular view	Text-only              Email this article	Published: 11/24/2008