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Nursing Junior Highlighted in Article
April 28, 2005
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Ann Brandom Jones
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MSU News Service - April 26, 2005 -- By Carol Flaherty
When Ann Brandom Jones becomes a nurse next year, she is going to
bring a lot of experience to the job.
Known to everyone as Brandom, never "Brandy" or Ann, her
experiences are as unique as her name.
The Montana State University nursing junior has a degree in
cultural anthropology from an eastern college, has been in the
Peace Corps, worked in Nepal for a nonprofit organization helping
mountain expedition porters, is an avid yoga practitioner, has
her emergency medical technician certification, has conducted
undergraduate research on rural women's health, led trail crews
for the Forest Service, and led teenagers in trouble with the law
in wilderness therapy programs.
A recent Rotary Student of the Month, Jones is completing her
upper division nursing hospital rotations and hopes eventually to
put all her life experience to work in an East-meets-West
integrated health program.
After all of her experiences, the toughest part of school is its
structure and time commitments, Jones says.
"That's tough after working and being out in the world . . . but
working in Nepal and the Peace Corps taught me a lot about where
I want to go. I just had to take a step back and say, 'Okay.
That's where I want to go and I have to go back and get this
degree in order to go there,'" Jones says.
It was while working with a nurse practitioner for the Himalayan
Rescue Association that she started thinking about becoming a
nurse practitioner.
"I knew med school would be a huge bite, and I started looking
into nursing. It has a really holistic model of the human," Jones
says. She then met some inspiring nurses and when she came back
to Montana started taking prerequisites for the nursing program
at Flathead Community College in Whitefish. She decided to pursue
the nursing degree and "trust that it would open doors back in
Asia or somewhere else in the future."
"After being so transient, it was important to replant again.
Here in Bozeman I had a really strong family of friends I could
live with." The Lynchburg, Vir. native says working on a rural
women's research project on chronic illness with Clarann Weinert
was an eye-opener about research itself.
The research Jones helped analyze looks at whether social support
via the Internet can help rural women with chronic illnesses.
This "Women to Women" project created computer support groups and
health education for chronically ill rural women who live at
least 25 miles away from cities of 12,500 people or more.
"I learned a lot about real research," Jones says. "There is a
lot that goes into the fine points, the consistency of questions,
not predicting what you are going to find, and accepting what you
do find. . . . It was nice to be involved in something that had a
good purpose."
Jones plans to continue her education after getting her nursing
degree, probably entering a two-year nurse practitioner's
program, but is unsure of whether it will be at MSU or elsewhere.
"I do like the focus on rural health at MSU, because I want to
live in a rural area. Being here was important after being so
transient, but I may go to a different program for my masters. It
can be good to see how nursing is taught in different clinical
settings, for instance, how bruising looks on different skin
colors and how other cultures define problems."
Ann Brandom Jones abj@mymail.msu.montana.edu, Elizabeth Nichols
(406) 994-3784
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