Lauren Hacker graduates with her Doctor of Nursing Practice from the College of Nursing this month. After taking her boards and getting fully licensed and credentialed this fall, she’ll start a new position as a surgical nurse practitioner at Cardinal Glennon Children’s Hospital next year. (Photo by Derik Holtmann)

When Lauren Hacker was pursuing her bachelor’s degree in nursing, she didn’t have much of an interest in becoming a nurse practitioner. Although she knew she wanted to work in pediatrics, she wasn’t exactly sure what she wanted to do until a formative experience working in the operating room shaped her future trajectory.

After graduating with her BSN from the University of Missouri–Columbia in December 2016, Hacker moved to Nashville, Tennessee, to work in the OR at the Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt. Over the course of two years, she was able to work closely with an orthopedic nurse practitioner and observed firsthand what a surgical nurse practitioner role could look like.

“She would see patients before surgery, she would see patients after surgery, in the hospital, outpatient, and I just really liked the things that she did,” Hacker said. “I saw that I could still work in a hospital setting and still care for those patients outside of being at the bedside. Getting to see those practitioners work – the impact that they get to have on patients and how they help teams run smoothly – was what inspired me to go back to school.”

In 2019, Hacker moved back to her hometown of St. Louis and started working as a bedside nurse in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit at St. Louis Children’s Hospital. With her sights set on working as a surgical NP, she enrolled in the Doctor of Nursing Practice program in the College of Nursing at the University of Missouri–St. Louis in the fall of 2020.

Although UMSL’s DNP program was already set up to be almost entirely online, starting school in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic made things challenging. The program’s orientation, in which students have the opportunity to meet their instructors and fellow students face to face, was held over Zoom, for instance.

Overall, though, Hacker said she had a good experience in the program, noting the supportive instructors. In particular, she appreciated being able to have a say in where she completed her 600 direct care hours for her practicum rotation. Assistant Teaching Professor Candace-Rae Davis, who directs the DNP program, gives each student a preference list where they can indicate areas in which they have strengths or weaknesses or areas in which they would like to gain clinical experience.

“I think my group that went through practicum was one of the first groups that really got that opportunity to say, ‘Hey, these are my interests. These are my strengths. These are my weaknesses,’” she said. “That was really great, and the fact that they find our placements for us was part of the reason why I chose UMSL and also a huge, huge benefit of the program. I have some colleagues who go to other schools in the area where they don’t do that. The stress and difficulty at times of finding preceptors in your field can be challenging. It was really great that not only did they find them for us, but they also asked for our input instead of just putting us where they found availability.”

Hacker went on to complete some of her clinical hours with the surgery team at Cardinal Glennon Children’s Hospital, which ultimately helped her land a job as a surgical nurse practitioner at the hospital. She’ll start the new position in January 2025 after taking her boards in October and getting fully licensed and credentialed this fall.

In her new position, Hacker will be working alongside three other nurse practitioners to care for general surgery patients, including inpatients – both before and after surgery – and outpatients in clinic. She also hopes to help cover for the trauma nurse practitioner when she’s out of the office and is looking forward to seeing how her role evolves day to day once she starts.

“Working in the OR in my first nursing job was really something that got me interested in surgery and getting to see the care before, after and during all sorts of different surgical cases and procedures,” she said.

In addition to her work in the PICU at St. Louis Children’s, Hacker has spent the summer completing a final elective course and wrapping up her project ahead of graduation this month. With most of the heavy lifting done, she’s excited to finally have the finish line in sight.

“We do 600 direct care hours over the course of three semesters, so it is a big accomplishment,” she said. “My advice to any students currently in the DNP program is just to stick with it – it gets better.”