Madison Zerban graduated in December with her BSN as well as a certificate from the Pierre Laclede Honors College. She’s starting a new position as a pediatric hematology and oncology nurse at St. Louis Children’s Hospital this month. (Photo courtesy of Madison Zerban)
Madison Zerban knows she has a very empathetic personality.
“I just enjoy helping people,” she said. “The sense of love and accomplishment I feel from helping someone is something I thrive off of.”
Knowing how much she loves to help others, it didn’t take her long to decide on a career in health care. After taking a class on health occupations in high school, she knew she was on the right track and, after graduation, she decided to pursue nursing.
Wanting to stay close to home, Zerban enrolled at the University of Missouri–St. Louis, where she received several scholarships including the Georgia Sue Dmytryszyn-Marietta Abele Jubilee Nursing Scholarship, Elisabeth Horkits Scholarship and Glen Hahn Cope Scholarship in Nursing. When she visited the university for the first time for her tour, everyone she met was incredibly nice and the smaller size of the campus felt like the right fit for her. She appreciated the opportunity to be challenged by the discussion-based classes in the Pierre Laclede Honors College and, as someone with a quiet personality, was drawn to the smaller class sizes, as she felt more comfortable talking to others and sharing her ideas.
When she started her coursework in the BSN program in the College of Nursing, she enjoyed learning from the faculty, who had lots of hands-on experience and, she felt, truly cared about the students as individuals. Each semester, she gained her own hands-on experience working in the Nursing Simulation Lab, but her senior preceptorship clinical was inarguably the most impactful experience, as it helped her realize exactly what she wanted to do.
Zerban completed her preceptorship on the pediatric hematology oncology floor at SSM Health Cardinal Glennon Children’s Hospital, where she worked with young patients with blood disorders, such as sickle cell anemia or hemophilia, and different types of cancer. She’s known since her first semester in the BSN program that she wanted to work with kids.
“I think they’re just very resilient in a way,” she said. “They bounce back in a different way than the adult population does, and I feel like I’m helping the kid and the family. That’s really important to me – it feels like I almost have multiple patients. They also make things fun, and I really enjoyed having a more positive environment.”
At Cardinal Glennon, Zerban’s day-to-day work involved everything from administering chemotherapy drugs to keeping her young patients entertained after their parents left for the day. The work was challenging, as her patients were often scared or worried, but that made it all the more rewarding.
“I’ve had multiple kids just want to have me in there with them and those are some of the moments that are really special to me because they trust me and they want me to be there because they’re scared and maybe their parent isn’t there or something like that,” she said. “And when I’ve had multiple parents just say thank you, that, in itself, is really special to me and rewarding.”
With all of that hands-on experience at Cardinal Glennon under her belt, Zerban feels like she has a head start on her new role as a pediatric hematology and oncology nurse at St. Louis Children’s Hospital. She recently started the position this month after earning her BSN, as well as a certificate from the Honors College, in December. Working as a nurse on her own for the first time, she’ll continue to administer treatment for patients with cancer and blood disorders and make sure that their emotional and physical needs are met. She’ll also continue to support her patients’ parents, many of whom are coping with a new diagnosis in their family.
“A big part of nursing is being there emotionally for someone,” she said. “With these patients, I’ll be doing that both with the parents and with the kids, because they sometimes don’t understand. I’m basically taking care of them and trying to get them out of there as soon as possible.”
Zerban is looking forward to working as a nurse by herself and caring for strictly pediatric patients after working with a primarily adult population throughout school. She’s also excited to be able to fully dedicate herself to her work, and she’s grateful for her experience in the College of Nursing for preparing her for this next step.
“My clinical was most helpful in learning the different things that go along with pediatrics and with the oncology side,” she said. “But all of my professors were extremely supportive and helpful. A lot of times they told their own nursing stories, and those were helpful in preparing me for what I’m going to experience. I think they prepared us well for our boards and in understanding that as new grad nurses, we will be scared and sometimes make mistakes. But it gets better, and it’s also important to ask questions and not be afraid of that kind of thing.”
