Miranda Martin will graduate in May with her BSN and a certificate from the Honors College. She’s accepted a position as an operating room nurse at SSM Health DePaul Hospital. (Photo by Derik Holtmann)
When she sat down with the guidance counselor at Ritenour High School during her sophomore year, Miranda Martin had done her research. Based on her own personal interests and skillset, she knew there were two paths she could follow: become a physician’s assistant or a nurse. The counselor gave her resources to review and not long after, Martin was set on nursing.
Knowing that college would be a financial burden for her family, Martin worked hard through high school to get good grades and stay involved in sports and extracurriculars. She also worked closely with her counselor to apply for the Opportunity Scholars Program through the Pierre Laclede Honors College at the University of Missouri–St. Louis and wound up earning a full ride, four-year scholarship.
“I didn’t have to worry about money in school, and it was very close to my house since I live in the area, so I was next to family,’” said Martin, who will graduate with her BSN from the College of Nursing and a certificate from the Honors College in mid-May. “It worked out amazingly.”
Martin loved just about everything about the Honors College, from the close-knit community between students and professors to the seminar-style courses to the critical life skills she learned, such as building a professional resume and applying to jobs and externships. In the College of Nursing, she gained a solid foundation for her future career, particularly through her externship with BJC Healthcare last summer. Martin was placed on the operating room floor at Barnes-Jewish West County Hospital, which helped illustrate the differences between an operating room nurse and a floor nurse. Not long into the externship, Martin knew she had found her path.
“I fell in love with the specialty just because it’s so different from floor nursing in the responsibilities and the skills,” she said. “It aligns a bit more to what I feel like I can bring to the table with nursing. I learned a lot, especially there, because Barnes West County is a surgical hospital. They have a lot of advanced technology compared to other places, like the da Vinci robot, the Mako robot, and they’ve had a lot of milestones with surgical services.”
The first surgery Martin assisted with during her externship, for instance, was a laparoscopic procedure, in which the surgeon makes small incisions in the abdomen to insert an instrument with a camera in order to view inside the abdomen. Martin was amazed to be able to view the surgery as it was happening on 50-inch TV screens in the room.
“I absolutely loved it,” she said. “I knew that it was something that was definitely up my alley. I also felt so welcomed by a lot of the doctors. The doctors were super nice, and I honestly was very prepared to get yelled at by people because of the stigma behind it. I got very lucky to be with a lot of team members who were very nice and welcoming to me.”
Martin’s externship and her experience in the College of Nursing have prepared her well for her next steps, as she embarks on a career as an operating room nurse at SSM Health DePaul Hospital after graduation.
In the role, Martin will be focused on monitoring a patient’s condition during surgery, including charting their progress and positioning and working closely with other team members such as surgical technicians, doctors, surgeons and anesthesiologists to coordinate the patient’s care. Martin is particularly excited that the hospital has also offered her the opportunity to learn to be a scrub nurse, which would allow her to assist the surgeon during surgical procedures in the operating room.
As graduation approaches, Martin feels confident that her experience at UMSL – both in the College of Nursing and Honors College – has prepared her well for her career in nursing. She’s also incredibly grateful for the opportunity to build that foundation while graduating debt-free.
“The opportunity for me to get the Opportunity Scholars scholarship was literally life-changing because I was able to purely focus on being a college student, learning the curriculum, and also being able to have time for friends and get involved on campus as well,” she said.
