Angie Tobias graduated from the College of Nursing’s part-time evening and weekend program in December 2017 and now works as the on-site nurse and case manager at Our Lady’s Inn. (Photo courtesy of Our Lady’s Inn)
Never in a million years did Angie Tobias think she’d wind up working in community health.
On her first day of classes in the College of Nursing at the University of Missouri–St. Louis, Tobias was the first student to raise her hand when asked what she wanted to do. In her mind, her path was clear: become a labor and delivery nurse.
“That’s all I cared about in nursing school,” Tobias said. “I didn’t really give anything else a chance.”
Tobias, who worked as a nanny, flight attendant and in-home medical assistant before starting nursing school, was inspired to become a labor and delivery nurse by her own pregnancy journey. Before two successful pregnancies – she now has an 11-year-old daughter and a 15-year-old daughter – she had several miscarriages, and she wanted to be there to support other women who were dealing with their own losses.
Tobias graduated from the College of Nursing’s part-time evening and weekend program in December 2017 and immediately started working as a labor and delivery nurse at Mercy Hospital. While she found the work incredibly rewarding, she eventually got burnt out working nights and weekends and craved a more regular schedule. She knew she wanted to continue working with pregnant women, however, and in September 2019 an opportunity opened up at Our Lady’s Inn.
Our Lady’s Inn is a maternity shelter that offers wraparound services for adult pregnant women, including a nurse, child advocate, case manager and counselor. Rather than simply offering shelter, the maternity home offers comprehensive care, including medical intake, OB care and education on various topics. To that end, the shelter helps women find jobs or daycare for their children, obtain documents such as a social security card or driver’s license and get connected with government benefits. Women are provided with housing and three meals a day, but they must attend classes, meet with a case manager and counselor and adhere to a curfew.
As Our Lady’s Inn’s on-site nurse and case manager, Tobias meets with new clients to conduct medical intake and get them set up with OB, vision and dental care. She also teaches classes on labor and delivery, nutrition and post-partum care and recently became certified in ESL to better assist clients who aren’t native English speakers. Much of her role centers on education, including topics such as medication, blood pressure, breast feeding and preeclampsia, but she also takes care of women post-partum and conducts general baby assessments.
Tobias enjoys the more flexible schedule compared to a hospital, but even more so, she’s realized she actually loves working in community health. Within just a month of starting at Our Lady’s Inn, she realized she was exactly where she needed to be.
“I learn so much from these women,” Tobias said. “They go through so much trauma in their life, and it just puts everything into perspective for me. If I have a bad day, it’s not like their bad day. They make me a better person, and I hope I make a difference in their lives. I get so much strength from the clients because they have overcome so many things, and they’re still positive and upbeat. They’re still wanting to move forward, even despite everything that they’ve gone through in their past.”
Tobias had one especially memorable experience with a client from Senegal who didn’t speak a word of English when she first arrived at Our Lady’s Inn. The client had twins within a few weeks of moving in and wound up staying an entire year with the program. Tobias got certified as an ESL teacher so that she could help teach her English during her time at the maternity home.
“The client could only say ‘hi’ in English when I first met her, and we would use Google Translate back and forth, nonstop,” Tobias said. “That’s the only way we could communicate. Now she works a full-time job where she has to speak English. The client is working on getting her driver’s license by taking driving lessons. The client is a great mom to her children and makes having twins look easy. She maintains her own apartment with her babies. I consider her my biggest success story. She’s been amazing to partner with, and I loved every minute of working with her.”
Even though she was initially skeptical about working in community health, Tobias finds her work at Our Lady’s Inn incredibly rewarding and is a passionate advocate for the women she works with every day. She’s also now an advocate for careers in community health, having returned to the College of Nursing to speak on panels, organized by Associate Professor Sheila Grigsby, about the importance of community health nursing. She hopes her career journey can inspire other students – even those who might not picture themselves working in community health – to give it a try.
“I did not like community health as a student,” Tobias said. “It’s funny, because now I can’t imagine doing anything else. I love my job and the clients we serve at Our Lady’s Inn. I love talking to students about my nursing journey and passion. A student who heard me speak on that panel is applying for a job here. I feel like I actually made a difference, even if it was just one person. She listened to what I had to say and how excited I was about it, and she got excited to come work here, which is so rewarding for me. I love telling new nurses you don’t have to work in a hospital to make a big impact on others.
