ALUMNI
from Reality The Postcards from Reality event is a networking dinner with nursing alumni sharing their humorous, humbling and triumphant “new grad” stories with the next graduating class. These anecdotes help our soon-to-be nurses adjust to life after UConn while giving alums a chance to reminisce.
Kate Dixon ’08 (CLAS), ’13 (NUR) works at the Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta team as a project consultant, an advisor to the IT leadership team helping to empower practitioners to achieve patient centered care by integrating nursing with management of information and communication technologies. Kate’s advice for new grads is to celebrate the small victories (those IV and caths) and remember that learning is constant. Kate says, “there are a ton of opportunities for nurses, but it is important to step back once and a while and realize how much you have learned. And also, know that it is OK to laugh at yourself; you can’t be perfect every day.” Diana Filipek Oberg ‘12 (NUR) a former UConn crew athlete from New Jersey is a new member of the Alumni & Friends Board of Volunteers. As a featured speaker and discussion group host, at the Class of 2016 Postcards from Reality event, Diana spoke about her first job at the Universityof Pennsylvania Health System, completing a MSN in acute care (adult –gero) from UPenn in 2015, and offered lessons learned, survival tips, and the suggestion of grad school. Diana is currently a trauma nurse practitioner at Cooper Medical Center in Camden, NJ; her first publication in the Med-Surg Nursing Journal is scheduled for press in summer 2017. She and husband Scott M. Oberg ’13 (CLAS), a professional baseball pitcher for the Colorado Rockies, enjoy the flexibility of her weekend NP schedule. Jerrol Mitchell ’14 (NUR) is loving life in Austin, TX. After graduation he began work on a medical/surgical telemetry unit at South Austin Medical Center. When not at the bedside with patients, he may be night shift supervisor or charge nurse. His advice for new grads, “you will have to learn to manage your time very effectively or run the risk of burning out. Med-surg is a hard specialty, with lots of opportunity to hone core nursing skills, care for a very diverse patient population, and deliver patient education. It requires me to act swiftly, confidently, and know that I’ve been trained for that very moment.” Having many interests helps maintain work/life balance; Jerrol enjoys photography, music, writing, and travel, watching the UConn Huskies, staying in touch with classmates and his Cape Town study abroad cohort.
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What have YOU been up to?
Did you receive an honor or award? Get a new job? Travel the world? Change a life?
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Share your success story
email: kathe.gable@uconn.edu