Open Doors L
inda Knodel, ’03, always wanted to be a nurse. “I remember seeing nurses at church wearing their white uniforms and nursing caps. When I was in fourth grade, I did candy striping and cared for a woman who was 103 years old. I would feed her, and the nurses would tell me that she wouldn’t eat for anyone but me; she would wait all day until I got there,” she
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Momentum
said. “So, I thought I would give nursing a shot, and I’m glad I did, because it has given me so many opportunities.” Knodel has been a nurse now for about 49 years. She began her career at St. Alexius in Bismarck and progressively took on more and more leadership roles — running the medical staff office, starting
the home care division, running the medical records office, and more. “I remember coming home one day and telling my husband, ‘I gotta go back to school because I know nothing about this stuff I’m being asked to do,’” she said. So, she began to search for a program where she could go to school and work at the same time, as well as be home with her three little kids. She found a college in Maine where she could take classes online