Anne D'Angelo
I originally came to Rochester in 2002 to be with my husband as he finished his medical residency at Strong Memorial Hospital. But my interest in health care began long before I arrived in Rochester.
I'm from Wisconsin. After graduating from the Marquette University School of Nursing, I entered the Navy through their ROTC program. I was stationed in Virginia at the Naval Medical Center Portsmouth, where I met my husband. I worked in the Emergency Department there for four years.
Patient care in the Navy has aspects that are different and special. We had our fair share of the usual injuries and illnesses, but we were also trained to deal with severe burns and extreme trauma injuries. We were taught to help victims of possible chemical and radiological attacks, and how to decontaminate and provide medical care in the field.
In the wake of 9/11 there was an increased awareness of potential dangers to the public involving such areas, and the need to have health care systems in place to handle them. When I came to Rochester, I wanted to continue to work in those areas and to further develop my skills. I took a job in the emergency department at Strong Memorial. I cared for a large number and variety of trauma patients. Emergency preparedness was not as emphasized then as it is now. I felt I could contribute as well as learn.
I looked at schools, but, really, it was no contest. The University of Rochester was clearly the best option. I met with the Dean and decided to go for my master's. When I learned of a Disaster Response Emergency Preparedness (DREP) program starting, I applied. Eventually Dr. Janet Williams spoke to me about doing a field placement with the Center for Disaster Medicine and Emergency Preparedness. She mentioned a job opening for Program Manager of the Regional Resource Center, which is what I'm doing now and have been doing for the past two years.
What made the University of Rochester School of Nursing the obvious choice? For me one of the main attractions was the benefits. The University has a great benefits package, which makes going to school much, much more affordable. You can also work full time and go to school full time.
And the way the program was structured was wonderfully accommodating. As a full-time student, you only take two courses per semester, which are both scheduled on Friday. The program is very project-intensive, but there's enough time for other activities. If I scheduled a 12-hour shift starting on Monday, for instance, I could still have three days a week off—enough to support myself with full-time work and school and give attention to family and hobbies.
I didn't have children while attending school, but other classmates did. Having children will teach you things about "emergency preparedness" that even the Navy doesn't know. What most impressed me was the total support the School and faculty gave to someone in that situation and to the working adult learner. They really understand.
Things happen when you hold a job and raise children. The people at the School of Nursing help you work with it and work around it. They're flexible. If work-related or family issues arose, the School and faculty would find ways to accommodate the individual's situation. If one thing didn't work, they'd try something different.
I knew that getting a degree at the U of R School of Nursing would help professionally—everyone knows about the school's great reputation. And they do have wonderful speakers and famous guest lecturers, and it is a great place to network and meet the top people in the profession.
But I didn't know how much of a pleasure the School of Nursing would turn out to be personally and socially. I had no contacts when I arrived, no friends, except for my husband. Being at Strong, working in the program, being with fellow students, talking to faculty—I stopped feeling like a stranger almost the first day. They've become like family now.
I find Rochester to be so friendly. I'll admit it, like some Midwesterners, I thought New York cities were all like New York City, crowded and fast-moving and intense. But it feels almost like being back home in Wisconsin here. It's pleasant and easy-going. The sort of place you like to raise a family. I feel good about living here.
In the Navy, I was put in a leadership position as an officer before I had a great deal of leadership experience. The military is like that, with a command structure that is very top-down and sometimes rigid. I feel that the School of Nursing completed that training in leadership by taking the time to give me guidance and by giving me the confidence that comes from having a full comprehensive grounding in my professional field.
If I had had the course before going into the military, I think I would have been a much better leader. At the U of R School of Nursing, you learn discipline and effectiveness but you also learn to deal with others and with yourself in ways that are both human and humane. It's not an impersonal lecture, it's a personal dialogue with give and take. What you say is heard. And what they hear they act on, to give you a better and richer experience. At the U of R School of Nursing they talk to you, not at you.
What did I think of classes? Actually, we were the first group to go through my particular course—pioneers in a new field (though sometimes we would call ourselves guinea pigs). It worked, because, as always, the faculty here bent over backwards to make sure that it would work, and that our experience was a good one. They asked for our feedback and developed the class, improving it both for us and future students. If things weren't working, they'd make changes till it did.
I also like the variety of the people you met among the students. You don't need to start with a nursing degree to go through the program. One fellow student was a business person from Xerox. This past year there was a veterinarian tech and a student with a criminal justice degree. That's one of the great things about the program and the School—it includes people with all sorts of skills and backgrounds. It gives studying at the University of Rochester a scope and a richness you don't always find elsewhere.
Has my degree from the School of Nursing helped my career after graduation? Absolutely. Even before graduating, I began coordinating a hospital emergency preparedness grant. I now manage that grant. I've made contributions in the health systems emergency preparedness program at the state level, and do frequent networking in the community and with the New York State Department of Health. I work with seven other Regional Resource Centers in New York State (not the City) and with the central office in Albany and regional offices in Rochester and Buffalo. I help to serve 17 hospitals in a nine-county region, from Monroe and Wayne down to Steuben and Chemung.
My counterparts in the Regional Resource Center program have the same goals and deliverables, so we work together to make sure that we have the best emergency preparedness plans if and when disaster strikes. Conference calls to the State every other week, and networking activities with regional directors, link us together regularly. We're a community that helps the community.
The great thing about this program is that it's broken down any sense of competitiveness between hospitals and health organizations. In an emergency everyone depends on each other and everyone has to work together. Hospitals and health organizations know that, and when we meet we share ideas and best practices. It couldn't be more professional and serious—and yet it's fun. We talk and meet and learn.
Currently I've wound down to part-time involvement to better take care of my baby. There are two new positions in my growing department—four of us all together now. I focus more now on the big picture—the direction the program is taking as well as the financial aspects of the grant funding—and less on hands-on coordinating.
Is it enjoyable? Satisfying? Worthwhile? Certainly. And I owe no small part of it to the University of Rochester School of Nursing. The School does more than prepare you totally in your field—it expands your horizons by showing you all the things that nursing makes possible.
I once felt that if you went into nursing, it meant going to work at a hospital. You don't have to work at a hospital. You don't have to work in a clinic, or for a doctor. I didn't know what I was going to do with my skills once I graduated. At the U of R School of Nursing I found out that I could do just about anything. That I could take it to an entrepreneurial level, to consulting, to helping businesses, or to any one of a number of areas.
Going to the School of Nursing doesn't prepare you for one job or one position. It prepares you for dozens. If you have the skills and the savvy you can carve your own path. The University of Rochester School of Nursing gives you the qualifications and they give you the confidence. It's one of the best investments you'll ever make.
Would I recommend the U of R School of Nursing? Definitely. It's one of the finest academic experiences I've ever had.
Anne D'Angelo is the Regional Resource Center Program Manager at the University of Rochester . She was a Navy Nurse Corps Officer at Naval Medical Center Portsmouth, Virginia, from 1998 to 2002. She worked at the Strong Memorial Hospital Emergency Department from 2002 to 2004, and at the University of Rochester Regional Resource Center from 2004 to today.
Anne currently manages a New York State Department of Health grant funded program in which she coordinates regional hospital disaster planning in the New York State Finger Lakes Region. In addition to working with the Western and Central Offices of the New York State Department of Health, she coordinates planning with seventeen hospitals and networks with long-term care facilities and other health care agencies, Emergency Medical Services, Offices of Emergency Management, and Local Health Departments in the nine counties of the Finger Lakes Region. She received her Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in 1998, and her Master of Science from the University of Rochester School of Nursing in 2005.
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