Johnanna Hernandez – Nursing Faculty Profile, University of St. Augustine for Health Sciences

Johnanna Hernandez – Nursing Faculty Profile, University of St. Augustine for Health Sciences

[00:00:00] Johnanna Hernandez (Nursing Faculty): I was a cardiac critical care nurse when I was a, I worked as a registered nurse. My first jobs out as an FNP, I worked in the nephrology specialty where I learned quite a bit. You know, a lot of those patients are very sick, and so you’re their primary care provider, and they have such bad, like, either blood pressure, diabetes, kidneys, that nobody else will, you know, do anything, so you’re their primary provider. So I learned a lot, and then I worked in cardiology for a little bit, and now I’ve been in primary care for the last, just primary care, the last 12, 15 years.

[00:00:33] Johnanna Hernandez (Nursing Faculty): The patient came in and, you know, ringing in the ear. We all have ringing in our ear, right? But I asked her to describe it, and she said it’s like a, like a whoosh, whoosh, like a pulse. And so that you worry about, right? So it’s not just normal ringing in the ear. And so got her in to get an ultrasound and found that indeed it was something urgent that she needed to be operated on. So you’ll see that all the time in primary care. You’ll see, you know, something that someone thinks is a mole, and it’s cancer, or someone thinks a lymph node is related to an illness, but it’s actually something more serious.

[00:01:07] Johnanna Hernandez (Nursing Faculty): And so it’s approaching it in a way that, you know, the patient understands the importance of follow-up and getting things done, but not scaring anyone as well. But there are multiple opportunities every day in primary care to help people in a way that really touches you and you’re like, “Okay, I remember why I did this.”

[00:01:24] Johnanna Hernandez (Nursing Faculty): And we really try to prepare them for an actual real-world working experience. So we, we try to make every assignment matter. So I think that helps along with the intensive, where they get to come here and have hands-on skills. They’re with faculty, and they grow this community while they’re here, and that really helps them while they’re going through, um, the practicum experience.

[00:01:45] Johnanna Hernandez (Nursing Faculty): So I think those are the… That, that really kind of for me is what’s great about our program, is creating people that are really ready to launch into the workforce. We have a great pass rate on our national exam. We have a great success rate with students getting employed. So I think we really prepare people for the real world, um, and the real healthcare that is today.