If you’ve been thinking about pursuing a career in health care, Barbara recommends one idea to reach out to a local hospital to try volunteering for a day or shadowing a mentor.

“When I volunteered as a ‘candy striper’ one summer in high school, I just really felt that that’s where I wanted to be, is to be helping others,” Barbara says.

Later going through the nursing program, she “worked as a nursing assistant at a local hospital, which really helped. So, when I graduated, I felt prepared to start as a registered nurse.”

There are many avenues available for health care-related certificates or degrees.

“You can actually go to a community college and get your associate degree and graduate in two years,” Barbara says. “The hospital I work at will pay for you to go back to school to get your bachelor’s degree.”

Additionally, another option is “if you want to just go straight through, you can actually go to a four-year university and graduate with a bachelor’s degree and get a BSN Bachelor of Science and Nursing.”

Altogether “it’s so portable. You can travel, and always get a job…it’s a wonderful profession, we go from birthing babies to holding someone’s hand.”