Edgewood Center LPN finds a career living his values
I grew up in Texas with my grandmother who adopted me. When I first started going to school, I wanted to be an engineer, but quickly realized that I craved more human interaction than engineering would offer. My grandmother was a nurse, and she inspired me to look into healthcare. I took her advice and moved to New Hampshire in 2017 to pursue nursing school. She is ultimately the reason I chose to later become an LNA and then an LPN.
The journey begins
Fast forward a few years: I was living in Newmarket and driving about an hour each way to work as an LPN for an organization. Finally fed up with the commute, I reached out to a few friends to share my frustration, and a previous colleague who was now working at the Edgewood Center as the head of education encouraged me to check out the Center. After visiting their website and social media channels to get a feel for what Edgewood was all about, I was instantly impressed by what I discovered. That’s the moment I decided to take my chances and apply for a job. The next thing I knew, I was lined up to have an interview with the head of human resources.
When offered a position as an LPN with the Edgewood Center in March 2020, I accepted on the spot. Based on my research and the conversations I had with a few of the Edgewood employees, I knew it was exactly the place where I wanted to be. For me, saying yes was a no-brainer!
I love my job and feel like I’ve truly found a group of people who value exactly what I value – providing exceptional care to the residents I serve. Working with our residents is by far my favorite part of my job. I enjoy caring for them and find joy in bringing a smile to their faces. In my short time with the Edgewood Center, I’ve already built strong bonds and connections with our residents and I believe this can be attributed to my playful nature – I have found that laughter can bond people, even in the most challenging times. My motto is to treat people how I’d like to be treated: with respect and dignity, with a smile and a good laugh. That is why I love to joke around with our residents in the exact same way that I would with my very own grandmother and grandfather.
Working as a team
Beyond my connections with our residents, I like that we work as a team at Edgewood Center, and are all in this together, willing to step in and lend a helping hand to one another. This type of teamwork goes as far as administration who can often be found supporting us on the floor and answering the call light, just as we do. Because it’s all about our residents, we work hard to put them and their needs first and that’s why taking on extra work to support a colleague is second nature to us.
Being an LPN is my calling and spending time and caring for the elderly is what I enjoy doing most. After all, where else are you offered the opportunity to have an enlightening conversation with a 102-year-old that can share advice from her days working as a nurse? This to me is priceless.
