Whether nursing is a vocation or a mid-life career change, having a supportive community and a good school can be the difference between success and failure. For Alison Smart of Hailey, it was necessity that drove her to change careers and community that helped her succeed.
Nursing shortages around the country have created opportunities for those who want to change careers midstream. Smart was one of those people. Her career was boosted by maintaining connections to the place she'd eventually work.
Smart arrived in the valley in 1989 after she sent "resumes to random fantasy places" including Moritz Community Hospital in Sun Valley. She'd loved the area since visiting on a ski vacation when she was 10.
Smart, who graduated from UCLA and received her master's in physical therapy from Purdue University, was hired and for five years she was a certified athletic trainer at the former hospital in Sun Valley.
Moritz Community Hospital was small and homey. Its namesake, Dr. John Moritz, was Sun Valley's first doctor. In the basement of the old hospital facility was a fitness center, where Smart saw her clients and worked out. She also helped at the weekly Sun Valley Ice Shows.
"I took care of the ice skaters backstage," she said. "It's super cool, really fun. I still do it."
But in preparation for the move to its new facility, the hospital downsized and Smart's job was eliminated.
"I went home and sat on the floor and thought, 'Oh no, now what am I going to do?'"
Smart loved living in the area, so she found work. She worked for Evergreen Landscaping, she did construction clean-up and decorative concrete. She tended bar for Sun Valley Company even though she didn't drink or know how to make any cocktails.
A constant was her continued workout schedule at the Moritz Community Hospital gym.
"I had just spent a day working on an asphalt paving job, had worked out and was changing to bartend when Dan Biggins, who is now a respiratory therapist, said, 'Why don't you do massage?"'
Her reply was to remind him that she was a physical therapist.
"He said, 'No, you're not, you're a construction worker,'" Smart said.
The comment stopped Smart in her tracks. She dashed off to the Sun Valley Lodge and talked her way into a job as a masseuse.
Life was going pretty well until her thumbs and elbows started hurting—not a good prospect for someone in the massage business. Once more, it was time to reevaluate her life.
There was no 'A-ha' moment when Smart thought she would be a nurse. Her education as a physical therapist combined with her massage experience led her through that door. At the time, a nurse named Karen Stevens, who was also working backstage at the ice shows, suggested she look into nursing.
Smart was wary of going back to school to become a nurse. But it started her thinking, and led her to the newly opened St. Luke's Wood River Medical Center. At first she worked as a secretary.
Not long afterwards, St. Luke's Wood River Foundation sponsored six employees, including Smart, to take a certified nursing assistant class at College of Southern Idaho in Hailey.
"I wouldn't have been able to do that on my own," said Smart, who by then was an emergency room technician.
She applied to nursing programs, of which Idaho has several: College of Southern Idaho, Lewis-Clark State College, Boise State University, Idaho State University, North Idaho College, Northwest Nazarene and Brigham Young in Rexburg.
"I was on the wait list at CSI, even with a master's degree," Smart said. "I could have gone to Pocatello or Bozeman, where I got in, but I didn't want to move. Also I would have to give up my job at St. Luke's Wood River."
The experience boded well for Smart. Her work and life experience, time logged in the emergency room and history at the hospital gave her both the patience to wait it out and the wherewithal to succeed.
In 2006, she began her studies.
"I disappeared. I lost track of my friends," she said. "Mary Beck and I drove together four days a week for two years. She was also at CSI, and was a nursing assistant in Dr. Scott McLean's office."
Through those two years, she continued working in the emergency room at St. Luke's three days a week. She continued work as a masseuse doing massage two days.
"That makes nine," she said, laughing. "CSI is a good school. It was just not that fun for me. The driving was horrible. One semester I didn't have to drive. It was winter. It was such a blessing not to have to commute. When I talked to the foundation board, I thanked them for their investment, and suggested supporting our CSI in Hailey. The satellite program for lectures in Hailey is great and it made such a difference for me. It's a great resource."
Cindy Mosier, manager of nursing at St. Luke's Wood River, calls Smart a "homegrown nurse, with amazing passion for what she does."
Mosier and Chief Nursing Officer Sharon Kensinger believe that women (or men) who become nurses as a second career are a different breed of nurse. They have "context," Kensinger said. Many times they have volunteered at hospitals. They're accustomed to the pace and are more balanced when they come to the job.
Smart agrees.
"Real-life nursing is way different than classrooms," she said. "Nursing schools teach academically, but in real life it's a, b, c ... q. It doesn't go in a straight line. And you have to know how to communicate with patients, nurses, and doctors especially. You need to be really clear and present so that you can verbally present a real clear picture. I think I'm a good communicator but that's what I've found challenging."
Smart graduated this past May and took her national boards in June, with the assurance of a job.
She was eligible to submit bills from school through St. Luke's Health System tuition reimbursement program.
At least four of the other newest nursing graduates also went through CSI, Mosier said.
This week Smart is in Boise doing "precepting," which is a six-month mentoring program that helps grads transition from book work to applying it in practice.
"They saved a spot for me. It was unbelievable," she said. "Cindy Mosier told me in December that they were keeping a position open for me. I can't explain how good that made me feel."
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Alison Smart works with a patient on the medical/surgery floor at St. Luke’s Wood River Medical Center. Photo by Willy Cook
