At an early age, faculty Donna Fesler, aspired to work in health care due to her experience with helping care for family members at a young age. She was an EMT cadet from the age of 13-16 and worked as a nurse aide at the age of 18. The calling to become a nurse was inevitable. Fesler is a clinical instructor on the Tulsa campus coordinating the skills lab and high-fidelity simulations in addition to two hospital clinical groups for the medical-surgical rotation.
Fesler believes the demand for nurses will become higher over the next 40-60 years before it slowly evens out. “This can only be accomplished by having experienced nurses that are willing to dedicate themselves to educating future nurses either as nursing preceptors in the clinical setting and/or nurse educators in the academic setting,” says Fesler. “Computers and robotics will become part of the assistance that nurses will need to carry out safe patient care.” She believes there will be an increased demand for nursing informaticists with a strong computer science background.
Her advice for future students is, “ if you feel that gentle tug to become a nurse, start where you can and as soon as you can!” She firmly believes, support from your family and friends is vital during school and if the nursing professional is your passion, then pursue it.
Fesler was the winner of the “Excellence in Nursing Award” in the Education Category at the 2015 ONA Convention. The focus for the two-day convention highlighted the impact that Oklahoma Nurses make across all practice settings related to innovative and evidence-based practice as it relates to ethics, quality improvement and technology