Brandi Parker, RN

I am a new graduate RN from Richmond, Virginia. I left Virginia to attend nursing school in New York, my husband’s home. I graduated just this May, passed the NCLEX in June and was granted an RN license by the State of New York in July - but don’t let my graduation date fool you: this is not the beginning of my journey into patient care. I have been fortunate enough to have been invited to become a part of the staff at some amazing medical centers already. I started my journey as a unit secretary on a busy cardiac step-down unit. My superb organizational skills, polite-but-direct communication style, and dedication to completing my work quickly and accurately made me a staff favorite. Before three months had passed, I was already being promoted to telemetry monitor technician. I was terrified, but also intrigued and eager to learn a new skill. The hospital sent me to a training course to learn all about cardiac dysrhythmias and how to read telemetry. I was the only member of that class to receive a score of 100% on my final examination. Following a duty station transfer, my spouse was relocated and I along with him. At my new position, I was still a telemetry technician, but I was working at one of the best heart hospitals on the east coast: Sentara Norfolk General Hospital. Here, I proved myself to be dedicated yet again, helping to cover shifts when the unit was short, staying late and coming in early. I never missed a conversion and my colleagues trusted my judgment as I was frequently consulted for my opinion on complex interpretations. I was asked to transfer to Virginia Beach General Hospital to help cover staffing demands, and ended up working shifts at several Sentara sites as needed. When the duty assignment was up, I returned home to Richmond, where I was hired by VCU Medical Center, a level 1 trauma center and the home of MCV Physicians and the VCU School of Nursing. I became a telemetry technician there, and was trusted and respected by my peers. After a short time, I became a senior technician and was trusted with assisting and teaching new monitor technicians (with whom I was a favorite.) I was also grateful for the opportunity to learn a new skill: holter monitoring. I took a year off to travel in Europe, but when I returned, I was ecstatic to find out that VCU was happy to have me back. I was hired as a PCT on the neurosurgery step-down unit, where I worked harder than I had ever worked in my life - and I lov