Hello from Jen

Welcome to our blog!

I’m Jen and I couldn’t be more excited about our upcoming trip to Washington D.C. to work with the homeless. Like the others in this group, I am an RN working in a small Western Wisconsin community. I graduated from the University of Wisconsin – Madison in 2006 and have worked as a staff nurse/charge nurse in a mid-sized hospital since. I started working on a Neuro/Peds/Trauma unit which cares for all types of patients from 4 weeks of age to 104 years old who have neurological problems or trauma injuries along with all sorts of over flow patients. Then because my life wasn’t apparently busy enough, a year and a half later I added maternity nursing to my profile. Although they may seem like two opposite ends of the spectrum I love them both and they truly complement each other while giving my nursing career diversity.

Last summer I started graduate school for my Family Nurse Practitioner at the University of Wisconsin – Eau Claire. Between work, school, and attempting to have a minimal social life it has been a blur but in a good way. Learning so much in such a short time period is overwhelming many days but I consider myself extremely lucky to have these opportunities as so many do not. On this trip I look forward to not only sharing what I have learned from my educational and career experiences but also to learning what these men and women have to offer me in terms of education. Not everything in life can nor should be learned from a book and I fully plan on taking advantage of absorbing all aspects of education this trip has to offer. These people we are about to meet will undoubtedly change my nursing career and life for the better.

As far as working with those less fortunate, I have not had many opportunities; therefore this adventure will likely be an eye opening experience. Our small community of just over 60,000 people does have some members who are homeless but it is a far cry from the approximate 6,000 people who are homeless in the D.C. metropolitan area. Here in the Midwest we are quite fortunate; although the housing market remains difficult for many, I would not consider it out of control like it is in our nation’s capitol where the primary cause for homelessness is lack of affordable housing. These high costs and/or substandard living conditions have lead to 5- million low-income struggling households.

Welcome aboard our adventure and stay tuned for more!