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Southwestern Michigan College Dec. 11 welcomed 14 new nurses to America’s largest health care profession with almost 4.3 million registered nurses (RNs) nationwide.

With a median age of 46, the United States needs to create more than 200,000 new RN positions each year to replace retiring nurses and to meet increasing health care needs.

The fall class received associate degrees in nursing (ADN) in a pinning ceremony in the theatre of the Dale A. Lyons Building on the Dowagiac campus. The class joins the ranks of 3,199 SMC nursing graduates.

Pediatrics Professor Yolanda Roche, MSN, FNP, RN, who has been teaching at SMC for 16 years, shared her winding journey, which began in the Swiss Valley ski patrol.

“When I started college, I didn’t know what I wanted to do or who I wanted to be,” Roche said, “but I did not want to be a nurse. Doing lots of first aid in Jones in college, I realized I liked taking care of people. When I graduated from nursing school, I did not want to work in a hospital. I actually went to the health department. I went back to school and got my master’s in community health nursing and nursing education. I came here to teach pediatrics, which exposed me to medically fragile children, and I fell in love with that and moonlighted. I got my FNP (family nurse practitioner degree).

“My husband asks me all the time if I really need to do all this stuff in nursing, and my answer is always yes because I love what I do and there is so much to do in nursing. My path leading here started with skiing. Take your path. You won’t know what you’re passionate about until you get there.”

Two sayings hang in her office — ‘The expert in everything was once a beginner’ and ‘I must do the things I think I cannot do’.

“These were my mantras in school,” Roche said. “That intimidating cardio-thoracic surgeon who makes you feel like an idiot when you’re trying to talk to them, they had a first day at school. Every expert did. They all had to learn things the first time and got to where they are because they did the work and put the time in, like you guys are going to do.”

“I have found,” Roche said, “that the more I learn, the more I realize I know nothing, and I have taught myself to not be afraid of that. Nurses are lifelong learners. Accept that you don’t know everything and give yourself some grace. Don’t be hard on yourself. Ask for help. Learn new things. As you become experienced, beginners will be experts, too, someday, if you give them support and contribute positively to their journeys.”

In his welcome, President Dr. Joe Odenwald introduced Vice Chairman Tracy Hertsel and Trustees Becky Moore and Dr. Elaine Foster, former nursing dean.

“Both my grandmothers were nurses and they nurtured me,” Odenwald said. “My maternal grandmother was an RN. My paternal grandmother was an LPN.”

He recently found the former’s September 1950 nursing diploma. “She’s 97 and served as a public health nurse. Fifty years as a registered nurse, 1950-2000.”

“You’re part of a great tradition,” he said.  “Everybody needs a nurse, whether coming into this world or going out. Someday you’ll be taking care of me. We look forward to watching your careers develop.”

Faculty in attendance included Chair Rona Goodrich, MSN, RN; Stacey Dwyer, MSN, RN; Haley Smith, MSN, RN; Hazel Lim, MSN, RN; Catherine Chandler, MSN, RN; Michelle Mercado. BSN, RN; Molly Marquart, BSN, RN; and Erika Ervin, nursing success coach.

Graduates include: Julia Amor of Niles, McKayla Brooks of Three Rivers, Madelyn Buck of Paw Paw, Nathan Damm of Niles, Rylie Gaideski of Dowagiac, Matthew Imperio of Cassopolis, Hailie McCarty of South Bend, Kelsey McClure of Elkhart, Alexis McDonnell of Dowagiac, Makayla Shaw of Edwardsburg, Shayla Shears of Edwardsburg, Robert Spansail of Dowagiac, Caitlin Trovatore of Edwardsburg and Travis Yates of Decatur.

Shayla Shears was announced as the Lamp of Knowledge recipient by Nursing Department Chair Rona Goodrich in recognition of the peer-selected Florence Nightingale Award embodying selflessness, compassion, thoughtfulness, team play, dependability, generosity and humility.