Join us today as Sonya Spruill shares her journey into nursing and the OR, and how she now works to help onboard and provide orientation for many new nurses.
Show Notes
Meet Sonya
I was born and raised in Walterboro, South Carolina. I was told that at the age of three, I told my family that I wanted to be a nurse. After high school, I attended college for two years at Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia, where I thought I wanted to major in Industrial Psychology. Somehow, nursing was not on my compass at the time and I took a different path.
I left Spelman and came home to hold various jobs. I became a career administrative assistant for various industries, such as financial (working for CFO, Controller, Credit Manager) and legal (assistant for corporate bankruptcy, immigration, school education, and environmental lawyers). When presented with the opportunity to attend law school, I decided then that, although I liked what I did, it was not what I truly wanted to pursue for a career.
I decided to go back to school at Trident Technical College in 2003. I finished with my ADN in 2006. I had begun as a Student Tech on 8D during my last year at Trident but I had always been interested in the OR so I decided to take a job in the Main Operating Room as a new grad. I started in 2006 and since then, I have become the Unit Magnet Champion, RNIII, Selecting Talent Peer Interviewer, member of the OR Shared Governance Council, CNOR, and Unit Certification Champion. I became a mid-shift staff nurse where I was exposed to multiple services: Urology, GYN, DaVinci, ENT/Plastics/Oral, Ortho, Neuro and Pediatrics. This gave me a wealth of knowledge and I became a resource and mentor to many.
I decided to go back to school in 2014 to receive my BSN, which I received from University of Texas – Arlington in December 2016. I also received my MSN program in Nurse Education there in 2018. I am one of the Nursing Professional Development Specialists for the ORs at a large academic medical center, where I am the lead for orientation/onboarding for 50 ORs.
Links
- (00:00) - Welcome to Don't Eat Your Young • Sonya Spruill
- (34:02) - Wrapping Up
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What is Don't Eat Your Young: A Nursing Podcast?
Welcome to Don’t Eat Your Young — the podcast that brings you stories from the trenches of the incredible, wonderful, exhausting, terrifying, joyous world of nursing.
Host Beth Quaas been in the world of nursing for nearly decades and has worked in hospitals large and small. She's worn the hats of the floor nurse, ICU, ER, and anesthesia. She's been a manager, an educator, and a co-worker.
On Don't Eat Your Young, Beth highlights stories from nurses around the country that are doing amazing things for their nursing colleagues to support them and let them know that they are not alone. This is a show celebrating a positive culture of nursing and care, and we can be a part of this culture by sharing wins — and struggles — across the field.
We will also explore opportunities that are unique in nursing that may inspire you to go in new directions. These voices from the field are an inspiration to care for yourself, and those around you.
Subscribe to the show wherever you get your podcasts. For more information and to support this show, visit donteatyouryoung.com.
Nurses. Making our world better, one shift at a time!