Nursing School: The next step and long-term goals

I'd like to announce I've officially been accepted into a Bachelor of Science in Nursing program. It will be two years before I could claim I'm a deaf Nurse, but it's an exciting next step! I'm sure I will have new experiences in how people treat me as a deaf student. Will they be impressed? Will they assume I'm dumb? Will they all treat me like I'm a burden? We'll see.

In a previous post, I mentioned it's uncommon to meet Deaf role models in a medical profession. I've never met any, I've never known of anyone nearby. I've only ever read about them through online websites. They seem fictional. My hope is to eventually be a prominent figure in the field and to encourage other deaf/HOH people to enter a medical profession. There's not enough deaf role models encouraging deaf/HOH people they're capable of more than a minimum wage job. Who are the people actively showing them they aren't dumb just because they can't hear (which is how the hearing world treats us both in body language and verbally). Who is showing them they can have support going after their dream career?  Encouragement needs to start while they're young. Exposure to Deaf Professionals is a missing key for kids who are involved in the hearing world. This may not be as big of an issue in Deaf Culture. Those heavily intertwined in Deaf Culture may have all the support they need. I'm not certain, because that wasn't my life.

Once I've got my own student loan debt paid, I'd like to set up a scholarship for Deaf/HOH students interested in medical professions. Unlike the other scholarships where you must fit exact criteria, I would like mine to be broad. No age restriction, no communication restriction, no technology restriction ("must wear hearing aids or Cochlear Implant."), nothing except the desire for a medical career. Physician, Veterinarian, Nursing, Vet. Tech, all of that is fine. But the scholarship idea is only an idea. I may not be able to get started on it for another 5 years. Maybe I will be forced to set up strict guidelines for applicants, I'll cross that bridge years down the line.

I need to reinforce my ASL skills. My eventual goal as a nurse is to work in pediatrics and with Deaf patients. There aren't any Deaf-Only hospitals but one possibility is to become a traveling nurse. Legality aside (unsure the protocol for when bilingual nurses can communicate directly with patient and when the patient needs to speak to the physician via interpreting), it would be beneficial to hospitals to hire Nurses who are fluent in ASL. If they have a Nurse who speaks ASL who happens to be on shift, it won't take up to 3 hours to get an interpreter to the hospital. Although I will never work in an emergency department where it would be crucial to communicate ASAP, a fluent staff member for all other departments would preferable to waiting hours. An interpreter may be called anyways, but at least the patients wouldn't have to sit there in silence or relying on hearing family members (if any).

So there you go, I'm now on the next step towards becoming a Nurse. I will start in August.