When Lily Jacobson was a young girl growing up in Lincoln, her mother was diagnosed with a serious illness that required multiple surgeries and frequent hospital visits that sometimes lasted as long as two weeks. It was difficult for the young child and her older sister to watch their mom suffer, but at the same time, it helped inspire both girls to pursue a life of helping others.
It was during those 12 years of her childhood when her mom was ill that Jacobson witnessed first-hand the incredible work nurses do. She was inspired by their compassion, expertise and ability to connect with patients and their families. This experience fueled her passion for health care and led her to pursue a career in nursing.
“To watch your mom suffer and be in and out of the hospital, that is a very specific and difficult journey. I don’t remember every doctor that walked in her room. But I remember the nurses more than anything else,” Jacobson said. “I would bring pictures I drew and ask the nurses to hang them up on the wall and they would do it. I don’t remember feeling fearful when I left the hospital because I knew the nurse who was going to be with her all night. Those nurses went out of their way to care not only for my mom but for the rest of my family, as well. That showed me how powerful nurses are. Hopefully, I do a good enough job to instill that in a person’s daughter or son.”
Fortunately, Jacobson’s mom recovered and is doing well. Largely due to that experience, both sisters have pursued careers in the healthcare industry, with Lily Jacobson graduating from the University of Rhode Island College of Nursing this week. Jacobson said that when looking at colleges, URI wasn’t at first on her radar as she applied to multiple schools all over the country. The personnel in the College of Nursing changed her mind.
“Having grown up in Rhode Island, I was ready to get out of here. But at the end of the admission process, my parents suggested we go to welcome day with the URI College of Nursing,” Jacobson said. “After that day, both personally and professionally, it had to be URI. Every student and faculty member I talked to spoke so highly about the opportunities available to nursing students here.”
And take advantage of the opportunities, she has. After an admittedly slow start adjusting to a campus that had some classes with more students than her entire high school graduating class, Jacobson was patient with the campus community and eventually found her place as a campus tour guide, the “turning point that catapulted off that into all these other opportunities.” That led to her joining the Student Alumni Association and becoming part of the undergraduate Advisory Board for the College of Nursing, for which she regularly met with the dean, assistant dean, and associate deans to discuss student and academic issues.
Jacobson has had some “incredible” clinical experiences at Newport, Miriam, and Rhode Island hospitals, as well as at an elementary school in Johnston, where young students referred to her as “Almost Nurse Lily.” She engaged in a disaster simulation at the Rhode Island Nursing Education Center in Providence that exposed her to the fast-paced world of emergency medicine, and during her Rhode Island Hospital clinical, she was able to transfer from the medical-surgical floor into the emergency department, where her career goals were cemented.
“I think it is my calling to the be an ER nurse,” Jacobson said. “I love that you are the first face to provide those vulnerable patients with a trusted person to go to and feel comforted by. I want to be that first person who welcomes you, whether it’s just a day in the ER or a 10-day admitted stay. I want to be that first person so you think, ‘Well, I’m going to be OK here because this first nurse set me up for success.’”
The clinical experience nursing students gain from early on in their academic careers is invaluable in preparing them to be health care professionals, Jacobson said. It is a challenge for a relatively young student to face and requires a little extra support, she said, but forces nursing students to embrace their careers earlier than some of their peers.
“URI nursing students at 18, 19 years old, are thrown into clinicals and now all of a sudden you have a person’s life in your hands,” Jacobson said. “I think it’s an added layer of responsibility when you step into the hospital and you have that first realization moment that everything I’m learning and everything I’m doing is so that I can help save lives and help people feel safe when they are at their lowest and most vulnerable points. That’s a responsibility that a lot of other college students don’t face maybe until after they graduate, but we get it served to us sophomore year, and really from day one. That level of ownership is something you have to realize from the beginning. It has helped keep me focused on my studies and my goals.”
Staying focused and embracing their caretaker role is critical for nurses who often face burn-out, especially during COVID-19 and its aftermath, when she said nurses are leaving the bedside in droves within their first two years. Nurses need to be celebrated, and nursing students need strong support to help ensure there are enough to meet the needs of society.
“I’ve worked as hard as I can for the last four years, and so have my classmates. But the odds are literally stacked against us,” Jacobson said. “To know the odds are against you and still show up every single day, that’s something really special. If you are already burned out and you haven’t seen your family, I can totally understand why the last thing you want to do is take a nursing major under your wing. That was something that we needed. We got it in some situations and we missed out on it in some situations. I can see why we missed it, but that was a lesson we’re all going to take and move forward with and be more active leaders to nursing students.”
Jacobson is considering career opportunities in hospitals, especially in emergency departments, as she prepares for graduation. She plans to always share her knowledge, experience and passion with the younger generations. In the future, she hopes for the opportunity to more formally prepare young nurses.
“I hope I get an opportunity to teach in the future,” Jacobson said. “One thing I love about nursing is there’s always an opportunity to teach nursing students at the bedside and in the classroom. There’s a great need for higher education professionals in nursing. Working for the office of admissions at URI helped me realize the deep love I have for higher education. People need to hear that, ‘Yes, it’s going to be difficult, but here’s why it’s difficult and here’s why it’s so important it’s difficult, and here’s the end result.’ I can tell them, if I can do it, you can do it.”