At the vanguard among its peers in higher education, the University of Rochester School of Nursing makes it a top priority to create a learning environment that mirrors the changing demographics of the world outside its walls. Meet some of the students, faculty, staff, and alumni whose life experiences contribute to the school’s inclusionary culture and broaden the spectrum of health care professionals who will care for tomorrow’s patients.
Melita Hebert
As a family medicine physician in her native Philippines, Melita Hebert ’15N sometimes dipped into her own salary to buy medication for her most needy patients.
At the state-run Philippine General Hospital in Manila, health care consultations and diagnostics were provided free of charge, but patients were responsible for purchasing their own meds, which many could not afford. When Hebert came to the U.S. in 2001 and began working as a practice administrator at an internal medicine clinic in New York City, she found some unfortunate similarities.
Serving a mostly elderly and immigrant population, she spent a good deal of time working out creative payment solutions and educating patients on the basics of health literacy.
“A lot of them didn’t have insurance, so you have to work within their budget to accommodate them. Not having insurance is not an excuse not to be treated,” said Hebert.
“I was lucky because I had medical education in the Philippines, but still, I was new to the American health care system. People who hadn’t had that exposure to how things work, you have to explain to them this is how you take your medicine, this is how important it is. It’s basically educating your patients about the importance of their treatments and their lifestyle.”
"Nursing depends on the patient. You have to tailor your treatment based on the patient’s needs. It’s dynamic. It was difficult at first shifting gears in my thinking from medicine to nursing."
Though she had completed her medical education, including a residency, Hebert could not practice as a physician in the U.S. without proceeding through a stringent licensing process that includes a three-part exam and additional residency. After getting married and moving to Rochester, Hebert held on to the hope of resuming her medical career, but came to the realization that she could still work as a health care provider, albeit in a different role. In 2015, she enrolled in the UR Nursing Accelerated Bachelor’s Program for Non-Nurses (APNN).
“Finding the APNN program here was my second chance,” Hebert said. “I was like, ‘This is it! This is my vehicle towards working in health care again.’ It’s the same environment – it’s just a different way of thinking. Nursing depends on the patient. You have to tailor your treatment based on the patient’s needs. It’s dynamic. It was difficult at first shifting gears in my thinking from medicine to nursing.”
As an undergraduate student, Hebert received a Helene Fuld Scholarship, which provided her with financial support, as well special seminars and learning experiences with the school’s leadership and alumni. The scholarship program helped Hebert discover opportunities to make the most of her career.
“It gave me a model of how I can turn my career into a lifelong calling,” she said.
Now working as an RN on a Med-Surg unit in Strong Memorial Hospital, Hebert is enrolled in the Adult-Gerontology Primary Care Nurse Practitioner program with an eye on pursuing her Doctor of Nursing Practice degree down the road.
“I love being able to make a difference. It’s always challenging, and it’s a lot of hard work, but I love being with patients, and I love the tough work,” Hebert said of nursing. “You need to have that calling to want to work with people. You have to have compassion. You can’t do this job if you’re not interested in being human enough to help another human being.
“I wish I would have done it sooner, but I’m still happy. I’m glad I chose this school. It’s like home to me."
Yvette Conyers
Yvette Conyers, RN, MSN, FNP-C, CTN-B, wants her students to know that things will be OK. In nursing school, as in life, there will be peaks and valleys. The key is just to keep moving forward.
An instructor of clinical nursing, Conyers talks freely with her students about her own struggles. Like how she fell out of her undergraduate cohort because she had to repeat a maternity course, how she failed in her first attempt to pass the NCLEX exam, or the obstacles she faced as a teenage single mom.
“It’s been a long 18 years of stop and go, but it’s been worthwhile.”
“I tell nursing students these things not to scare them, but to let them know that it’s possible to overcome them,” said Conyers. “I want them to know that even if you don’t pass this course, even if you don’t pass your boards the first time, it’s OK. There will be more opportunities. You just keep going until you pass.”
Forging ahead in the face of adversity was a choice Conyers made early on. As a high school student, she had designs on a career as a neonatologist, a physician handling the most complex and high-risk cases involving newborns. But when Conyers got pregnant during her senior year, she traded in the idea of medical school for a career in nursing. Two years after the birth of her son in January 2000, Conyers earned her associate degree from Monroe Community College.
“I was really determined not to be a statistic in the African-American community,” Conyers said. “I was told by many people who were close to me that I wasn’t going to amount to much of anything. So, it was me telling them, but, more importantly, telling myself that I can do this.”
Encouraged by her colleagues and mentors, Conyers continued to pursue advanced education. She got her bachelor’s degree at the UR School of Nursing in 2007, a master’s in nursing education in 2010 and a family nurse practitioner post-master’s certificate in 2013. This May, she’ll graduate with her Doctor of Nursing Practice degree. At the same time, she has worked in a number of clinical roles as an RN and family nurse practitioner.
“Nursing is about relationships, and a lot of the relationships I built throughout nursing school and my first and second jobs opened up a lot of doors,” said Conyers, who joined the UR Nursing faculty in 2013. “It’s been a long 18 years of stop and go, but it’s been worthwhile.”
Now, Conyers is intent on paying it forward to help the next generation. In addition to her DNP research, which is focused on developing cultural competence in health care providers in order to ensure that all patients – regardless of their background or identity – are treated equally, she is active with a number of organizations committed to providing opportunities for underrepresented groups. Among them, the Chi Eta Phi nursing sorority and Rochester Jewels, a nonprofit focused on empowering and equipping girls to lead productive lives while giving back to others. At the School of Nursing, Conyers is a member of the Council for Diversity and Inclusiveness and a faculty advisor for LIFT (Leading with Integrity For Tomorrow).
“That’s what it’s about – reaching back, giving a hand and pulling people forward,” Conyers said. “It’s not just talking the talk, but let’s walk the walk together.”
Stephanie Murphy
Stephanie Murphy ’17N had all but given up on her dream of becoming a registered nurse. In the fall of 2016, she sat in the office of Dean Kathy Rideout, EdD, PPCNP-BC, FNAP, and explained that after nearly a decade of study and hard work in health care, she didn’t have the financial resources to finish her final trimester in the Accelerated Bachelor’s Program for Non-Nurses.
“I remember I cried,” said Murphy, a mother of three who first started taking her nursing prerequisites in 2009. “But I spoke to the dean, and she said ‘You are not going to give up.'" Instead, Rideout offered Murphy a scholarship on the spot and encouraged her to get a job to ensure that she would have the financial resources to finish her degree.
And that's exactly what she did.
Murphy had worked a variety of jobs in health care over the years to support her family and that’s when she discovered how much she enjoyed helping others. Among them was a part-time position as a patient care technician at Strong Memorial Hospital, which amounted to three months of service credit. All Murphy needed was nine more months of service to qualify for a substantial tuition benefit at the School of Nursing. She landed a job as a geriatric psych specialist at Strong, and was able to return to nursing school in May 2017 to finally complete her degree.
Not content just to re-enter the program, Murphy utilized as many of the school’s resources as she could to help ensure her success. Before the trimester started, she met with a near-peer mentor, studied with a tutor, and audited classes she had taken previously to help re-introduce herself to the coursework.
"This degree is not something that is handed to you. You have to earn the right to be called a nurse."
“I was so proud of myself. I made it to graduation,” said Murphy, who passed her NCLEX in the fall and now works as a nurse in the Emergency Department at Strong. “I honestly had given up. I almost took a job as an apartment manager. But I knew it was a job that would have prevented me from returning to a career in nursing.”
It had been a long, winding road for Murphy just to get to this point. When she graduated from high school, she enrolled at Buffalo State College in pursuit of a broadcast journalism degree. She later transferred to the College of Brockport and took a leave of absence in order to raise her family. She enrolled at Monroe Community College a few years later, taking nursing prerequisite courses, but when she did not successfully complete microbiology, she returned to Brockport and obtained her bachelor’s degree with a major in health sciences. Murphy went on to earn a master’s degree in health care administration from Roberts Wesleyan College, but wanted to bolster that with a nursing degree, which ultimately led her to the UR Nursing accelerated program.
“My passion is to care for people,” she said. “Everyone’s path is different – that’s what I always hear and I believe it more now that I see that I’m doing something I really love. The driver was knowing that I am smart enough. I might have to try harder than Person A or Person B, and it’s going to take effort. But this degree is not something that is handed to you. You have to earn the right to be called a nurse.
“There are only so many who can be in this club. And to be able to be in there is amazing to me.”
Jonathan Wetherbee
The rough blueprint Jonathan Wetherbee ’08 had for coming out included waiting until he had his own apartment and a stable job. But he also discovered that he needed a little inspiration.
He found it at the School of Nursing.
When he began working full time as an administrative assistant in 2008, Wetherbee had confided only in one of his friends that he was gay. But his daily interactions at the Center for Nursing Entrepreneurship with two nurses who were out and living very public lives helped embolden Wetherbee to do the same.
“They really empowered me – both professionally and personally – and it was a real life-changer for me. The rest of the school was so accepting of them, and so welcoming of them. It just made it so much easier for me when I did come out,” said Wetherbee, who also credits Professor Mary Dombeck, PhD, DMin, APRN, with spearheading an open dialogue within the school about diversity, including issues relating to sexual orientation and gender identity.
“I don’t know if I would have come out when I did if it wasn’t for the fact that I knew I was safe at work. That makes an enormous difference.”
Having felt the warmth of a fire he hadn’t built, Wetherbee jumped at the opportunity when a spot opened on the school’s Council for Diversity and Inclusiveness (CoDI). A role in the council would be a perfect way for him to help shape the culture of the school going forward in an attempt to ensure that other members of the community feel just as accepted as he did.
“I felt like I had been given this gift, and that I should repay it in some way,” said Wetherbee, who in 2018 received the University of Rochester Presidential Diversity Award for his exemplary leadership and contributions to fostering a campus culture of diversity and inclusion. “And everything kind of snowballed from there.”
“I felt like I had been given this gift, and that I should repay it in some way.”
In the past six years, Wetherbee has emerged as one of the University’s most passionate and eloquent advocates for a more welcoming and accepting campus community. He not only serves the School of Nursing as co-chair of the CoDI, but he was the first person to take on the role of staff diversity officer, a position now being implemented in units throughout the University.
As co-chair of the University’s Pride Alliance, Wetherbee helps to lead and direct a group of employees dedicated to promoting a positive work environment that values and supports individuals regardless of their sexual orientation or gender expression. He is also a Safe Space training coordinator and helps to educate faculty, students, and staff while providing visible support and an identifiable network of allies for the LGBT community.
Wetherbee is also a member of the University of Rochester Medical Center Executive Committee on Diversity and Inclusion. And he is on the speakers’ bureau for Rochester’s Out Alliance, which he was introduced to by his husband, Matthew.
Through his involvement on campus, Wetherbee has cultivated an even greater appreciation for diversity in all of its forms, whether it’s advocating for racial justice or helping to organize workshops to discuss spirituality in the workplace.
“I’m not just expected to focus on LGBT stuff because I’m a member of the community, I also get to be involved in activism around racial justice or racial equity. I have been able to do things to improve the situation for people with disabilities or who consider themselves differently-abled,” Wetherbee said. “There’s such a broad definition of diversity and inclusion here that I don’t have outside of this work that’s really refreshing for me, because it’s something that I’ve found that I’m very passionate about.”
Tim Kuhmann
Entering nursing school was a leap of faith for Tim Kuhmann ’14N. With two small kids at home, he ended a 13-year career as a phys ed teacher in hopes of finding a career that allow him to have a greater impact on children and their families.
“I’ve always been drawn to trying to help people and being a resource or coach for them. I think nursing gives you the capacity to do that,” said Kuhmann, now an RN in ambulatory pediatrics at Golisano Children’s Hospital. “You’re filling all those roles – counselor, coach, social worker – you’re kind of doing all those things as a pediatric nurse, so I really love it. With kids being so young, I felt I could make more of a difference in their lifestyles, whereas an adult tends to be more set in their ways.
“I’ve always been drawn to trying to help people and being a resource or coach for them. I think nursing gives you the capacity to do that."
“There’s always that thought, ‘Am I making the right decision? What if I don’t make it and it doesn’t work out?’ But I think that was part of my drive, too. I’ve got to make this work and get through it. And it did work out, but I had a lot of help along the way.”
One of the biggest boosts that Kuhmann received came in the form of a New Careers in Nursing (NCIN) scholarship from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and American Association of Colleges of Nursing. The scholarship program, which ran from 2008-2015, was designed to help alleviate the nursing shortage and increase the diversity of nursing professionals. Men make up only about 9 percent of the nursing workforce nationwide, as of 2013. At the UR School of Nursing, male enrollment hovers at twice that figure. Kuhmann was one of eight men in the UR Nursing Accelerated Bachelor’s Program for Non-Nurses to receive the NCIN scholarship in 2013.
“You’re seeing more and more men all the time in the field,” said Kuhmann. “I think it’s welcome. I hear it from families, ‘We love that we’re seeing more guys that are nurses now.’ I think it just gives a different perspective. I’ve noticed it working with kids and families. Sometimes the kids respond more positively to a male and vice versa.
“The other thing is that some patients come from backgrounds where maybe they don’t have a male influence in their life. Just having that male perspective or someone there to tell them what they need to hear can be beneficial.”
The NICN scholarship also helped Kuhmann get hired on his first unit at Strong Memorial Hospital. As part of the program, he shadowed Denise Clough, MS, RN, NE-BC, a nurse manager on 8 South. The day before he was set to interview for another position, he got a call offering him a spot on that unit, where he stayed for three years before switching to the Pediatric Treatment Center (AC-6), which provides outpatient care and treatment to children requiring a variety of procedures.
"This whole path, this whole switch, this leap of faith has led me to a job where I still have time to be with my family, but I can still do all these little aspects of nursing that I love in one position."
Kuhmann, who has a master’s degree in education, has also been able to draw on his teaching background, becoming a member of the Center for Nursing Professional Development team. As part of his weekly workload, he leads eight hours of professional development each week, teaching nursing practice orientation skill sessions, pediatric service orientation, basic life support, and pediatric emergency recognition classes. He also works four hours per week at the School of Nursing as a near-peer mentor, providing guidance and support to current accelerated program students.
“I’ve had no regrets. There were times in school where I was like ‘Oh, man, I hope I’m making the right decision.’ But it’s absolutely been the best decision I’ve ever made,” Kuhmann said. “This whole path, this whole switch, this leap of faith has led me to a job where I still have time to be with my family, but I can still do all these little aspects of nursing that I love in one position. It’s awesome.”