Meet Nursing Student, Desirae Stiles

The following is a guest blog post by Kirtland student, Desirae Stiles.

Hi, my name is Desirae Stiles and I am a nursing student at Kirtland Community College. I live in Onaway still and have my entire life. I am currently working as a waitress while going to school to follow my dreams of becoming a registered nurse. 

My Background

Family is everything to me and I love spending time with them. My boyfriend and I have been together for 6 years and I have two house dogs that I couldn’t live without! I have two nieces and a nephew. I really enjoy deer and bear hunting. I love riding horses with my friends, and riding snowmobiles in the winter. 

Why nursing? What areas of nursing interest me?

I chose nursing because I love caring for people. Being able to help, or to be there when no one else can is a great feeling. I was a CNA for about eight months and that experience made me really want to further my education in the medical field. 

The area of nursing that interests me the most is the neonatal intensive care unit. My youngest sister was born premature, and just seeing the amazing things nurses do to help babies was incredible. The second area that interests me is OB. I think birth is an amazing thing and the human body is so interesting.

Why Kirtland?

I chose Kirtland because the staff is very welcoming, and I just overall love the atmosphere here. I truly feel like all of the professors care about our future — they want us to succeed and become the best nurses that we can. All of my professors so far have been great role models, they have taught us that we will make mistakes, but how we learn from our mistakes is what will make us better nurses.

Even during a pandemic the staff has been helpful and understanding, and is always willing to lend a helping hand. I never thought I would be getting my education for nursing school online. And this started toward the end of first semester and has been continuously changing through second semester. Needless to say this whole pandemic has definitely taught my cohort and I how to be flexible. 

Nursing school isn’t easy and if anyone tells you it is, well, that’s just not the case. As a student you have to put in time to be successful.

Learn more about Kirtland’s flexible Nursing program here. We offer and Associate degree of Nursing (ADN) and a concurrent RN-BSN program with Saginaw Valley State University.