Amber Rogers, Nursing Class of 2009
Amber Rogers was attending a local university and majoring in early childhood education when she decided to change her course of study. She felt a calling to become a nurse and started to research programs.
“When I began researching schools in the area I found that Sinclair had the best reputation so I transferred there to begin my nursing career path,” says Amber. “I had a great journey and had good instructors with real-world experience. The class and clinical sizes were small—I didn’t feel lost like I did when I was at the first school I was at.”
Amber graduated from Sinclair’s nursing program in 2009 and took her boards the day after Christmas. She passed on her first attempt and accepted a job in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) at Atrium Medical Center.
“New nursing graduates typically do not start in the ICU very often because of the acuity of the patients,” says Amber. “But while I was attending Sinclair I was working in the ICU as a patient care tech so I was already with the department and facility.”
Amber quickly demonstrated her nursing and leadership skills and became a team leader in the ICU. “As a team lead I controlled the flow of patients, admissions and discharges, and if there were any emergencies I would be called to help the primary nurse,” says Amber. “If there was a code blue situation I would run the code and help administer life support if needed.”
While Amber was working as a team leader in the ICU she was also continuing her nursing education. She graduated with her bachelor’s degree in nursing from Ohio University in May 2013.
“After graduating with my bachelor’s degree, I accepted an offer to become a unit educator at Atrium Medical Center and that launched me into a new path of nursing,” says Amber. “Instead of being at the bedside full-time caring for critical care patients, my time was allotted to nurse education and bedside care. I built and delivered education, maintained annual competencies for nursing staff, and if new equipment came in I was educating nurses on that. It was more of a leadership position and I really found my passion in that role—it allowed me to combine nursing with education and everything clicked.”
Amber is currently working on her master’s degree and in the spring of 2017 she moved into her current position at Premier Health as a system educator where she ensures other new unit educators receive the training and skills they need and also co-leads new employee orientation.
“I can’t say enough about Sinclair,” says Amber. “It was definitely the best decision for me to transfer to Sinclair and get that nursing education from a premier school with a great reputation.”
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