Journeys to Miami Regionals: Erin McCall's Path to Nursing

Pictured from left: Jordyn WInston the 2016-2017 Alumni Nursing Scholarship recipient with Erin McCall the 2015-2016 recipient.

The daughter of a nurse, Erin McCall began working at the hospital in Middletown as soon as she graduated from Monroe High School.

“The idea of helping people is very rewarding,” she said, “It would be great if I can make a difference in at least one person’s life, even for one moment.”

For her hard work and determination on her path to becoming a nurse herself, Erin McCall has been awarded the Alumni Nursing Scholarship for 2015-2016 academic year.

Erin’s mother worked in critical care. Through her, Erin picked up on the excitement of being around people who needed help. Even as a little girl, she wanted to be a part of helping those in need.

Erin started out transporting people in radiology and then went to work in nursing as an aide and as a secretary.

“At first it was very overwhelming, being eighteen and taking care of ten to twelve patients and not knowing exactly what I was doing,” she recalled. “But once I got into it and got more comfortable, I knew that’s what I wanted to do.”

She enrolled at Miami Regionals’ Middletown campus right out of high school, but it was not yet her time.

“Life happened and I dropped out,” she said. “I realized I couldn’t balance everything.”

She still worked at the hospital, most recently in the emergency department. Ten years later, she found herself a single mother and realized “I had to do something to be an example to my son, to let him see that with study and determination you can achieve your goals.”

So with a kindergartener at her feet, and after a ten-year “life break,” Erin re-enrolled in Miami Middletown’s nursing program.

With a young child, her studying usually happens late at night.

“You definitely have a different outlook on things,” she said of taking such time off. “I was ready this time. You have more of an appreciation of going to class and wanting to actually be there rather than just going through the motions. I want to do well.”

She has two more semesters to go after this one and expects finding a job won’t be much of a problem, given that she knows her way around the hospital already.

“I like emergency and critical care,” she said. “I also like hospice care, which I experienced through a having a family member in hospital.”

The scholarship—and the nomination by instructor Deborah Tibbs—came as a total surprise.

Tibbs said she knew that as a single mom in school, Erin needed a little extra help to make it through the final lap. She would see how the other, often younger students, would come to Erin for help and found her to be a leader and an example, to take time out of her busy life to meet and study with them.

“I was very honored that she would pick me,” Erin said.