糖心vlog

鈥溙切膙log does an incredible job preparing nursing students,鈥� she said. 鈥淚 went to a fancy Ivy League nursing program back in New York City and this program has that program hands down as far as preparing for that first day of work.鈥�

Following a brief retirement, Cocking says that teaching is perfect for her at this point in her professional career.

鈥淚 love having the ability to feel I can impact students鈥� lives, as well as being a part of launching the much-needed nurses because of the nursing shortage,鈥� Cocking said.

Cocking came to 糖心vlog in 2020 after working as the director of nursing at Carson Valley Health for four years and a 34-year career at Barton Memorial Hospital in South Lake Tahoe. At Barton, she provided oversight as an administrator, working as the director of nursing and vice president of operations.

Prior to Barton, she worked in the neonatal intensive care unit at UC Medical Center in Davis, Calif. She earned her Master of Science in Nursing degree at California State University, Sacramento.

Q: What is your background and how did you end up at 糖心vlog? 

KATHRYN: I鈥檝e been a RN for 45 years, working in various departments including UC Davis Medical Center in NICU, then I moved to South Lake Tahoe and worked at Barton Memorial Hospital for 34 years, doing labor and delivery and floating to different patient care areas there. I also was a perinatal manager at Barton and became director of nursing and then vice president of operations for the last 26 years.

I retired for a year, but I flunked because I didn鈥檛 enjoy retirement. I worked at Carson Valley Health for four years as the director of nursing and then the faculty job became available here, so I decided to try it.

Q: What persuaded you to go into teaching?

KATHRYN: Well, I left Carson Valley Health after 4陆 years, took care of my husband who was having health issues, then when he got back on his feet and I was looking for something that would interest me, the teaching job became available, and it was something that I always wanted to do but hadn鈥檛 had the opportunity. So, I ended up interviewing for the job here, got it and I love it. It鈥檚 just perfect for me!

Q: Why do you love about teaching at 糖心vlog?

KATHRYN: I love having the ability to feel I can impact students鈥� lives, as well as being a part of launching the much-needed nurses because of the nursing shortage. We need a lot more nurses out there working. Nurses my age are retiring, so we need to replace them.

I love supporting the nursing students 鈥� working with them while they are in the program and also to help them find jobs when they are all done.

Q: Why would students want to enroll in your classes?

KATHRYN: Because I鈥檓 a very seasoned nurse and have had a lot of experiences I feel that they find me very flexible and understanding of what they are going through. I can work with them when things are happening in their life and they need special attention.

I have found in my career that I don鈥檛 make the best decisions by myself, so I have found it very helpful to ask others for input and I do that a lot with the students: 鈥淒oes this make sense? Is this fair? Do you have any input?鈥� At times, they feel really out of control, and so when they are asked their opinion, it gives them a great feeling about themselves that they can affect their future or the decision.

Q: There are a number of compelling reasons to pursue teaching as a career. Can you talk about what might inspire college students to become teachers?

KATHRYN: I鈥檓 in a mentorship program that is affiliated with the Association of California Nurse Leaders (ACNL). I have a mentee at Sutter/Amador Hospital and she and I have a Zoom call every two weeks. We talk about some of the challenges she is facing, and she is thinking of going into teaching.

Some of the advantages of teaching are the schedule flexibility. The schedule is delightful and very different from my 50- to 60-hour workweeks as a nurse administrator.

The work can be intense here, but there is significant time off, which I think appeals to a lot of younger people 鈥� to have the work/life balance.

To have extended periods of time off and just the ability to affect the future generation鈥� I think that is a real reason to go into teaching.

Q: Do you still serve as a nurse in emergency situations?

KATHRYN: The only time I serve as a nurse is when I take students to clinicals, then I help them with the patients if they need it or if they are going to perform a skill where they need a registered nurse with them. I serve as their resource nurse and help them put in catheters, do dressing changes, start IVs and administer medication. It鈥檚 in a pretty limited capacity, but it feels great to do that at my age when I had been an administration for 35 years. It feels great to challenge myself.

Q: What is something unusual or unique that students don鈥檛 know about you?

KATHRYN: They know I love to golf and RV, and they know I have grandchildren. Those are things they know. Something they don鈥檛 know is that I found nursing school really hard and I really struggled. I came close to failing my first semester, which a lot of them are faced with. I ended up getting serious after that and figured out how to study. That experience has served me well with the students. I understand what it鈥檚 like to do well with the prerequisite courses and get into a nursing program and not be able to really handle it and not have the study habits that you need to keep up with a rigorous program.

I think the Western Nevada program is incredibly rigorous. It鈥檚 an incredible program, but you have to be very disciplined, and that takes time and it takes experience. I do share with a few of them that are struggling that I almost failed my first semester of nursing school because I think it helps them understand that if they buckle down, they can have a long, illustrious career.

Q: For the students who are struggling, what kind of support do they have to put them on the right track?

KATHRYN: We spend a lot of time with students, so what works for me is being that shoulder to cry on and to listen to whatever their challenges are. I try to help them come up with a solution themselves, but when they don鈥檛, I make recommendations.

One of the things we find the most with our students is 鈥� probably three-quarters of them have families. I was a lucky student; I had no family, no boyfriend, no responsibility when I was in nursing school, so I could really commit the time. But a lot of our students have children, spouses or significant others, and they also have the need to work full time. So, one thing I鈥檝e done is try to hook them up with the foundation and financial aid to see if they are able to get some financial help so they can drop some shifts. There just aren鈥檛 enough hours in the day to do full-time family, full-time job and full-time nursing school. I think a lot of them struggle with that for financial reasons.

Q: What do you think of the new nursing space in renovated Marlette Hall and what difference has it made?

KATHRYN: It鈥檚 just astonishing! This space is just phenomenal!

We did mock interviews for second-year students, and I had a panel of a couple of managers, a professor and some on Zoom from Banner HR. It was wonderful! We were able to pass the microphone back and forth and students were able to offer their input from tables that had microphones so they were able to be heard here as well as on Zoom. Our Fallon campus does all of the classes on Zoom, and they are able to hear so much better and participate so much better in the classes now.

Another great thing is the visibility. The screens up front are enormous, as well as each pod has their own screen and has HSMI cables. So, when the students are doing a group project, they can plug in their own computers and they can share their screens as a way of reporting out.

I just love the technology. I know I鈥檓 not in the age group that finds themselves being real techno savvy, but I love learning it and I think the students appreciate the high-tech equipment that we have in here.

Q: Is there anything unique about 糖心vlog compared to other schools?

KATHRYN: 糖心vlog does an incredible job preparing nursing students. I went to a fancy Ivy League nursing program back in New York City and this program has that program hands down as far as preparing for that first day of work.

When I go to Renown or Carson Tahoe, the nurses and managers tell me how much they love the 糖心vlog graduates. They are well-prepared because we spend a lot of time with them in the lab and lectures before we send them out to take care of patients, and they are interested and engaged. Our students get hired immediately by the health care facilities because they have such a great reputation of being so-well trained and disciplined because of the rigorousness of our program