UK nursing grad is inspired by family, driven by care

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Dec. 17, 2024) — Witnessing his older sister’s battle with spina bifida left an indelible mark on Nathan Reynolds. Countless hospital visits and surgeries shaped his childhood, sparking a deep desire to help ease the suffering of others. This compassion, combined with the steadfast dedication he saw in his mother, a nurse, inspired Reynolds to pursue a remarkable journey toward his own career in nursing.

“Ever since she was a kid, a lot of the times on breaks from school — like spring or summer break — we would be taking a ‘vacation’ to a hospital somewhere, and we would spend a lot of downtime in waiting rooms, just waiting for her surgeries to be done,” explains Reynolds, who will earn his Bachelor of Science in Nursing from the UK College of Nursing this week. “I kind of got exposed to the nursing care that she received and was inspired by that. I decided I wanted to go something along the medical route when I graduated.”

Reynolds, from Owensboro, Kentucky, initially intended to enroll in the pre-med program at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., but a global pandemic brought his plans to a screeching halt.

“They canceled their classes, and I was stuck at home,” Reynolds explains. “I started working at our local hospital as a COVID screener and became further exposed to the nursing care that was being provided. I was inspired. COVID-19 changed everything, and I thought, you know, maybe this is the right answer for me, so I applied to UK and enrolled that following fall.”

Reynolds aspires to become a certified registered nurse anesthetist (CRNA), a specialized nurse who administers anesthesia and other medications to ensure that surgeries and medical procedures — like those his sister has undergone — are pain-free.

Reynolds did not follow the typical summer playbook of his peers. While many recharged on sandy beaches, he dedicated his summers to advancing his nursing ambitions. Instead of lounging, he immersed himself in research internships, exploring pain management for both cisgender and gender-diverse patients and studying the cutting-edge applications of artificial intelligence in anesthesia. His participation in UK’s cardiovascular ICU through the Student Nurse Academic Practicum (SNAP) provided invaluable hands-on experience, giving him a real taste of life as a nurse.

The prestigious Witt Scholarship was a game-changer for Reynolds, offering crucial financial support that allowed him to pursue his nursing passion without straining his family. He shared that this award granted him the freedom to focus entirely on his studies and dive into the areas of nursing most aligned with his goals.

He says that help arrived just at the right time. Even as he was applying for the scholarship, his living situation was deteriorating with each passing day.

“We lost power completely. The fireplace wouldn’t work — it wouldn’t light. So, during the ice storm of 2022, it was 30 degrees inside the house, and that’s when I was applying for all these scholarships,” Reynolds explains. “I was trying to explain my situation and how hard enough it is to go into a medical profession and try to take care of yourself while you’re taking care of people at the same time as my hands were freezing. I was facing all these hardships my family couldn’t help me through because they were trying to get by. What I found at UK is if you really look and explain your situation, then there’s hope that can be given. I’ve gotten help every time I’ve needed it here.”

Even though his plan to become a CRNA is still several years away, Reynolds knows he has time to decide how he wants to spend his career. He says he may spend time as a traveling nurse, visiting various parts of the country as he provides expert health care to patients.

“When I was in high school and middle school, my goal in life — all I thought about — was college because I thought that that would be the groundwork for everything else,” Reynolds said. “Now that I’m in college, I think getting my job is the groundwork for everything else. So, to a certain degree, I have no idea what’s going to come, but I’m certain that doing everything that I’m doing now — taking advantage of all of the opportunities that UK has and applying myself — will give me the freedom at one point to be able to decide.”

In his final days at UK, Reynolds is looking back on an impressive college career while eagerly planning a few last adventures. Though he’s achieved a lot during his time here, he’s still got a short list of college rites of passage he hopes to eventually experience.

“I’ll probably get drawn and quartered for saying this, but I’ve never been to a UK football or basketball game,” Reynolds said. “I haven’t done all of the stereotypical college things, and my friend and I made a bucket list of all the things that we’re going to do before we graduate — the things I didn’t allow myself to experience because I tend to be way too disciplined for my own good!”

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The UK December 2024 Commencement ceremonies will take place at 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. Friday, Dec. 20. For more information, visit https://commencement.uky.edu/.