Deciding only three months ago, Amaya Jimmerson wants to become a NICU nurse. Amaya made the decision because she wants to make sure people who’re sick have someone to trust and rely on. Amaya’s sister and auntie are her career role models, both having nursing careers, but her sister is the main reason for her career choice. Amaya’s dream position in the nursing field is a NICU nurse, solely because she loves babies.

“All of nursing is challenging. There’s so much to learn and you can’t just make mistakes. You take care of real people and you’re risking their lives,” Amaya said when answering what she finds most challenging about nursing. Incredibly driven, if Amaya feels as though she is falling behind in her studies, she stays motivated and pushes herself harder to do better than before. If Amaya isn’t sure of a skill to do during a clinical setting, she asks loads and loads of questions on how to do it.

Luckily, Amaya hasn’t made a clinical mistake in her studies because she’s just that smart.  Amaya’s strengths are that she’s very kind and good at communicating, but her ultimate weakness is that she’s almost too nice and gets too connected with people. Amaya says, “Being an active listener is what makes a good nurse.”

What intimidates Amaya is how fast her lessons go when she needs to take notes. It stresses her out! Amaya prefers working longer shifts because you need enough time to examine your patients and care for them. If Amaya’s patients were ever in a bad situation, she would alert the head nurse and they would handle it from there. If someone spoke in a different language, they have different ways to work with them to make sure they know what’s wrong with the patient.

Amaya’s ideal environment is where everyone gets along and works together harmoniously. She feels that mandatory vaccinations are irrelevant; it’s our body, our choice, and as long as they take basic safety precautions, they should be fine.

Amaya’s classmates would describe her as a hard worker, but if for some unknown reason  Amaya doesn’t further her nursing career, she would probably go into business. She already has her own chocolate-covered strawberry business, and a side lash business, so she would want to further that. Ideally, however, in three years she sees herself graduating nursing school.