Hunched over his desk researching, Dennis Niekro defied a gender stereotype by studying to become a nurse practitioner.
Niekro, a graduate student at Ohio State, was featured in January’s edition of Minority Nurse, a quarterly magazine highlighting diversity in the nursing field.
He graduated from OSU in 1993 with a bachelor’s degree in psychology and always had an interest in health care. After working alongside health care professionals at a hospice program in Columbus, he rediscovered his interest in science.
“I think that was the single most important factor shaping my decision to pursue nursing,” he said.
Career counseling encouraged Niekro to complete an application to the OSU graduate nursing program.
“For me, it was just a very personal choice. Again, to pursue a career that I would feel challenged and fulfilled as a human being,” he said.
When Niekro started graduate classes in 2008, 17 percent of his peers were male, according to the College of Nursing.
“I knew that there were fewer men in nursing than women, but that really didn’t factor at all in my decision,” Niekro said.
He said he wished to see the nursing staff become as diverse as the American population.
“We have a tremendous need right now to help evolve health care in this country,” he said.
Niekro said nursing has become much more than the stereotypical female nurse who performs a series of tasks. Nurses now have more opportunities to do research, teach and focus on personal interests.
“People tend to perceive nursing as a profession of doing. Nursing is so much more about thinking than doing, and thinking critically is an essential and vital skill for nurses,” he said.
As part of his training, Niekro enjoyed having nursing clinicals in oncology at the James Cancer Hospital.
“I think that my interest in oncology really developed as a result of the work that I did with the hospice program,” he said. “Many of the patients that we provided care for through that program were patients dealing with end-stage cancer.”
Niekro said he believes nursing is as much about the job as it is about the people.
“I love working with patients and their families,” he said. “I love being able to immerse myself in a field that is based heavily in science, but also there is that human component, a psychological component.”
But nursing provided Niekro with more than just an opportunity to learn about health care and interact with patients. It was a chance to learn about life.
“You really get to witness something really powerful,” Niekro said.
“You get to see people kind of understanding on a very deep level
their vulnerability, their mortality, sort of their reordering of their priorities, and understanding what is most important about the human experience.”
