According to two of three schools I am interested in for my doctorate I need to have letters of recommendation.
Not just normal letters of recommendation.
No.
They have to be from another PhD nurse.
I know only 2.
And those 2 work for the same organization I do.
Asking them was easy.
I offered a series of conversations so that they could be comfortable writing me a letter.
But the third!
Oh, the third.
I was stymied.
I only know the 2 PhD nurses.
I know loads of doctors, surgeons and otherwise.
But a PhD nurse?
That was going to be a hard one.
As I had done when I was in high school and needed an Air Force officer active or former to interview for the scholarship I was applying for, I reached out to someone I know tangentially.
We’ve had conversations when I volunteered for the company.
We’ve had conversations when we met up at conferences.
I took a deep breath.
And reached out via the credentialing company site.
Did I mention this third PhD nurse was the CEO of the credentialing company with CNOR?
I did not have his email address and had no way of getting it.
I reached out through the credentialing company contact portion of the website.
Stating that I was an MSN nurse who needed a third letter of recommendation from a PhD nurse.
He emailed me back the next day and asked for clarification.
I gave him as much clarification as I could.
Today he emailed me and asked for my CV and the dates I had volunteered with the company.
I will email those to him tonight when I get home.
Was it scary?
Yep.
I am not an outgoing person.
I am very shy.
But I did it.
And now I have a line to the 3rd PhD nurse.
I don’t want to get ahead of myself.
But.
Maybe.
After all, the former Air Force officer that interviewed me in 1992?
It wasn’t until 2009 that I saw him on television, of all things.
3000 miles away from where I had talked with him.
It was Chesley Sullenberger and he had just saved a lot of people on a flight Charlotte.
You may have heard of it.
The Miracle on the Hudson.
Dispatches from the Evening Shift 