Big Spring resident nurse follows her dream despite hearing impairment

Big Spring resident nurse follows her dream despite hearing impairment

July 16, 2012

Meredith Moriak

BIG SPRING — Alyssa Myers always knew she wanted to be a nurse.

She likes people, science and helping others. After graduating with an
undergraduate degree in biology, applying for nursing school made
sense.

But instead of admission, the only answer Myers received was no.

It was 1987, and administrators at East Coast nursing schools told her
she was unfit to be a nurse.

Myers was born deaf.

“It just pissed me off,” Myers said during an interpreter-assisted
phone call with the Reporter-Telegram. “They told me it wouldn’t be
safe because I wouldn’t be able to hear my patient screaming if I were
in the bathroom with their bedpan. That was just a lousy excuse. I
understand patient safety, but even though I can’t hear, I never would
have walked away from them.”

Though her denial letter cited low GRE scores as the reason she wasn’t
accepted, Myers said she knew it was because she was deaf. Frustrated
but determined to fulfill her dream, Myers applied to a different
nursing school years later.

“Though they never wrote it down on paper, they told me verbally that,
‘This isn’t the right program for you,'” Myers said.

Myers went on to earn a master’s in health psychology and was working
in the human resources department at a school for the deaf before she
moved to Big Spring.

When her husband, Mark, accepted the job as provost at Howard College’s
Southwest Collegiate Institute for the Deaf, Myers decided to give
nursing school one last shot.

“I knew it was possible. I knew I could do it. I’d met successful
doctors and nurses who were deaf, and the technology is out there to
assist me,” said the 51-year-old Myers, who graduated as a registered
nurse from Howard College in May.

“It was for myself, but also to show that deaf people are just as smart
and we can do anything that anyone else can do,” Myers said.

Going back to school was challenging and frustrating but was something
Myers said she worked through. Myers used her lip-reading skills and
the assistance of an interpreter to get through lectures.

Myers said she also spent a lot of time outside of class reading
textbooks and doing supplemental research and learning.

Howard College Nursing Instructor Luci Gabehart believes it was Myers’
motivation that is the key to her success.

“She’s extremely bright, and I think a lot of her success was because
she worked very hard and had a great attitude,” Gabehart said.

In addition to focusing on her academic studies, Myers said she spent a
lot of time during her first year working with an audiologist, Howard
College, the ADA and others to find the appropriate electronic
equipment to assist her with hearing the heartbeat while taking a
patient’s blood pressure.

“We got it all figured out, but it wasn’t easy,” Myers said.

The only time Myers felt like she might not make it through the program
happened when she was trying to use her stethoscope to take the blood
pressure manually. Even with today’s technology, nurses are required to
“hear the heartbeat,” Myers said. However, with the assistance of
amplifiers, Myers was able to use headphones to hear the heartbeat
picked up by her stethoscope.

“I can’t do things the exact same way as a hearing person, but that
doesn’t make me smarter or dumber than them. It’s just the different
path to get to the same point,” Myers said.

Myers said it’s that important everyone follow their dreams —
regardless if they can hear or not.

“It’s so easy to give up because it can be very frustrating and tough,”
Myers said. “I think a lot of it has to come back to attitude. Don’t
give up. It’s that simple.”

Myers currently is looking for jobs on the East Coast, where she and
her husband will relocate. Ideally, she’d like to work with a small
number of patients in wound or at-home care, she said. She also has
considered other fields. For Myers, getting her degree was about so
much more than just personal accomplishment.

“Every deaf student is different, just like every hearing person is,
but if a deaf person wants to become a nurse or do anything, go for
it,” Myers said. “People will label you handicapped and say this and
that, but with determination, you can do anything.”

“It’s always upset me that colleges told me no because I’m deaf,” Myers
added. “I could’ve been working as a nurse for 25 years now, but the
past is the past, and I was ready when the opportunity finally came
along.”

Meredith Moriak can be reached at [email protected].

Source:

http://www.mywesttexas.com/top_stories/article_cf1b0d10-6873-5a0f-9370-48fc22a58717.html