News

October 2007
Gaining a Clear Vision from a Broad Perspective

Nursing student Jesse Kapusta is currently a member of the City of Fitchburg Fire Department, having completed Wisconsin Firefighter-Level 2 certification.

Firefighter. Emergency Medical Technician (EMT). Paramedic. Nurse. Trace the career path of Jesse Kapusta and you'll find that many career service roles do, indeed, segue into nursing.

Kapusta is a senior nursing student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Nursing and current president of the Student Nurses' Association (SNA). He is also a firefighter with the City of Fitchburg Fire Department. According to Kapusta, his path to nursing has been a natural progression, offering a great deal of personal growth along the way.

When the Brooklyn, Wisconsin, native graduated from Oregon High School in 2001, he set his sights on a career in engineering. "I liked what engineering offered," he says, "that is, an opportunity to use my math, science, and problem-solving skills integrated with technology and design."

However, his mother's non-stop enthusiasm for her role as an emergency medical technician (EMT), partnered with boyhood memories of time spent with his mom and her compatriots at the local fire station, redirected Kapusta's vision for his future.

Jeanne Hart, Kapusta's mother, saw the need for Brooklyn—a town that relied on the nearby town of Oregon to provide emergency medical services (EMS)—to establish its own volunteer EMS unit. She was among a cadre of concerned Brooklyn residents who worked through the process—filling out paperwork, mastering the certification process, organizing fundraisers to buy the equipment, coordinating ride-along orientation hours, and achieving licensure in Wisconsin. She accomplished while challenged with a severe to profound hearing loss.

"My mother's ability to overcome challenges was my inspiration," Kapusta says. "I also gained an appreciation for volunteerism and service to the community. Through this exposure, and recognizing that I wanted to work directly with people, I gained an interest in emergency medicine and firefighting."

The summer after graduating from high school, Kapusta enrolled in an EMT-basic training program at Madison Area Technical College (MATC) and the MATC Fire Academy. He also began taking courses in the associate degree program to become certified as a fire protection technician. He concurrently continued volunteer work with the Oregon Area Fire/EMS District.

Kapusta excelled in duties assigned under Captain John Herrmann, who calls him a natural leader, desiring to learn and to share knowledge with his peers. "Jesse's intelligence, his ability to harness emotions and not lose focus on the task at hand, his resolve to learn daily, and his willingness to put forth maximum effort," Herrmann says, "made him a likely candidate for virtually any role in health care."

Currently a firefighter/paramedic with the City of Milwaukee Fire Department, Herrmann notes Kapusta's career path through firefighter-paramedic service to nursing is not unusual. "Three of my five paramedic instructors were trained as both nurses and paramedics and continue to work as both."

The City of Fitchburg Fire Department, under the leadership of Chief Randall Pickering, provides services to Fitchburg residents from two fire stations. Kapusta is a member of Fitchburg Fire Station No. 2. Fitchburg's fire department works closely with Fitchrona (Fitchburg-Verona) emergency medical services (EMS) to provide pre-hospital care.

The City of Fitchburg Fire Department, under the leadership of Chief Randall Pickering, provides services to Fitchburg residents from two fire stations. Kapusta is a member of Fitchburg Fire Station No. 2. Fitchburg's fire department works closely with Fitchrona (Fitchburg-Verona) emergency medical services (EMS) to provide pre-hospital care. Kapusta's a burgeoning interest in emergency health care led him to begin paramedic training in 2003 at MATC. Typically, service at the paramedic level requires an additional thousand hours or more beyond training at the basic and intermediate EMT levels. Kapusta completed the clinical portion of his paramedic education through Meriter Hospital's emergency room and participated in ride-alongs with firefighters/paramedic units in the Madison area. Paramedic training in a pre-hospital setting introduced Kapusta to a sampling of nursing clinical skills—taking vital signs, performing a physical assessment, and running an IV.

"Working alongside the ER nursing staff made my career focus clear," Kapusta says. "Nursing seemed the logical next step to personal and professional growth."

Kapusta entered the UW-Madison School of Nursing in the fall of 2006. In the spring of 2007, he was accepted as a VALOR (Veterans' Affairs Learning Opportunities Residency) nurse extern at the William S. Middleton Memorial Veterans Hospital in Madison.

Kapusta is one of fifty-two male nursing students in an undergraduate nursing program that currently has approximately 390 students enrolled. Kapusta believes that more males should pursue a nursing career, not so much to balance gender within the profession, but to quell the nursing shortage. "Nursing needs to entice both male and female to overcome shortages," Kapusta explains, "and that requires image overhaul. Recruitment should focus on obtaining intelligent, critical-thinking individuals."

This past summer, Kapusta was hit by a car while riding his motorcycle. He suffered a fracture of the tibia below his right knee and a torn ligament. Fitchburg Fire/Paramedic came to his aid. His externship with VALOR was interrupted.

Determined as ever, Kapusta bounced back. He began fall semester classes and the SNA leadership on schedule and resumed his role in the VALOR program.

"I've learned a lot from those around me. I've especially learned from my mother's ability to overcome challenges," he says, adding that his mother, Hart, has received a cochlear implant and is currently organizing a support group for people who are deaf or have severely impaired hearing.

And such tenacity, Kapusta adds, has helped him see future opportunities. "Emergency care nursing could lead to a role in flight nursing," Kapusta says. "It has also given me an interest in critical care, which I plan to focus on upon graduation."