‘An impossible year’: Cayuga-Onondaga BOCES nursing students recognized at graduation
×
Sign Up Today and Support Local Journalism
Enjoy more articles from Auburn’s Most Trusted Information Source. Subscribers can log in for unlimited digital access
Log in Sign up {{featured_button_text}}
{{featured_button_text}}
AURELIUS — A loud, lengthy stream of applause greeted Jonelle Murphy when her name was called during the Cayuga-Onondaga BOCES Practical Nursing Program graduation ceremony Tuesday.
Walking steadily to the stage, Murphy, 24, participated in the event despite sustaining significant injuries last month when she was hit by a car. Murphy was one of 25 graduates recognized at the event at the BOCES campus in Aurelius Tuesday afternoon. They received certificates in practical nursing.
The perseverance Murphy showed was a theme for the whole graduating class this year, who endured the challenges of learning in a hands-on program amid the coronavirus outbreak that limited in-person education.
Andrea Ruff, coordinator of health care occupations, took a moment to put the pin on Murphy, who was originally going to use a cane but decided against it, and helped her down the steps off the stage. The crowd, which socially distanced, again broke out into applause.
At one point in the ceremony, the graduates gave gift bags to their families since the the program was not able to hold the normal celebration. Toward the beginning of the event, Ruff congratulated the graduates, saying they handled the obstacles put on them with grace and strength, spending “over 600 hours between hands-on in-person care and practicing their skills on virtual patients in simulated environments.”
Ruff praised the graduates and the nursing profession.
“This year more than ever, you are witnessing firsthand the impact that nurses have on our world,” she said. “Whether they be hungry, tired or overwhelmed with emotion, nurses show up, because life depends on it.”
After all of the graduates received their pins and their awards, graduate Tyler McCann gave the class farewell. He said was nervous when he was first asked to give the speech, comparing the year to a “crazy, fictional tale that no one has read the ending to.”
“This year was impossible, it really was. How can I describe the events that have transpired in a concise, professional but humorous way?”
He said that 40 women and himself started the program in August 2019. By January, 25 people remained.
“We continued to progress, and then a global pandemic happened. Friday, March 13, was the last normal day we’d see for almost four months. What luck!” McCann said. “I told y’all, this was an impossible year.”
Despite the changes that happened as a result of the pandemic, “we adapted and kept moving forward,” he added.
Once the ceremony ended, many of the graduates came up to Murphy. Recent weeks have been difficult for her. According to an Auburn Police Department report, she was seriously injured early in the morning of June 16 when she was struck by a car that was backing out of a parking space in front of Swifty’s Tavern on Perrine Street. Murphy was standing behind the vehicle when it backed up more than 10 feet. She was taken by ambulance to Upstate University Hospital in Syracuse. The driver was later issued a ticket for unsafe backing.
Murphy has had four major surgeries and will find out July 20 if a fifth is necessary. She has a collapsed lung, a broken shoulder and a segment of her liver isn’t working. Murphy has been on a steady stream of antibiotics at home for about the last two weeks, all in the hopes of being able to get up on the stage.
Before the ceremony, Murphy said it was important to her to be there despite the grueling challenges. She plans on becoming a registered nurse, which she said is “my dream,” once she recovers, which could be at least a year. Her focus on that goal has not wavered despite her injuries. If anything, the incident has made her want it more, she said, because she believes she will have a better understanding of what her patients will be going through.
The support of the BOCES staff and her fellow graduates, who have reached out every day, has been immeasurable, Murphy added. Though she and her classmates had been through the high and lows of the nursing program together, she said, she sees how much her fellow graduates care about her.
“I didn’t know how much of a relationship we had built until this happened,” Murphy said. “Sometimes, it makes something bad to happen to you for you to realize who’s really there, and I walked away with 24 lifelong friends.”
After the ceremony, Murphy said she “ditched the cane” to capture just a little bit of normalcy. She acknowledged she has a long recovery ahead of her.
“This is what I needed,” she said. “I feel stronger today.”
Staff writer Kelly Rocheleau can be reached at (315) 282-2243 or kelly.rocheleau@lee.net. Follow him on Twitter @KellyRocheleau.
Local News
The Citizen’s top five most-read stories of the work week.
