Dawn Votava jokes that she doesn’t have a warm and fuzzy story about what drew her to a career in nursing, just a gut feeling, but 16 years into her career, she says she is so glad she made that choice.
Right after graduating from nursing school, Votava, RN, BSN, CRRN, CBIS, began bedside nursing on the night shift. She did that for ten years before deciding she wanted to challenge herself further and advance her career.
“I would not change a thing about that experience,” Votava said. “It was challenging, but I was supported by my coworkers and my supervisors, and every day you go, you learn something new.”
From there, she served as a charge nurse before taking the opportunity to become a senior nurse therapist. She works closely with directors of nursing and supervisors, while also being a support person for staff when they have challenging days or situations they are unfamiliar with.
“My favorite part of my current role is getting to see the big picture of rehab and the administration part of it — what it entails and what has to happen to run a hospital like this,” Votava said. “But I still get to spend lots of time at the bedside with the nurses and the patients, so I feel like it’s kind of the best of both worlds.”
Votava says she loves working for Madonna because of the mission and core values.
“Our core values are not just words on paper,” Votava said. “They’re acts of kindness and bright ideas and collaboration and all those things that happen in our hallways every day. Not only is it how I want to nurse, but it is how I want to live, too. It’s just a great place to be.”
Her advice to young nurses is simple. Just keep swimming.
“You’re always going to have challenging days, but the good days and the rewarding days outnumber them by far, and you’re never alone,” she said. “You always have a support system. There’s nobody who has a bigger family than a nurse.”
She followed that up with, ‘Never stop learning.’
“Seek out opportunities and always look for the next challenge,” Votava said. “It only gets better.”