{"id":2142,"date":"2020-09-28T11:22:00","date_gmt":"2020-09-28T17:22:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sscok.edu\/media\/?p=2142"},"modified":"2020-10-05T11:38:49","modified_gmt":"2020-10-05T17:38:49","slug":"how-adversity-inspired-one-ssc-student-to-pursue-a-career-in-nursing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sscok.edu\/media\/how-adversity-inspired-one-ssc-student-to-pursue-a-career-in-nursing\/","title":{"rendered":"How Adversity Inspired One SSC Student to Pursue a Career in Nursing"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

<\/p>\n\n\n

Seventy-two days \u2013 that is how long Seminole State College nursing student Devin Fluitt and her fianc\u00e9 Westy Carpenter watched their twin daughters fight for their lives in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. Her baby girls, Denton and Blakely, were born prematurely at 27 weeks in the Norman Regional HealthPlex Hospital in September of 2016.<\/p>\n

During the twins\u2019 journey to good health, Fluitt found herself becoming fixated on numbers \u2013 oxygen levels and heart rates. Each time she entered the NICU to see her daughters, she had to scrub her hands for three minutes.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d just stand there, staring at the clock, waiting for it to end, waiting to see them. You don\u2019t realize how long three minutes can seem,\u201d Fluitt said.<\/p>\n

Due to their premature birth, her girls struggled with apnea and bradycardia, a slower than normal heart rate, which can become a major concern if the heart does not pump enough oxygen-rich blood to the body. The nurses would talk her through the testing of the girls\u2019 heartrates and the monitoring of their oxygen levels. They also provided advice on caring for premature babies and parenting in general, which Fluitt and her fianc\u00e9 valued as young parents.<\/p>\n\n\n

\"\"
SSC Nursing Student Devin Fluitt and her family pose for a photo to commemorate the one-year anniversary of her daughters getting to come home from the NICU on Nov. 19, 2017. Pictured (left to right): Westy Carpenter, Denton, Devin Fluitt and Blakely.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n

\u201cI remember saying I felt sorry for people who just have a normal baby. They just get a slap on the back and a good luck,\u201d Fluitt said. \u201cI bonded so well with those nurses.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fluitt also found reassurance and community with the other parents who had children in the NICU.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s comforting to know you aren\u2019t alone in this. That others have experienced it and are experiencing it. We provide each other emotional support,\u201d Fluitt said.<\/p>\n

When her twins were finally healthy enough to be taken home, they were both on oxygen. In the first year of their lives, the girls were in and out of hospitals for surgeries, checkups and Failure to Thrive, a medical diagnosis where a child does not gain weight at the expected rate.<\/p>\n

\u201cI saw so many different aspects of nursing during that time,\u201d Fluitt said. \u201cAnd by the time they turned two, they were completely healthy, thriving. Time slowed down enough for me to pursue what I wanted to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Through the process, Fluitt discovered a passion for helping others experiencing what her family had endured. She enrolled in the nursing program at SSC in 2018.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I can be a nurse in the NICU with my own testimony, I feel like that would be a jackpot for the parents,\u201d Fluitt said.<\/p>\n

Becoming a nurse was not something she had planned on prior to the birth of her girls.<\/p>\n

\u201cBefore I had my children, I was never actually interested in being a nurse. I felt like I can\u2019t do that. I don\u2019t have it in me,\u201d Fluitt said.<\/p>\n

While going to college full time while raising twin toddlers has been a challenge, she appreciates how well Denton and Blakely get a long so well.<\/p>\n

\u201cSince they\u2019re so content to be playing together, I\u2019m able to find the time I need to study,\u201d Fluitt said.<\/p>\n

Her girls are now four years old and attend an early developmental school.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey just love school. I\u2019m not sure if they\u2019ll love it when they go to public schools and they get separated. They\u2019re very close. Scary close. Twins are terrifying at times, watching their minds work. The telepathy is so real,\u201d Fluitt joked.<\/p>\n

Fluitt and her fianc\u00e9 are set to get married in November and she will complete the SSC nursing program in December of 2021.<\/p>\n

Her primary motivation for finishing her degree and beginning her career is her children. She has tattoo of the number 72 encircled in the color purple, the symbolic color of prematurity awareness.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I get stressed or feel overwhelmed with school, I remind myself that they fought for their lives for 72 days. I can manage a few years of school,\u201d Fluitt said.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Seventy-two days \u2013 that is how long Seminole State College nursing student Devin Fluitt and her fianc\u00e9 Westy Carpenter watched their twin daughters fight for their lives in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. Her baby girls, Denton and Blakely, were born prematurely at 27 weeks in the Norman Regional HealthPlex Hospital in September of 2016.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":2143,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,87],"tags":[93],"class_list":["post-2142","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-http-www-sscok-edu-media-campuslife","category-news","tag-september-2020"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sscok.edu\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2142","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sscok.edu\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sscok.edu\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sscok.edu\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sscok.edu\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2142"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.sscok.edu\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2142\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2145,"href":"https:\/\/www.sscok.edu\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2142\/revisions\/2145"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sscok.edu\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2143"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sscok.edu\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2142"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sscok.edu\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2142"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sscok.edu\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2142"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}