By Matt Skoufalos
As the vice president of operations for surgical services at the Phoenix, Arizona-based St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center, Angie Jenkins leverages the expertise and understanding of a 30-year nursing career to connect with health care professionals across a variety of surgical disciplines, from general surgery to interventional radiology, electrophysiology and beyond. She credits both a lifelong love of learning and the evolution of a vocation inspired by cross-country nursing assignments with instilling in her the perspectives that have informed her present-day leadership role.
A native of Gary, Indiana, Jenkins had considered a career in health care as early as high school, and began her college career as a nursing major at Purdue University. However, after her husband’s Air Force deployments took the couple to Langley, Virginia, Jenkins completed her associate’s degree in nursing at Thomas Nelson Community College. As military assignments dictated their travels, Jenkins took on nursing assignments in whatever location the family landed, and her career was shaped by those moves.
“When we look back on that journey, nursing was one of those fields that I was grateful for,” she said. “It allowed my family the freedom to make sure I had a profession that would travel with us. I had the opportunity to move around and shape my career as we went.”
In an era where nursing careers followed “more of a get-to-one-place-and-stick-to-it” trend, Jenkins felt like her work enjoyed “an opportunity to evolve” because of her family’s regular relocations.
“I know the unique opportunities that we’re given as military families really enriched my nursing career,” Jenkins said. “I had to think outside the box about what my career was going to look like.”
After finishing her nursing degree on the East Coast, Jenkins broadened her experiences from an emergency department assignment to others in critical care and surgery. After her family was relocated to Biloxi, Mississippi, Jenkins re-entered the perioperative space in a small, community hospital setting. She also realized that she wanted to further her professional development, as well as unlock the additional opportunities that would come with a bachelor’s degree in nursing.
“I have always known that I wanted to be at a higher degree level,” Jenkins said. “I also wanted to have additional opportunities available to me that were not available to me as an associate degree nurse. I had looked into becoming an educator, and I was a good candidate for that to happen, but because I didn’t have a bachelor’s degree, I was told no. That affected me. By the time we left Biloxi, I had a bachelor’s degree from Gulfport.”
It was also in Biloxi that Jenkins was named assistant director of nursing in the outpatient center where she worked. During her perioperative assignment, she found a deep connection with the work, as well as her penchant for nursing leadership. While working in the outpatient center, Jenkins was exposed to a variety of surgical environments – including general surgery, endoscopy, pre-op and PACU – and parlayed those experiences into a position as a perioperative supervisor, and eventually a director, when the family moved to Phoenix, Arizona.
By that time, Jenkins also had earned a master’s degree in nursing leadership from Grand Canyon University, in addition to some valuable perspectives on the differences in practicing nursing across the country.
“When I was on the East Coast, nurse practitioners were a really big thing back in the ’90s, and also CRNAs,” she said. “They were very popular; very much included with what was happening in the perioperative space. When we moved to Phoenix, I was really thinking about becoming a CRNA, and there wasn’t even a school for it. So, I switched paths into leadership, and saw the progression of the nursing field and how we were viewed coast to coast.”
Throughout her years in the field, Jenkins said she’s come to understand how the nursing profession views the progression of its staffers throughout their careers. There are elements of dues-paying that still persist; however, the pathways to degrees and the requisite skills that underscore earning them have broadened and forked significantly.
“We’ve got to get that degree, but no longer have to enter into that med/surg floor first,” she said. “If you think about what happens in the medical field, most physicians go through their primary medical education, and then they get to specialize. They get to say, ‘I’m going to become a fellow here; I’m going to become a resident.’ We did not allow that for nurses.”
“Since then, we have elevated ourselves to a point where we are truly acting in a professional manner, knowing that with the right opportunities, the right training, our nurses do not have to be relegated to the med/surg [environment],” Jenkins said. “It’s a powerful time for nurses, and long overdue.”
Among the changes she’s seen since entering the nursing profession, Jenkins counts the variety of educational opportunities for nurses of every stripe, as well as the support they find from professional organizations that can help them chart career pathways necessary to advance in their chosen specialties.
“We have a support system that we never had, and we’re very strong as a result of that,” she said. “We have really evolved as a result of the professional organizations that support us, and that forward thinking of what we can do legislatively. I think we’re more unified now than we ever have been. We have to pull back those doors and invite everyone in to understand what it looks like.”
Today, the Jenkins family has put down firm roots in Phoenix, where Angie’s husband has retired, two of her three sons are married with grandchildren, and the third has completed his bachelor’s degree from Arizona State University. She continues to lead in her position at St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center.
Professional Spotlight Nomination
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