Cindy Bogle

Cindy Bogle affixes gauze to a patient's arm after giving an injection at Primary Care Associates, Wichita. (Photo by Selena Jabara)
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Cindy Bogle had just answered Question No. 90 on the NCLEX nursing exam when her computer shut down.

She knew it was coming.She'd been warned.

Somewhere between Question 75 and 300 the screen would go black, the computer would turn off and the test would end.

It happened to everyone, but Bogle didn't expect it so soon.She left the testing room feeling unsure of her performance.She called it test anxiety--something she struggled with throughout college.
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For Bogle, the wait was just beginning.

After graduating from Hesston College in May 1997 with a degree in nursing, Bogle had spent a month sitting at her dining room table studying for the exam.Later, she spent her time waiting for the mail to arrive.

About eight days after the exam, Bogle pulled the mail out of the mailbox and there it was--a letter from the Medical Board of Nursing.She had heard rumors that a white envelope was good, a brown one bad.The envelope was white.

"I came all the way into the house and I sat down," said Bogle, a Valley Center resident."I took it and I held it."

She finally worked up the courage to open the envelope and read the contents.She passed the exam and, at age 43, Bogle began a new career in nursing.

For 11 years, Bogle had stayed home and raised her family.She was a self-described domestic engineer.Bogle had always thought about going back to school, but she wasn't sure what to study.

Her husband, Jim, said she had always talked about nursing.He encouraged her to go back to school and pursue it.

"I thought about it for a while before I did anything because I wasn't sure if it was really what I wanted to do," said Bogle.

She knew going back to school would mean big changes for her and her family.Bogle sat down with her 10-year-old daughter, Tiffany.

"I told her what I wanted to do, but that if she felt like it was something she couldn't handle that I wouldn't do it," said Bogle."If she'd rather that I would not go back to school at that time, then I wouldn't do it."

Tiffany approved of her mother's decision.It was a sacrifice for both of them.

"She went from having me and my undivided attention--day in, day out--to having to find other things to occupy her time," said Bogle."I couldn't just get up and go shopping or go to the park or do some of the things that we did do."

Bogle watched her social life disappear.She spent hours with her nose buried in textbooks, studying and cramming for exams.She had several prerequisites to finish before beginning nursing classes.

Math was the most challenging.She took the class three times before she passed.

"There were several times I'd say to my husband, ‘I'm too old for this.I can't do this,'" said Bogle."But he wouldn't play into it.He'd just say, ‘Just do it.It will be over soon.'"

Bogle said she always had more fight in her than flight.She stuck with it not just for herself but also for her mother, Helen Clark.

"I felt like I was living her dream for her," said Bogle, whose mother had wanted to be a nurse.

Bogle was the middle child in a family of nine kids.Her father left the family when she was 8 years old.
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"My mother took care of us," said Bogle."I mean, she nursed us all the time.Nine kids, we were always falling, getting cuts, getting scrapes."

Home remedies and hand-cut butterfly stitches became household staples.

Even before Bogle graduated, Clark began calling and asking for medical advice.
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Bogle took her to the emergency room.The diagnosis was bacterial meningitis caused by an open wound.

Bogle stayed by her mother's side and watched as she slowly slipped into a coma.

"As I sat there in her room, I thought, ‘I never thought that it would come to that--that I would be nursing my own mother,'" said Bogle, who bathed and provided care for her mother during the week before she died.

"When I became a nurse, I became her nurse," said Bogle.

Now, at 47, Bogle is a nurse at Primary Care Associates in Wichita.She applied for the job three or four times before the company hired her.

Tiffany is married with one child.Bogle's son, Kevin, and his wife have two kids.Bogle enjoys caring for her young grandchildren, but she also cherishes the older people she has served.Bogle worked at Medicalodge of Goddard, a long-term care facility where she was in charge of 33 patients.

"I just have a real heart for older people because there's too many, especially in long-term care, who don't get the care they need," said Bogle."I didn't want any of my patients to feel like they'd been forgotten."

Bogle also worked in the cardiac division at Via Christi-St.Francis and at Wesley Rehabilitation Center before landing her dream job as an office nurse at Primary Care Associates.

"I followed my heart's desire," said Bogle."It just took me a little longer to get there.I took the long way around."

Due to the challenges she faced going back to school, Bogle encourages young people interested in pursuing a career to do it as soon as they can.After being out of school, Bogle said, she lacked the study skills she needed and had to work hard to redevelop them.

Discipline and planning are important when pursuing education, she added.

"My motto is there is always something to learn and there is naturally always going to be somebody better at something then you are," said Bogle, "but you have to allow yourself room to learn more because I don't ever think you can be too full of knowledge.You just have to be willing to always be learning something."

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