Galen Stories – Paul Tankersley: You Definitely Hit a Glass Ceiling

— Audio Transcript —

Hi my name is Paul Tankersley. I’m the director of infection control and transplant with an LTAC in Houston, Texas. Currently completing Galen’s online RN to BSN program.

How did you get into nursing?

My first profession was working for a police department as a dispatcher doing police, fire, EMS dispatch. After doing that for seven, eight years I decided that I wanted to get on the other side of it with the actual patient care, taking care of the people. As a dispatcher you’re hearing the stories, you’re taking on 911 phone calls, but then you always wonder what happens on the other end. So I decided at that point that I would retire early, take that money and go back to nursing school.

Why pursue a BSN?

After working as a nurse for almost a decade, you definitely hit a glass ceiling, especially if you wanted to go into a specialty. My passion I found was lung and heart transplant and it was impossible to go any further without having a bachelors or higher.

Why did you choose Galen’s Online RN to BSN?

So as a full time nurse one of the things you definitely look at is cost, quality and ease of access. For me, Galen hit all three. The different online reviews were excellent. The tuition was very reasonable and they also partnered with my employer, Kindred Healthcare, so with that partnership – it really enabled me to have a lot of flexibility and one of the things that was very impressive with Galen’s online program is the critical thinking and the requirement to critical think. Galen really focuses on that. It gives you the A to Z, why, the rationale and how to be successful in that so it’s very impressive.

What do you like about the program?

Galen offers a wide range of different learning styles so if I’m an auditory learner, if I’m an interactive learner, if I like to read, whichever – you have the option for each of the classes. You can either use your iPhone, your iPad, Android based, laptop, desktop, you can listen while you’re in your car, you can do something interactive either on any of those other electronic devices or you can just literally participate online with the other different interactive platforms that they have.

What if you have a question or problem?

Galen’s online program enables you to ask really any questions to either the faculty or the students or the entire class. It has a great mobile application from your phone or if you have a question, you did a discussion post and you’re not quite sure about the topic, it pops up on your phone and you’re able to see that somebody had a question. You can either respond yourself or you can wait to see what the response is but it’s pretty much almost immediate. The faculty itself is very, very quick to respond. If you do have a question late at night or if you need to physically speak to someone, FaceTime’s available or they’ll respond or you can even call or text them. If you’re working 12 hours during the day and you have a question late at night, it’s not like you’re gonna have to be waiting for a day or two for a response because you’ll ordinarily get it that same day even when it is late.

Final thoughts?

When you’re choosing schools, you’re definitely worried about prestige. You’re worried about respectability, is it an excellent school to go to and Galen definitely is. You have the quality of not only the program itself and the curriculum but also the staff. The staff is excellent. The enrollment process was seamless. The courses are very in-depth, very challenging. But at the same time you’re able to get through that challenge very well supported either with the online content or with the interactivity of the other students that you have in that course or the professors themselves or all of the above.