Sydney Scharrer ’20 proves that obstacles aren’t setbacks, but rather a door opening to new opportunities
By Maddie Scharrer
“Take your pictures of the nursing school now, because we might not be back here,” Sydney Scharrer ’20 recalls one of her School of Nursing professors telling their class before the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s 2020 spring break. It was early March, right before the COVID-19 outbreak sent the world into lockdown. Scharrer was puzzled by the statement, as it was the first she’d heard about the possibility of schools being shut down. Nevertheless, she and her classmates heeded the professor’s warning and snapped some photos of the School, and it’s a good thing they did.
“We didn’t go back to class at all after spring break,” Scharrer said, adding, “I don’t think I’ve been back there since.” With only a few weeks left in the semester, and for Scharrer, her final year, the obstacle of transitioning to alternative learning proved to be a challenge for many.
Thankfully for Scharrer, she is no stranger to overcoming obstacles when it comes to her nursing journey. Scharrer had come to UW–Madison with the goal to enter into the School of Nursing’s traditional two-year bachelor of science in nursing (BSN) program her junior year. However, with only 160 available spots for each incoming class, more than half the applicants are denied each round. In May of her sophomore year, Scharrer received news that she was one of the majority not accepted into the nursing program.
The rejection was devastating. But Scharrer knew that nursing school was still her goal as she hoped to go on to become a nurse practitioner (NP). Growing up, she often saw nurse practitioners for her own care, including as her women’s health provider. Scharrer recognized women’s and children’s health care as an interest early on in life, and seeing what her nurse practitioners did opened her mind to a way she could work in those areas.
She was determined not to give up on her nursing ambition and instead chose to make the best of the obstacle. She took advantage of the additional academic time to complete a different part of her educational journey that otherwise would have gone unfinished: her Spanish degree. “I was always working on my Spanish degree, so that was my plan. If I didn’t get in [to the School of Nursing], I would just be able to finish it,” Scharrer explained.
While working toward this degree, an incredible opportunity presented itself: studying abroad for the summer in Spain. Scharrer reflects on this as an unexpected upside to her nursing school delay. It provided her with the chance to learn about other cultures and become a more confident, independent individual – all things that are important in nursing. Still, while her focus was on her Spanish degree, nursing school remained in the back of her mind.
The real-life experiences she gained abroad helped boost the confidence she needed to reapply to the traditional BSN program, and a year after the initial rejection, Scharrer was accepted. The initial obstacle taught her the value of resilience, and when the world turned upside down during her final weeks of nursing school, she once again tapped into that resilience to continue to work towards her dream.
After spring break concluded and classes were set to resume, the School of Nursing had a new game plan for its students. While the class of 2020 was unable to have their fourth and final clinical experience in local settings, the program did the next best thing to ensure the soon-to-be grads were fully prepared by instituting an online clinical simulation. During this, Scharrer would see robotic “online patients” thanks to the School of Nursing’s Center for Technology-Enhanced Learning (CTEN), an experience that mimicked what they missed from the in-person clinical experience.
Despite having an irregular ending to her nursing school experience, Scharrer believes the obstacle provided her with the opportunity to strengthen her ability to adapt, not just to changes in health care, but also in real-world settings. Upon graduation, not only did Scharrer feel fully prepared to enter the nursing workforce, but she felt ready to face a quickly changing health care landscape.
“I think that since [the COVID-19 landscape] was the only thing I knew, it was better that way…I thought that was the norm, and it was easy for me to adjust to it,” Scharrer said.
Starting her nursing career on a medical-surgical floor in July of 2020, Scharrer witnessed everything from the calm before the storm to the full-blown outbreak of COVID-19. In her initial months, the world was in lockdown, so there weren’t many cases in Madison hospitals yet. On Scharrer’s floor, only one nurse per shift would care for the handful of COVID-19 patients before vaccines became available to reduce the amount of exposure.
This tactic worked for a while, but as COVID-19 spread, one nurse ended up not being enough. By the end of her orientation in October 2020, COVID-19 patients grew to nearly half of her floor’s population. Scharrer worried about the increase, as she still hadn’t been trained to care for these patients.
“It was slowly growing more and more. By Christmas I think our whole floor, which was 40 beds, was all COVID patients,” Scharrer said.
With the influx of COVID patients, it finally became all hands on deck. Scharrer and her colleagues wore a plethora of personal protection equipment (PPE) to reduce the risk of spread; on their floor, standard practice was to wear an N-95 mask, a face shield, gown, hairnet, and shoe covers while in COVID patient rooms. PPE became a lifeline for the nurses and health care providers — the main tool standing between them and COVID-19.
“The more you take the N-95 on and off, the looser the straps will get. So usually during my shift, if I was working with COVID patients, I would wear it the whole 12 hours. I wouldn’t take it off,” Scharrer recalled.
While the pandemic was difficult for many who worked in health care, Scharrer credits the obstacles she had faced leading up to that point for teaching her the resilience and adaptability that helped her stay motivated during such unprecedented times.
“It was kind of cool to see how medicine adapted during that time…we got to do a lot of treatments that were emergency approved,” Scharrer said.
By the end of December 2021, Scharrer moved from med-surge into a nursing specialty working in the post-partum and NICU float pool at Meriter Hospital. This transition brought her one step closer to her career goal as it has opened the door for her to begin working in women and children’s health. Through all the challenges and obstacles, Scharrer is grateful for the valuable skills, experiences, and lessons she learned along the way that had prepared her to take that next step.
Fast forward to March 2024, nearly four years to the day Scharrer last stepped foot in the School of Nursing. Four unique years that included an alternative ending to her education, a peculiar beginning to her career, and a resilience fostered from each experience that finally led her back to the School for a visit. While Scharrer noted that not much had changed about the School as she walked the halls, visited the Revive café, and saw nursing students studying in the atrium, she is not the same person she was the last time she was here before the outbreak. Scharrer walked in a more confident, experienced, knowledgeable nurse – and one that is now taking the next step in her career journey. Visiting the place where she began her nursing education was fitting considering just two months prior, Scharrer embarked on her pursuit of a Master of Science for Family Nurse Practitioner to become an Advanced Practice Nurse Prescriber (APNP) at Edgewood College.
In beginning this final leg of her nursing school journey to get to the career she’s always wanted, Scharrer is a testament showing that while the path to one’s goals may not always be linear, that doesn’t mean you should give up. While she was back at the School of Nursing, Scharrer reflected on her experiences and noted that if she could give her past self any advice, she would emphasize that “things will get easier and, with more experience, things will get better” in her nursing practice.