As a little boy, Johnathan Pritchard, MBA, MSN, RN loved superheroes. He always felt it was heroic to save someone’s life.
“I thought I wanted to be a police officer or a firefighter, and as I got older, I realized that nursing was a pretty incredible profession,” he said. “I felt if I really wanted to be a superhero, nurses are everyday superheroes.”
Pritchard heard an ad on the radio about Galen College of Nursing and decided to pursue his career goals. He enrolled in Galen and completed both the PN and ADN programs.
“My classmates and professors were incredible,” he said. “I enjoyed working with them, and it was a great experience.”
After he graduated from Galen in 2016, he landed a staff nurse position at The Kidz Club. The Kidz Club provides skilled nursing care to children who are medically complex and unable to attend a regular childcare facility.
“There are always moments when you’re practicing as a nurse, and medical situations don’t always go as planned. But the skills I was able to learn from Galen helped me during those situations,” he said. “I’ve always felt very prepared for what I might see and what I would have to do in order to ensure that my patients achieved an optimal level of health.”
Pritchard continues to advance in his career by leaps and bounds at The Kidz Club. While there, he eventually became a charge nurse and then promoted to Director of Nursing at one of the facilities in Louisville. Today, Pritchard is the Director of Nursing Operations, and he oversees the daily operations at seven facilities, which include six in Kentucky and one in Florida. He has been working with the company for six years.
“There’s a lot of case management that goes into what we do, and so we build a plan of treatment for these kids that’s signed off by their primary care doctor,” Pritchard said. “It’s much different than a hospital where a patient comes in, we treat them, and we send them on their way. Instead, these children are with us, so we really get to know them and their families. We really feel like we have an opportunity to help impact that child’s life as well as help these families.”
Pritchard is grateful that he has been able to apply his educational background to his career. He has been able to accomplish some of his superhero goals of making a difference in a little person’s life.
“Galen really built the foundation of nursing for me and allowed me to go on to do other things with my degree. Nursing is a wonderful profession, and I think that’s why some people get into it,” he said. “Nursing has its stressful moments, but Galen has prepared me for those types of situations that you’ll run into. It really has enhanced my career.”
