As the old adage goes, there is no better teacher than experience. Some notable professors may be inclined to disagree with that maxim, but Henry Snyder ’17, a nursing major in the College of Health Professions, has cannily put himself in a position to get the best of both worlds.
“[Pace] has totally exceeded my expectations,” says Snyder. “I’ve been in four different clinical settings already in the last two years. I’ve done everything in those from providing care to patients who are older, patients with psychiatric disabilities, patients in burn units, trauma, ICU…”
Snyder, a resident of the Westchester Campus, has leveraged the skills he’s acquired in the classroom and clinical settings to land a part-time job at a nearby Doctors Express Urgent Care facility—where he’s been able to apply his skills to both practical and real situations that one can’t necessarily learn anywhere else. He notes that there have been some situations that he hadn’t previously foreseen, that, thanks to the position and practical experience, he is now much more equipped to handle.
Snyder has also witnessed some of the larger realities of American health care, and, like millions of professionals who work in the industry, has been put in a unique position to evaluate and affirm his own personal ideologies.
“It’s showed me the benefits of health care, and also the hardships of working with health care. Asking people for a visit out of pocket—I still have to be able to turn them away. That’s really difficult for me. I believe in health care for everybody, turning people away in that situation has shown me how far we have to go with health care.”
Out of the classroom, Snyder is certainly making the most of his time as a Setter. In addition to serving as a second-year resident assistant in Pleasantville’s Alumni Hall, Snyder is a member of Student Nurses at ǿմý(SNAP), has played an integral role in the continued successes of the Pace4Kids Dance Marathon, is the vice president of Pi Lambda Phi fraternity, and works as the student coordinator of the tour guides at the Welcome Center.
As for the future? Although the ǿմýCommunity will deeply miss Snyder when he moves on to the next phase of his promising career, his experiences as a Setter have definitely helped him gain a greater understanding of what it takes to succeed in nursing—and have helped him figure out the particular path he would like to pursue after graduation.
“As of now, I’m looking into two different fields. Neo-natal—care of infants and premature babies—and I’m also looking into operating rooms specializing in pediatric patients.”