Nursing Runs in the WKU Soccer Family

As COVID-19 began to spread throughout the US in March, the country hit pause. Those who were deemed as non-essential, worked from home or didn't work at all, but there was a group that kept going. Among that group were the doctors and nurses fighting the virus and helping those affected by it. Nurses have always been an important part of the country's infrastructure, but the pandemic helped shine a light on the work they do.

The WKU soccer program has had 19 seasons on The Hill. That's 19 teams full of young women earning a degree and deciding what they would spend the rest of their life doing. For eight of them, that choice was clear. They wanted to help the sick and help get those back to health. Nursing was their calling and they balanced playing collegiate soccer and going to nursing school – two things that are difficult on their own, but even more formidable together.

"It was difficult going through both the soccer and nursing programs, but it was something I was passionate about," said Lauren Smith (Carstens). "Just having hard work and determination to make sure I was doing what I wanted to do with my life got me through."

Lauren is one of the former Lady Toppers now working in the nursing field. Lauren played soccer at WKU from 2003-06 and was a team captain her senior season. She's now a registered nurse at the Community Heart and Vascular Hospital in Indianapolis and she works as a diabetes educator. She consults with doctors and nurses on the disease and she talks with patients about how they can manage diabetes.

She hasn't faced COVID-19 directly, but some of her fellow WKU alumnae have. Iris Dunn is a registered nurse in the Medical Intensive Care Unit at the University of Utah Hospital and Clinics. Her normal duties are to respond to critically ill patients, but that now includes patients infected with the coronavirus.

"We take the sickest of the sick of COVID here in Utah," said Dunn. "We're having to negative pressure our back units to keep them separate from our front units. We have kidney transplant patients who are immune-compromised in the front."

Olivia Snyder (Fitzgerald) is also having to take care of patients who are immnuo-compromised. Olivia works in the oncology unit at St. Vincent Hospital.

"Our oncology patients are very immuno-compromised so we've had to move units often to try and keep them away from COVID," said Olivia. "We've been slow because we've been low census so we've had to float to other units to take care of other patients."

Andrea Taylor (Curry) works in the cardiac catheterization lab at Owensboro Health Regional Hospital. Most of the patients seen in the lab fall under elective procedures, which were put on hold by Governor Andy Beshear. With the slow in cases, Andrea was assigned as a Patient Care Champion in the hospital. Her primary duty was going room-to-room and communicating with the patients' families since no visitors were allowed.

"It was an amazing idea the hospital came up with," Andrea said. "It was nice to be able to help those families and the patients because a lot of them were getting really sad."

Allie Auscherman also works in a cardiac catherization lab at IU Health Methodist. While her work in the cath lab has slowed down, she has also been floating to other units to lend a helping hand.

"Being runners for other nurses, getting equipment they might need or observing them with their PPE making sure they were putting it on and taking it off in the correct way," said Ausherman.

Nurses have to be able to deal with difficult situations and make decisions on their feet. Many of the former players credit playing soccer at WKU for helping them prepare for the high-pressure career as a nurse.

"I have to give Jason (Neidell) so much credit for helping us learn how to deal with adversity," said Andrea. "He really instilled in us that life is never going to be easy, there's always going to be adversity, so how are you going to deal with that? I think that has really helped shape my mindset in looking at this. This is the card we're dealt right now. We can't dwell on it. Instead, what are we going to do and how are we going to help during this?"

Some have even directly applied the leadership skills gained as a team captain with WKU to being a team leader as a nurse.

"Being involved in a team sport, there's team work needed in every aspect of life," said Jenna Cassity (Silverberg). "Even in my interviews, I always use WKU Soccer as a huge part of my topics. Learning how to come out of adversity, how to get past losses, how to stick together in times of need, and work together as a team. I was a captain as well. So, I learned about leadership and I've brought that into nursing as a team leader on our floor."

For some, playing sports inspired their career.

"I went into orthopedics and sport medicine specifically because of being an athlete," said Haley Closi (Baldridge). "The team aspect of playing a sport has really helped with learning to work with a team in the health care field too."

On any squad, a teammate who is always willing to help and protect others is a good teammate to have. The real world is no different. All eight former Lady Toppers took the traits of being a good member of a team and applied it to their career and that has never been more important than now.

WKU Athletics would like to send out a heartfelt thank you to Allie Auscherman, Jenna Cassity, Haley Closi, Iris Dunn, Lindsey Robbins, Lauren Smith, Olivia Snyder, Andrea Taylor and all other essential personnel who have continued to provide help to those in need during this pandemic. What you all are doing is truly heroic.

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