#MeetUsMonday - Meet BSN Student McKenzie Jones
Meet BSN Student McKenzie Jones.
Competitive pickleball player. Needlepoint beginner. UVA football regular. First-generation college student. Babysitter and restaurant server—who’s already stepped up in an emergency while on the job. Big sister to two much younger siblings she has watched grow up. Studied abroad in Florence for 8 weeks, but values being close to home. A rising fourth-year BSN student at UVA School of Nursing, McKenzie is grounded in family, inspired by her grandmother’s path into nursing, and is discovering her own journey—now with an OB internship on deck this summer.
PATH TO NURSING
“I’m from Goochland, Virginia, kind of right in the middle between Charlottesville and Richmond, and I have two younger sisters—there’s a big age gap. One just turned 12 and the other just turned 10, so that’s kind of partly why I wanted to stay close to home for college.”
“My grandma was a nurse. She moved here from Canada when she was 18 to go to nursing school in Richmond, and she kind of helped raise me. I would literally take her computer and play doctor—like, ‘What brings you in today?’ That was my version of playing as a kid. I just remember being really little and knowing all the bones in the hand in kindergarten, and she was like, ‘Yeah…you’re probably going to end up in the medical field.’”
“My senior year of high school, I knew I wanted to go into the medical field, but I didn’t really know what that looked like yet. There’s just so much in nursing that you don’t even realize when you’re younger, like how many different paths there are. My original thought was, ‘Okay, I’ll get my RN and then I can kind of bounce around and see what specialty I like,’ and then I learned about nurse practitioners and CRNAs and all these other options.”
“I’m also a first-generation college student, so I wanted something where I could graduate and start working right away. I don’t really know how to explain it—nursing just felt like something I was drawn to. As cheesy as it sounds, it really did feel like a calling.”
I’m also a first-generation college student, so I wanted something where I could graduate and start working right away. I don’t really know how to explain it—nursing just felt like something I was drawn to.
McKenzie Jones, BSN student
WHY UVA SCHOOL OF NURSING?
“I was deciding between UVA, JMU, and Clemson, and when I toured UVA—even though I grew up not that far from here—I just loved it. It really does feel like a small town in a bigger city, which I liked. I also liked that you’re directly admitted into the nursing program, because not every school has that. And, of course, the UVA name carries weight, too.”
WHAT THE BSN PROGRAM IS LIKE
“My first year, I was so nervous. I was like, ‘This is going to be so hard and this is real life now.’ Then I had Dr. C (Dr. Connelly), and she’s literally like the mom of first years. She just takes you under her wing and makes it a point to know every student’s name in her classes. I think, foundationally, having her for two classes my first year, I was like, ‘Okay, I definitely made the right decision coming here.’”
“Starting clinicals and being able to go to such a great hospital like UVA Health that’s so close has been really amazing. I just started my second half of peds clinicals, and I’m loving it; but I had OB clinicals last semester and I actually have an internship there this summer. I sat in on a midwife delivery and thought, ‘Oh my God, this is so cool.’ It was just the midwife, the nurse, and the patient—it felt so much more personal.”
“I like being busy, I like being on my feet, I like higher acuity—so I’m still figuring out exactly where I want to land. I also studied abroad in Florence for eight weeks, which was one of the best experiences ever, but it also made me realize how much I value being close to home.”
“I feel like UVA really does prepare you well. You start getting NCLEX-style questions early on, and now I understand why. I feel, as of right now, really prepared going into a job.”
UVA School of Nursing in a word? Community. It’s a smaller class size, so you really get to know your professors—and they know you. They don’t just teach and move on—they actually care about you as a person and want you to succeed.
McKenzie Jones, BSN student
ON PUTTING HER TRAINING TO USE IN AN EMERGENCY
“I sometimes work at a restaurant in my hometown, and one night one of our regulars collapsed. My first thought was, 'He’s having a seizure—we need to get him on the floor so he doesn’t hurt himself.’”
“We got him down, and I remember checking his pulse and thinking, 'This is really weak…if it’s even there.’ I was like, ‘We need to call 911 right now,’ and I had someone do that while we were trying to manage everything.”
“As much as I hate to say it, all those simulations really do help, because I kind of just went into that mode of, ‘Okay, what do we do next?’ I remember thinking through everything—like airway, breathing, circulation—and remembering to quickly ask someone to write down when everything started.”
“I was honestly surprised at how much I knew what to do in the moment—it didn’t feel real. The adrenaline was insane. I didn’t go to bed until like one in the morning because I just kept replaying it in my head over and over.”
“There was a former nurse there who had literally just gotten recertified that morning, so she stepped in too, which was really helpful. She [the nurse] told me after, ‘You did a really great job,’ and that meant a lot coming from someone who’s done this before.”
That nurse was, Susan Bodin, EdD, MSN, RN, NPD-BC, an adjunct faculty member at VCU School of Nursing who happened to be dining in the restaurant that evening.
McKenzie’s response stood out immediately to Susan, as she later shared with UVA School of Nursing faculty, McKenzie “stayed calm,” quickly assessed the situation, directed others to call 911, helped guide the patient safely to the floor, and “continued to stay calm and comforted other servers who were very upset.”
“As a nurse and a nurse educator,” Susan wrote, “I am very impressed and proud of her and am comforted to know that the future of nursing is in good hands.”
UVA SCHOOL OF NURSING IN A WORD
“Community. It’s a smaller class size, so you really get to know your professors—and they know you. They don’t just teach and move on—they actually care about you as a person and want you to succeed. It’s not just a one-and-done thing. Your advisors know you, your professors stay in touch. They really will do everything they can to help you succeed if you’re putting in the effort.”
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