(SWEETWATER, Texas) – Jacoby Jimmerson had a smile on his face during a recent ceremony.
He joined his fellow Texas State Technical College LVN to RN Transition Nursing graduates at the pinning event to commemorate their completion of the program. Jimmerson said although he wished his mother could have seen his accomplishment in person, work conflicts did not make that possible. But he did give her credit during the ceremony.
“I am proud to say that your one and only baby boy has finally completed RN school, and now it’s time for me to repay your love and care,” the Forney resident said to his mother as though she were actually there. “This is a blessing for me to be able to complete my dream. I did not give up, and look at me now.”
While attending TSTC, Jimmerson worked as a travel nurse and admitted that he “loved it.” Now he wants to focus on another area of care.
“The whole reason I went to school was to be able to work in the NICU (neonatal intensive care unit),” he said. “I want to be there to help those precious lives.”
Linnea Brown, one of Jimmerson’s instructors, said he will provide patients with the best care.
“He did very well with all of his acute-care clinicals,” she said. “Jacoby always went the extra mile.”
Charlene Rice, also one of Jimmerson’s instructors, said one trait in particular will set him apart.
“His personality is bigger than life, and that will lead him to success,” she said.
That personality was on display during TSTC’s spring semester extrication exercise for Emergency Medical Services and Nursing students. Jimmerson was one of the “patients” in a four-vehicle staged accident scenario and was tasked with having a panic attack.
“I have been a nurse for seven years, and it was good to be able to flip the role,” he said. “I got to have a lot of fun with it. I could not help my classmates in my treatment, but it was great to see them come together to diagnose me.”
Jimmerson said his experiences at TSTC made the faculty and staff seem like a second family to him.
“Everyone here wants you to succeed,” he said, noting that Ysidra Gomez, a senior enrollment coach at the Sweetwater campus, was instrumental in getting him enrolled.
“She helped me out with my transcripts and so much more,” he said. “That shows that people at TSTC care.”
According to the Texas Health and Human Services website, Texas employs more than 240,000 registered nurses. But onetonline.org shows that the state will need nearly 268,000 by 2032 and that registered nurses in Texas make an annual median salary of more than $90,000.
TSTC offers the LVN to RN Transition Nursing Program at its Harlingen and Sweetwater campuses.
Registration for TSTC’s fall semester is underway. For more information, go to tstc.edu.