Hi! Welcome to my ePortfolio. The purpose of this portfolio is to provide information about my journey which brought me to nursing. My welcome page will illustrate my basic personal information. The entirety of my profile should exemplify me through the stages of my journey to becoming an RN thus far. Thank you for taking the time to visit my ePortfolio. Feel free to navigate through my portfolio by using the navigation links to the left.

 My name is Alina Nagtalon. I am a current Brookdale Nursing student. I started the program in the fall of 2020 which  was about 2 years in the making. In 2018, I made the decision that I would go back to school to become a registered nurse. This was a career change that I never would have predicted I would make. My first Bachelor's degree is in Environmental Science and I have an Associate's in Math and Science as well. I thoroughly enjoyed working towards earning these degrees but when I started my career right out of school, I realized that I wasn't completely happy. I was behind a desk "pushing papers" and  decided to search for a more fulfilling career.

To this day, I still say to myself how shocked and proud I am to have made such a drastic change in my life. I pride myself in prioritizing my own happiness and taking on new challenges. By no means was it easy to decide to change professions. I had no medical background but something told me that being a nurse is what I was meant to do. So I started on the remaining pre-requisite classes that I needed for the Brookdale Community College Nursing Program. I secured a spot on the waiting list in March of 2019 and received my acceptance into the program in April 2020.

Since making the transition to healthcare, I have worked at 3 different locations. I started as a Certified Nurses Assistant (CNA) in a nursing home with both a sub-acute and a long-term section. I then left to go to an assisted living, still working as a CNA, with mostly dementia patients. Finally, I came to the Emergency Department in Jersey Shore University Medical Center where I currently work as Patient Care Technician (PCT). These positions have helped me have insight on nursing as a whole and have enabled me to put my knowledge to use.

Thanks again for visiting my portfolio. I hope my journey inspires at least one person who reads it!