Passionate About a Career in Nursing
By MAAJIITAAZIIBIIKWE, MARY SAM
Mille Lacs Band descendant, Cindy Dionysius is the great-granddaughter to the late Rose and Pete Skinaway from District II. Cindy currently serves as a nursing faculty memberin the Nursing Program at Central Lakes College in Brainerd, Minnesota. She has been in this position since 2018. In addition to teaching, mentoring, and encouraging other Native people to consider nursing as a career, she also works at Riverwood Healthcare Center, in Aitkin in the infusion/oncology unit. Cindy grew up in Harvard, Illinois, after her mom (Shirley Evans, District II) moved there to raise a family with her dad. Moving to Minnesota, near McGregor, has inspired her to connect with community and share her passion of nursing.
Cindy’s passion for nursing began as early as four years old. She recalls drawing pictures of what she thought a nurse, or a “helper” as she called them, looked like and others asking her what her pictures meant. She shared that her response always was “it’s a nurse, I’m going to be a nurse someday.” Coming from a family of helpers and caring for others remained a theme, passion, and eventually her educational goal. It is clear that her Anishinaabe roots led her to her career, where she has worked as an oncology, OB, Dialysis, ICU, burn unit, and neuro trauma nurse, and now an Indigenous nursing faculty member.
Why nursing as a career? Cindy believes nursing is an honorable profession that has many areas to care for different types of patients from birth to Elders. Nursing is a profession she was able to financially support her children as a single parent. Nursing gives Cindy a sense of pride and happiness to be able to care for those who are in need.
The rewards of nursing are making differences in the lives of people we care for. Nursing is a profession that is in great demand and jobs are plentiful. Nurse wages are good. Patients are grateful for the care.
Cindy shared her concern about the shortage of nursing across the state. “We need nurses that look like us, grew up like us, and can relate to us.” Cindy welcomes anyone interested in exploring nursing as a career to reach out to her. She would be happy to support Band members and descendants along their educational and career pathway. Cindy encourages anyone interested in becoming a nurse to consider Central Lakes College. It is a smaller college environment, inviting, friendly, has many support systems, and the employees and teachers really work hard to help students succeed. “Nursing programs are hard. Taking challenging classes, studying, clinical rotations, and passing your Boards (tests) is difficult. But, being in a smaller program like ours, with lots of supports in place, makes it manageable.” If you are considering health care or nursing, you might want to start out taking a CNA course “just to get a feel for the work and field of study”.
For more information on the Central Lakes College Nursing Programs, visit the CLC website at clcmn.edu. CLC offers a Practical Nursing Diploma (36 credits), Traditional Nursing Associate of Science Program (64 credits), and a Nursing A.S. Degree (advanced Standing) Program (64 credits). Cindy can be reached at 218-855-8133 or Cindy.Dionysius@clcmn.edu.
