Shad Schneider decided to go to law school after graduating from high school “mainly because it looked fun on TV.” His plans to become a police officer changed after graduating in 1995 when he ran into a friend who worked for United Parcel Services (UPS). “UPS was hiring, so I applied on the spur of the moment and ended up working there for 12 years,” Shad, who grew up in central Illinois not far from where he now lives, says.
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Ready for a Change
Shad was ready for something new and less physical after a while. His mother was a retired nurse, so he was familiar with healthcare from his childhood, but it was Shad’s wife who suggested he attend nursing school.
Shad attended Graham Hospital’s School of Nursing. “I fell in love with it right away,” he says. “I enjoy assisting others, and it just felt like the right place to be.” He gained experience as a tech in Graham Hospital’s emergency department while in school, and when he graduated in 2009, he accepted a nursing position in the same area. “I fell head over heels for the Emergency Room (ER).”You get a little bit of everything there, and whenever I’ve wandered into another clinical area, I always miss the ER and seem to return.”
It New Experience, But Always Back Home to the ER
After six years at Graham Hospital, Shad moved on to Pekin Hospital/Unity Point Pekin ER. He tried something new in 2019—working telephone triage for several years and behavioral health for a few months—but his love of emergency nursing brought him back to Unity Point Pekin’s emergency room in January 2021. He recently had the opportunity to join a team at Mason District Hospital’s small seven-bed emergency room, which is close to his home. He plans to retire at this small, family-like facility near his home. “I feel like I am good at staying calm when patients are in crisis, and I love working as a team,” he says, explaining why he keeps returning to the emergency nursing field.
Ready for the Next Step: a Bachelor of Science Nursing Degree
Shad’s former coworkers were attending Ashworth College to pursue their Bachelor of Science Nursing online, and he decided to join them in late 2019. “After about three classes, the school closed down the nursing program,” he recalls. “They provided a list of other nursing schools, and American Sentinel was on it.” Shad contacted American Sentinel and was impressed with everything he learned about the Registered Nurse to Bachelor of Science in Nursing (RN to BSN) program. “This is a personal goal for me. I had never considered nursing when I was 18, and I was not a particularly disciplined high school student. Obtaining a BSN is now a personal goal of mine.”
A Wholehearted Recommendation
Shad plans to graduate from Post University’s American Sentinel College of Nursing and Health Sciences later this year, and he says, “I will be proud of my accomplishment.”
“I can’t thank the people and the support enough,” he says. “My student success advisors have been outstanding. “As someone who works full-time and has a family, I found the program to be challenging but manageable.” I was able to proceed at my own pace and learned a great deal along the way. When I’m finished, I’ll have gained knowledge that I can put to use.”
