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Wednesday, March 24, 2021 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
Sisters graduate
holds hearts
in her hands
By Katy Yoder | Correspondent
Ten years ago, McKenzie Cooper received her diploma from
Sisters High School. As soon as she turned her tassel from
right to left, she was focused on her dream to be a nurse.
That dream was sparked by her
former high school health teacher
Heather Johnson, whose curriculum
explored various health occupations.
“Ms. Johnson was always encour-
aging, and such an amazing woman.
She told us we could do whatever we
wanted, and to go for it,” said Cooper
from her home in Eugene.
Cooper did just that.
In her senior year, Cooper was
able to set up clinical hours and do
rotations through Kevin Cotner’s
health class. After spending time with
the EMT, she did hours at a sleep lab
in Bend, and then shadowed an ICU
nurse at St. Charles Medical Center.
“Those hours at St. Charles were
super important. A nurse asked me
to set up a ventilator for an intu-
bated patient arriving from the ER.
I couldn’t believe she was letting me
set it up,” said Cooper.
In hindsight, Cooper knows noth-
ing could go wrong, because the nurse
was there to check everything.
“But the fact I could get my hands
on equipment that was going to keep
someone alive made me think…
Wow! I thought doctors did this
stuff,” she said.
Cooper soon realized it was nurses
who were with the
patients all day long.
“I have all respect
for doctors but nurses
are there 90 percent of
the time,” she said. “I
remember thinking, I
have to do this.”
Another pivotal
moment for Cooper
came from a sad experi-
ence. In 2009, her class-
mate Stephen Connolly
was in the hospital after
a tragic accident.
PHOTO PROVIDED
McKenzie Cooper (left) with her nursing colleagues.
A passion ignited at Sisters High School has become a career.
“We all spent a lot of time there
visiting. As solemn and awful as that
was, I saw how amazing the nurses
were with so many kids visiting. They
were so kind and helpful. I saw the
nurses making a huge difference in
the experience — at least for us, who
were so young, and had no idea what
was going on. Nursing was a way to
make a huge impact on so many lives
in a way that was bigger than just
me.”
Cooper knew she needed to attend
a school with nursing prerequisites.
“Lane Community College had a
good nursing program, so I applied
and spent two years there,” she said.
“They have a nursing advisor, and
you get to see nursing students walk-
ing around in their cool little scrubs…
and you’re like, that’s going to be me
one day… but you have no idea what
kind of pain you’re in for!”
To get more experience,
Cooper did an internship as
a Spanish translator with
McKenzie Cooper and
Volunteers in Medicine in
her 2-year-old heeler, Artie.
Springfield.
“Speaking Spanish is very help-
ful in the healthcare industry,” she
said. “It’s my dream to go to South
America and do nursing down there.
I took every Spanish class Lane
offered. I’d always seen myself work-
ing in a hospital, but that internship
made me think, when I get some
experience, I could do volunteer work
at clinics around the world.”
Cooper filled out applications for
nursing school all over Oregon, and
was grateful to get into Lane on her
first try. Always pushing herself,
Cooper wanted more experience, so
she started working as an in-home
caregiver, and at a memory care facil-
ity. It was one of the hardest things
she’s ever done.
“Emotionally, it was the most
exhausting job I’ve had,” she said.
“I have so much respect for people
who work in Alzheimer’s care. I was
basically doing certified nurse assis-
tant (CNA) work, which taught me
a lot about bedside manner and care.
There was a lot of on-the-job learn-
ing, which was beneficial once I
TELLING THE STORIES OF
THE SISTERS COMMUNITY
Through boom and bust, good times and hard times,
for more than four decades.