From Scrubs to CBC Nurse Sisterhood: Reuniting After 16 Years  

In 2009, when Nurse Kala left her nursing job at the hospital in Medford, Oregon, she wasn’t sure where her nursing journey would take her or if her path would ever cross again with hospital colleagues like her coworker Nurse Brandy.   

That is, until they reconnected sixteen years later during Orientation for NurseLearn’s Enhanced Program, a mentored education program for nurses looking for community-based care training.  

Kala, now a Nurse Mentor at NurseLearn, had spent almost three years working at the hospital where she and Brandy met on a small General Medicine unit. 

Kala: I met Brandy during my very first nursing job after graduation at the age of 22.  She was an experienced CNA and the unit secretary. She helped me acclimate to “real” patient care. 

Brandy: Kala was an awesome nurse to work with. She was always willing to help her CNAs.  

As a small unit, they became a tight-knit group of teammates that celebrated and witnessed the big moments in each other’s lives. 

Brandy: At that time, our unit was a very cohesive group and often did activities together outside of work. We were big on potlucks for just about every birthday or holiday. When you work long 12-hour shift together you form a bond.  

I  was even in charge of putting together the games at Kala’s bridal shower party! I was the designated party planner for unit. 

Kala: Brandy was there when I went through a divorce, and when I met and fell in love with my husband of 18 years who was a Respiratory Therapist. Brandy knew him as well, and I have fond memories of the bridal shower my friends and co-workers threw for me. Brandy is an amazing person who likes to have fun, and I recall a lot of laughter during the games.   

The two nurses saw less of each other after Kala moved from the General Medicine unit to the Neuro ICU of the hospital.  

Kala: Then, in 2009, I moved across the state, and we became Facebook friends, sometimes keeping in touch over the years on what was happening in our lives.   

Meanwhile, Brandy’s role as a medical professional was changing. 

Brandy: After starting out as a CNA, I became an RN in 2011. I worked in General Medicine for a few years as a nurse, then transferred to an Intermediate Medical Care Unit. I was there for a little over 2 years, then transitioned to a discharge planner. I went back to bedside nursing in 2020 on the Medical Oncology unit, where I stayed for about a year.  

I left the hospital in 2021 and took a few months off. Then, I worked a little over two years on a cardiac floor at another local hospital and finally took a community-based care (CBC) position in 2023. I stayed on-call at the hospital the first year because I wanted to be able to fall back on it in case I decided CBC was not for me. 

So much had changed in Kala and Brandy’s lives since they had last worked together. It wasn’t until 16 years later that Kala and Brandy would see each other again and get to catch up on all that had happened since their time as coworkers in the hospital. 

Kala: I hadn’t seen Brandy in person since 2009 when we saw each other on the Zoom Enhanced Program orientation call on January 3, 2025!  

As a Nurse Mentor in the Enhanced Program, Kala had been randomly assigned to have Brandy as her mentee, not realizing that “Brandy” was her Brandy from her hospital days.  

Brandy: I recognized who Kala was her from her initial email to me as my NurseLearn mentor. I don’t think she realized it was me at first because I have since gotten married and changed my last name.  

Kala: During our first 1-to-1 mentoring call, we were able to catch up and congratulate each other on the big things that had happened in our lives, such as the adoption of my daughter in 2021. It was great to realize that our friendship started in acute care almost 20 years ago, and now we are reunited in community-based care through NurseLearn.  

Now, as Brandy’s mentor in all things CBC, Kala and Brandy get to continue developing their friendship while working through the uniquely challenging aspects of this specialty field of nursing.  

Brandy: Community-based care nursing was very challenging at first and still is sometimes. It is hard to turn off those acute nursing instincts and not to have rapid response from outside providers, such as the pain clinic and neurology. A few months after starting in CBC, while I was still training, our building had a state survey. It was scary for me. I am glad to have Kala as my mentor, and the fact that I already know her makes it even easier to talk to her. She already knows I can have a kind of crass sense of humor. 

Kala: Since joining CBC in 2014, I have seen many nurses come into the specialty and then leave due to the challenges of not getting enough support or education, along with the feeling of being isolated. I am so glad that Nurselearn is here for nurses like Brandy who will get support, encouragement, and a sense of community. I am grateful for an opportunity to be Brandy’s mentor, as she mentored me as a new nurse all those years ago! I look forward to seeing her in person at our upcoming NurseLearn conference in Salem on March 21, 2025! 

Kala and Brandy are reuniting and connecting with CBC nurses from across Oregon at the NurseLearn conference this year—and you can too! Join us at “From Challenges to Solutions: Advancing Community-Based Care Nursing” by checking out the conference webpage. 

With stories like Kala’s and Brandy’s, we constantly hear the phrase, “it’s a small world.” Sometimes, especially in community-based care nursing where most nurses work in isolation as the sole nurse for their entire community, the world can feel big and lonely.  

That is why NurseLearn created the mentored Enhanced Program in the first place—to give CBC nurses a chance to learn from fellow nurses who can guide them through challenges, to connect with other nurses across the state who share our specialty field, and to hear from inspiring CBC and nurse leaders in our state and beyond.  

The Enhanced Program has created a space for that sense of community to flourish, and for most nurses, it provides their first-ever nursing community. For Brandy and Kala, NurseLearn has given them the opportunity to reconnect, expand their nursing horizons, and remember just how small our Oregon nursing world is and can be. Learn more about the NurseLearn Enhanced Program and the March 21, 2025 conference at nurselearn.com.