I have had what I like to call many lives before this one.” PRHS on-campus nurse Kelly Sauret has followed many paths in her life, but each one ultimately led to healthcare.
After attending Atascadero High School as a rival Greyhound, Sauret attended Cuesta College intending to get her nursing degree, but ended up going back and forth between going to school and not going to school. Even in high school, Sauret “worked really hard not to do anything.” She started her prerequisites, but decided that was “too boring” and switched to early childhood education. However, after being offered a job in banking, she left her studies for a substantial salary, without the tedious schooling. Sure enough, banking was not on Sauret’s horizon for very long- she quit in 2010 to pursue a new career.
Sauret noticed family members had various medical issues, and she “saw the good and bad sides of healthcare.” She said, “it just reaffirmed that there is a need for good health care practitioners and I wanted to be that for somebody. I didn’t want all of the negative and the bad nurses out there to outweigh all the good ones. Healthcare has always been in the back of my mind, but it took me a while to get there.” So she committed herself to her degree, earning her nursing degree through Cuesta’s accelerated 12-month program in 2013. Now Sauret lives in Paso Robles with her husband and her five year old labrador Johnny Cash, or Cash for short. She said that nursing “really is a calling, it is something that you are drawn to do. When you’re working in healthcare, you have to really want to be there because you see things and you hear things and you don’t always have the best of days from what you deal with, with your patients.”
Since being hired by PRJUSD as an LVN (licensed vocational nurse), Sauret has worked locally for nine years, one at Lewis Middle School, and going into her eighth year here at Paso Robles High School. After working here for so long, she said, “taking this job was the best decision I ever made for me and my family.” In addition to her full time job, Sauret is currently finishing up her Bachelors in Health Education and Health Promotion from Arizona State University. She currently has no plans for change after she finishes this degree, but “things could change. There’s lots of different areas you can do with nursing you can go into.”
Sauret’s job varies from day to day. Specific students require daily scheduled medication, while newly sick or injured students need to be evaluated throughout the school day. Sauret is a part of the team that administers annual state mandated health screenings, such as hearing and vision. Her job has been greatly impacted by the pandemic, as she now tracks and monitors all confirmed and potential COVID-19 cases. Along with the athletic trainer, Suaret is responsible for overseeing students with suspected and confirmed concussions.
Sauret believes that “healthcare is one of the most rewarding careers you will find yourself in, but also the most challenging.” Remembering that your peers are in the same predicament as you, and that that group of people will understand what you are embarking on and support you, you will enjoy it. The results of your degree and seeing how much you’ve pushed yourself and progressed will be worth it. Also, if you are unsure of what you want to do after high school, “take your time, explore different avenues until you find what really makes you happy.” While high schoolers are often expected to have it all together when they start attending college, “it’s okay not to know and it’s okay to change your mind.”
Photos provided by Kelly Sauret, graphic made by Liliana Voorheis
