Shortly after earning her bachelor’s degree in nursing from Wittenberg University, Madeline Stock, class of 2019, took on some new challenges, both personal and professional.

The Cincinnati, Ohio, native moved to Washington, D.C., to work at a Medstar Hospital, where she currently cares for cancer patients before and after surgery in the oncology unit. She works in an Intensive Care stepdown unit, serving patients with high acuity who have spent 10-12 hours in an operating room having cancerous tissue removed by surgeons.

Nurses like Stock play a critically important role in these patients’ medical care. She says the experience has been an excellent entry point into the nursing field.

“People come from all over the nation for some of these surgeries,” Stock said. “It’s important to closely monitor these patients after such a long surgery. I love working with this patient population. It is extremely rewarding.”

Stock said she found the job online following a rewarding academic career at Wittenberg. After living in Ohio her whole life, she appreciated having access to resources for finding out-of-state jobs.

“Wittenberg’s small class sizes and hands-on learning in the nursing lab allowed me to feel prepared to work with my patients in my first nursing job,” she said. “The liberal arts education I received encouraged me to understand how to provide holistic care for my patients.”

Stock said she is already looking forward to future academic challenges, including graduate schools offering a range of master, doctorate, and nursing practitioner programs. She would prefer to stay in the nation’s capital to work and study, in part due to her embrace of its recreational and cultural opportunities.