By Deborah Jeanne Sergeant
Dawn Dailey
Registered nurse Dawn M. Dailey, a clinical leader of the ambulatory neurology at Upstate University Hospital’s Neurology Department, always wanted to be a nurse.
“It was in my future aspirations in my yearbook that I wanted to be a RN,” she said.
In part, she also wanted to fulfill her grandmother’s personal aspiration to be a nurse and began working in a nursing home.
“She went to nursing school a long time ago but had to drop out because she had my mom,” Dailey said. “At that time you couldn’t be a mom in nursing school in 1946. Part of me wanted to do it for her, but I’ve always loved taking care of people.”
Like her grandmother, Dailey’s motherhood put her nursing career on the back burner. But unlike her grandma, Dailey returned to nursing school at age 30 and became an LPN in 1999.
She continued her education and wanted to become an RN but failed the board exams three times. Various changes and challenges in her life made it hard for her to focus on her studies to pass the exam. She’s the mom to four now-grown children.
Dailey also said she’s “not a good test taker.” Plus, she was also doing well financially as a senior LPN, so she felt less motivated to push herself.
After she had worked as an LPN for 18 years, she began studying again for her board exam. In April 2021, she passed.
“It was a long road,” Dailey said.
Despite her struggles, Dailey has enjoyed her careers as an LPN and RN.
“I enjoy the interaction with patients,” she said. “It is really rewarding seeing a happy patient, someone going through a really difficult time and being able to give my time to make their life a little bit easier. People ask how I can work in pediatrics and see kids so sick, but if I can give them eight hours of undivided attention to make their day easier, that’s what I live for.”
Anna Mulcahey
Registered nurse Anna Mulcahey works in a medical surgical unit at Oswego Health. A self-described “natural caretaker,” Mulcahey began working in a nursing home kitchen washing dishes at age 19 and eventually became a healthcare aide. The nursing home closed, but that experience further inspired her to go to nursing school. She graduated as an RN from Cayuga Community College in Fulton in 2022.
She began working at Oswego Health’s medical surgical unit, segued to outpatient services and then returned to medical surgical.
“I like to see how I can impact their improvement in their health,” she said. “It’s a small community hospital so it’s more like a second family.”
Originally, she thought she wanted to work as an RN in a nursing home but she eventually found that the medical surgical units have a very high percent geriatric census.
Mulcahey hopes to become medical surgical certified and someday to complete her bachelor’s and master’s degrees. Oswego Health provides tuition reimbursement for some of its roles.
Mulcahey is a mom of three children still at home.
Despite the busyness of nursing, where some days can feel like one obstacle after another, Mulcahey said that she likes working at a small, community hospital.
“I can make an impact on my community because this is where I grew up,” Mulcahey said. “I like being able to take care of my patients. I know they’re taken care of. When they’re in the hospital, it’s maybe one of their worst days.
“I feel like I know most of the employees. I know what resources are available to me and who to call.”