Lawson Yow knows the ins and outs of the skiing industry. He was a ski bum for almost 15 years – starting as a snowboarding instructor, living in places like Vail, Salt Lake City, and Japan, then moving to bartending and restaurant management at ski resorts.
“I was in restaurant management for three years, and I loved it for a while, but I felt like I was stuck,” he says. “Then one day I finally had a morning off, I was snowmobiling and snowboarding out by Crested Butte without phone service. When I got service again – my phone blew up with problems at the restaurant.”
It was at that moment Yow thought this wasn’t the job for him. That realization led him to his second career: nursing.
“Now that I’m a little bit older, I have a better idea of what’s a good fit for me instead of when I was in my 20s right out of college,” he says.
Yow also says he thrives working in concentrated shifts and loves the idea of a nurse’s schedule working three, 12-hour days. He also brings his customer service skills from working in the restaurant industry and easily translates that to a hospital setting and patient care.
“I like helping people, and I love being part of the community and contributing to the community,” he says.
Becoming a Student Again
Yow isn’t a traditional college student. He’s in his late 30s, married, and has a son, Bob, who was born just before he enrolled at the University of Colorado College of Nursing at Anschutz Medical Campus in the Accelerated BS in Nursing (UCAN) program.
It’s been more than a decade since he was last in school – Yow graduated with a degree in Wildlife Biology from Colorado College in 2009.
“Going back to school was the hardest thing I’ve had to do,” he says. “For three years I had to transition my life to get ready for school and re-take my prerequisites because they expired. And, I had no healthcare experience.”
Yow became an EMT, working as an ED tech in the ER at Gunnison Valley Hospital in Gunnison.
“I realized that job was such a great fit for me,” he says. “I loved it. It’s learning about patient care, medical procedures, working with doctors and nurses, and helping people. The job convinced me that nursing was the right path for me.”
CU Nursing student Lawson Yow and his son, Bob. |
Yow and his family moved to Aurora when he found out he was accepted into the UCAN program. His wife, Cara, took a leave of absence from her job as a school counselor to stay home with Bob while Yow focused on school.
“I’ve been incredibly lucky that she’s been able to take care of Bob,” he says. “I’m always at the library studying, and she’s been great with him. Going to CU Nursing is such a privilege”
Bob has become a celebrity of sorts in Yow’s cohort. Yow’s friends and classmates have watched him grow up, and he’s even helped during the cohort’s pediatrics class when they were learning about infant respiratory assessment.
“I thought, maybe I should bring in Bob for Show and Tell,” he says. “I texted my professor and my wife and I brought Bob to class. He was in the front of the class with my wife, and my professor pointed out all sorts of things – how babies breathe, things like that.”
“And thankfully, we found out Bob was not in any respiratory distress,” he jokes. “He totally hammed it up for class and was showing off. Everyone loved it, and my classmates loved hanging out with Bob when we were all in the quad during a break.”
Focusing on Rural Health
Yow and his family will return to Gunnison after graduation. He accepted a job working on the med-surg floor at Gunnison Valley Hospital. The hospital started a tuition reimbursement program to encourage employees to further their education. Yow says he’s one of the first employees to go through the program.
“It’s a critical access hospital and we have all of this great life-saving equipment because we’re serving such a large area,” he says. “I love rural medicine and want to help people in my community.”
