Having a career in the music industry and eventually becoming a nurse is a complete 180. It’s not an easy task, but it’s something Maya Schraffenberger was determined to do.
After graduating from CU Denver in 2014 with a degree in music entertainment industry studies, Schraffenberger worked in Atlanta for a few years. She didn’t want to stay there long-term, so she moved back to the Denver area. She started over – “from the bottom” and managed a distillery.
In 2016, she tore her labrum in her right hip and had surgery. Then, she found out she had torn her labrum in her left hip and needed two surgeries.
It was at that point she wanted something more out of life, but she wasn’t sure what that was. She took a job at an insurance brokerage and soon after, got laid off in 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic hit.
“I was thinking, ‘What am I going to do now?’” she says.
She was planning on having her second hip surgery that year, and when she woke up, she had an epiphany.
“When I woke up, I said ‘I think I want to be a nurse’,” she says. “I was surrounded by all of these nurses who were wonderful people, and I felt like they were the first people to be there with me on this journey of recovery.”
Becoming a Nurse
Schraffenberger took her prerequisites and enrolled in the University of Colorado College of Nursing at Anschutz Medical Campus’s Accelerated BS in Nursing (UCAN) program.
CU Nursing student Maya Schraffenberger |
“Once I took my pre-requisites, I wanted to get healthcare experience, so I quit my job and started at the bottom when it comes to healthcare experience. I worked as a medical assistant with a hand surgeon at Panorama Orthopedics. Working for them changed my life,” she says.
She says it was an adjustment going back to school since she had been out of school for nearly ten years.
“The first four weeks of the UCAN program were pretty jarring,” she says. “There were a lot of tears, and I was freaking out. It was such a big shift going from a degree where you do more project-based work to having lots of exams.”
Schraffenberger admits the start of the program was very daunting – and there was a lot of pressure, but she leaned on her cohort and CU Nursing faculty for help.
“Everybody wanted everyone to pass. You have to put in the work and you have to show up, but if you do that, I felt like they (our professors) were trying their best to help us succeed,” she says.
A Rewarding Career
One reason Schraffenberger wanted to become a nurse is because it’s a rewarding career.
“I enjoy being there for somebody and being able to see them feel better,” she says. “As a nurse, you get to be that person who becomes a partner with a patient, and that’s a huge reason why I wanted to become a nurse. It’s a special part of the process where you hold someone’s hand and walk them through the healthcare system.”
She plans on working at OrthoColorado Hospital in Lakewood in the operating room or in a different part of the surgery process. Schraffenberger says if she can start over and have a new career, anyone can do it.
“Have confidence in yourself that you can do it – because you can. It might seem intimidating if you have a different career or earned a degree that doesn’t have to do with science, none of that matters if you’re passionate about being a nurse” she says. “If you’re passionate about helping people and you believe in yourself and put in the time, give yourself a little bit of grace and confidence and you’ll get there.”
