Graduate Spotlight
Sharon Nettles, R.N., B.S.N.D.
Sharon Nettles has worked in virtually every patient care unit within her Tucson, Arizona hospital during the last 30 years: from pediatric wound care to ostomy care to intensive care, to name a few. She is now a post-anesthesia recovery nurse.
One tangible reason for this career nurse’s mounting interest in complementary and alternative healthcare education was her all-too-frequent observation that when multiple prescription medicines are prescribed independently by various specialists, patients can suffer from a counter-productive neutralizing or canceling-out effect. They can experience baffling new symptoms, or even dangerous interactions. While acknowledging that interactions can certain happen with natural products, too, Sharon adds that education and awareness offer a great defense. In general, her own family chooses natural remedies whenever possible.
At the Nettles’ home, nestled in a relatively remote area that is noted for its superior air quality, birds and other natural habitat twitter in the trees and scamper in the desert. When humidity is practically zero, a summertime temperature of 115 degrees is actually not as hot at it sounds. Sharon’s husband studied macrobiotics in his home state of New York, and has been a practicing vegetarian for more than 35 years.
Naturally, adds Sharon, her family embraced her decision to “go back to school” and study natural health – especially since CCNH’s distance learning format did not require classroom travel, and allowed her to continue working full-time as a nurse.
“Given my years of existing health experience, and with much support at home, I was able to complete my bachelors degree in just over 13 months,” she says, adding that “I could even study when we traveled, taking books to read in the car or on the beach.”
With her new degree, Sharon Nettles is proud to provide natural health education to other healthcare providers as well as her patients. “With surgery patients, I help them manage their pain with fewer medications by focusing with them on breathing techniques that soothe their anxiety, help them relax and regain a sense of self-control, even reduce the need for large amounts of narcotics.”
These same stress management techniques often help to calm the “code-red atmosphere” of an acute care setting. “I am now a resource for doctors, nurses and my various allied health peers for many different natural therapies,” she adds, “from menopause to osteoporosis. Seems we are all more interested in anti-aging issues.”
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