Jasmine Thornton

About Jasmine

• Both my mother and grandmother are nurses, so nursing has always been on my mind for my own career path.
• I initially went away to college as a pre-nursing major, but didn’t feel like the school was right for me, so I transferred into the nursing program at a community college back home.
• That nursing program wasn’t a great fit either, so I decided to complete my associate’s degree in science instead, and became a preschool teacher.
• I loved being a preschool teacher, but I knew that I ultimately wanted to go back into healthcare, so I went back to the community college to take some more classes.
• After researching potential careers through a career development course and finding an interest in chemistry, I started thinking I’d like to work in cardiovascular perfusion.
• I discovered that working in perfusion requires you to either be a nurse or a respiratory therapist—I already knew nursing was not for me, so I applied to a respiratory therapist program at my school.
• While in school, I got an internship at Comer Children’s Hospital, which really helped me gain insight into what I’d be doing once I graduate.
• I now work as a respiratory therapist at Comer Children’s Hospital.