College of Health and Human Services

The following email was forwarded to the College. Jonathan Sague is a 2003 B.S.N. graduate. Please submit your news and stories using the links on our Alumni pages.  We'd look forward to hearing from you!

Dear Friends,
I'm not really sure where to start, it has been such a long time.  Yet, May of 2003 seems like it was yesterday and I miss those times dearly.  I have chosen to e-mail all of you, not sure who remembers our class.  I imagine that you must meet so many bright people each year; it must be hard to keep them all straight in your mind...what a privilege.
 
Well, I was going through some old e-mail addresses and could not pass by without sending you all a quick note...a thank you note.  A thank you to all of you who teach us young nurses so well and encourage us to advance our careers to the fullest.  I recall talking with many of you about just getting through the BSN program and my concerns.  You all were so encouraging, yet thought it was a good time to bring up graduate study.  I was so confused, but now I see that you were all so right and I feel that I am where I am today because I had such a good foundation.  I guess it's kind of like good parenting.
 
I will tell you what I have been up to real quick, sure you are busy.  Well, right out of MCO I took a position in a cardiothoracic/surgical ICU at University Hospital in Cleveland, my hometown.  I thoroughly enjoyed that population of patients and worked there for about a year and a half.  It was then that you all were so right.  I was missing the academics and wanted to do more, wanted to be at a decision making level...grad school it was. 
 
I was accepted to Case Western Reserve University's, Frances Payne Bolton SON's acute care nurse practitioner program as a full-time student.  What a great time!  It was so great to be learning in a classroom again, learning in a different way.  I had the opportunity to teach as a clinical instructor for the undergraduate Juniors.  We were in the ICU and each day one student went to the E.D., just like you all did for us...what a privilege it was to teach them; I can see myself in you shoes one day.  I finished the ACNP program and continued on to do a sub-specialty in flight nursing through Case's National Flight Nurse Academy ( http://flightnurse.case.edu ), which I am now soon to be clinical faculty.  Some of you might recall that flight nursing/acute care has always been my passion.  So, I trained with Cleveland Metro Life flight for six months.  They are a Physician/Nurse crew, dual pilot, huge/powerful/loud Sikorsky S-76 aircraft program and clearly leaders in the industry.  That was an invaluable and amazing time in my life.  The program is all about preparing advance practice nurses to work in unstructured environments and bring the bedside to the road side.  It is about making field diagnoses and providing definitive interventions wherever the patient lies...we all remember the "golden hour".  Anyways, after the internship, I graduated with a 3.84gpa!!! in May of 2006.  I remember struggling to pass at the beginning of nursing school and trying so hard to learn how to test a different way.  Then, finally got my first 4.0 at MCO, the last semester...that was the icing on the cake.
 
So, I'm done with grad school, board certified as an ACNP, and working at the Cleveland Clinic in the cardiothoracic ICU...I love it!  It is a position modeled after an intensivist role and I have an unbelievable amount of autonomy.  The staff anesthesiologist and surgeons I work with are amazing.  I am honored to be there working with them so young in my career.  I make sure everyone knows where I came from, BG/MCO!  Well, needless to say I love my career and it is really evolving into a life journey.  I look forward to completing the DNP portion in the next two years and can't wait to see what is around the next corner. 
 
So, with that I thank you for impacting my life and not letting me just get by and sneak out of undergrad without being imprinted.  You all are special people.  Tell everyone hello.  Take care and keep smiling...we're watching you.

Be safe,
Jonathan

Jonathan C. Sague, MSN, RN, ACNP-BC, CFRN, EMT-P
Acute Care Nurse Practitioner
Cardiothoracic Anesthesia
Cardiothoracic Intensive Care Unit
The Cleveland Clinic Foundation
Cleveland, Ohio