Second Career A Charm for New Perimeter Nursing Grad Nathifah Reid

CLARKSTON, Ga. –Nathifah Reid is celebrating a new career path in nursing.

A former early education teacher, she will be among the 40 Perimeter nursing students who will receive their nursing pins during a special ceremony at Georgia State’s Clarkston Campus Tuesday, Dec. 13.  The event precedes the college graduation ceremonies on Dec. 14.

Nursing combines her love of people and service, her interest in medicine, and provide a certain sense of adventure, Reid said.

But her new career wasn’t even on her radar as an 18-year-old entering college almost 10 years ago.

“In college I was told I had to pick a major. I love kids—I had worked as a nanny all through school, so I said I’ll be a teacher—and I’ll get summers off. I didn’t really think that the things you think you want to do at age 18, are often the things you don’t want to do later in life.”

Armed with a bachelor’s degree in education from the College of Staten Island in New York, Reid spent two years as a teacher before she realized that she didn’t love the paperwork and the “politics” that were part of the classroom experience.

“I felt like I wasn’t where I was supposed to be,” she said.

Her former partner suggested she look at nursing as a career.

“I did some research on nursing. I was lucky—I did not have a lot of sickness in my family, so I really didn’t know what nurses do,” Reid said. “But what I found about nursing is that it’s science-based practice—I would get to be on the medicine side with doctors. It’s about people caring about other people, and it’s also very hands-on, with a lot of movement throughout the day.”

Reid knew she didn’t like sitting still for long, and nursing seemed to be a better fit for her personality. “I also found there are so many things you can do with nursing—you can have a job anywhere in the world. They need nurses everywhere."

She also wanted to leave New York, and the career change gave her the opportunity.

Reid visited Atlanta several times and found “the best of both worlds. It has a great city feel to it, but at the same token, there are suburbs and a slower pace so you can breathe.”

Ready for a new adventure, she moved to Georgia at age 24 and found the associate degree nursing program at Perimeter College.

“I decided against a traditional four-year degree since I had spent five years to get my bachelor’s of education and was looking at taking on as little loans as possible. Perimeter was really my first choice of schools, and I was really excited to get in.”

After being accepted to the program, the world went into “lockdown” for the COVID-19 pandemic.

She persevered, and like her classmates, learned to adapt to online format before returning to clinicals and the classroom when the pandemic remote restrictions were lifted last year.

During the two years in the program, Reid juggled a full-time job as a bartender at a luxury hotel, going from work to clinicals to class. When she wasn’t working or at clinicals, she “studied basically all the time,” she said.

Now 27, Reid is glad for the experience, although it she said it was tough balancing work and school.

“I will say, nursing school was the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life so far,” Reid said. “It tests you in so many ways. You learn to multitask, to adapt to different situations, and you have to hone your ability to think critically; you must change your way and mode of thinking to be successful in nursing school and get rid of things that don’t serve you well.”

Reid found during her clinical rotations she loved working with women’s services—her favorite clinical was labor and delivery. She has an interview at Southern Regional Medical Center to work in neonatal intensive care unit, and also received interview requests from Grady Memorial Hospital and WellStar Healthcare System.

Wherever she lands with nursing, she feels she made the right career choice this time.

“I’m really proud of balancing nursing school and working full-time; it wasn’t easy,” said Reid. “But it can be done if you’re organized enough.”

As she graduates with her associate of nursing degree, Reid is looking forward to working in her new career—and the new adventures it holds.

Until then, she is savoring a few days without studying—before she dives in once again to study for the National Council Licensure Examination (NCLEX).