By: Matt Florjancic, '07
BEREA, Ohio – "It always seems impossible until it's done." – Nelson Mandela
Luke Minick currently may not be a record-holder and he might not bring home an individual title at the Ohio Athletic Conference Swimming and Diving Championships next week, but his work in and out of the pool serves a much higher purpose.
Minick is a nursing major at Baldwin Wallace, and despite having a rigorous class schedule and clinical obligations to fulfill, still finds time to train in and out of the pool for his freestyle and butterfly events.
"I've always been interested in medicine in a way, but when I was younger, I always wanted to be a doctor," Minick recalls. "Once I got into seeing more about the medical field, I figured out how I wanted to help people and be around them, and physicians, they help people, but not in the way nurses do because nurses are with you constantly. The physicians just kind of walk in and out of the rooms when you really need the help."
Well-Rounded Work
In addition to his classroom work, Minick has weekly clinical hours to complete.
To help students figure out their career paths, Baldwin Wallace nursing students get opportunities to work with different specialties each semester.
"This semester, I've been assigned to the med-surg unit, and so, that's people like before surgery, going into surgery after surgery, or people that just have illnesses that aren't immediate attention but still need taken care of," Minick said.
"It's not as extreme or acute as the emergency room or the ICU is, or anything of that caliber, but they kind of work you up to that as you go in education. I've had a med-surg clinical, and then, I'm in the second med-surg clinical this semester, so I'll be at St. John's in Westlake doing whatever they put me to work to do."
Tough Start
Long before Minick was doing clinical rotations, he was working through the nursing prerequisite courses during his first two years of college.
According to Minick, it is in those classes where most of the students decide whether they want to continue in the field of study or make a change. Minick describes the prerequisites as "hard classes."
"You have to commit very early on to wanting to be a nurse because it's very, very critical thinking," Minick said. "It takes a lot of time, and it's intense. It takes a lot to get used to as well, but then, at the end of your sophomore year here, you'll go and do your first clinical when you're accepted into the nursing program.
"You finish out with the nursing program and everything after that. By the end of your career at BW, you're going to be working almost full-time in the hospital, in the acute-care settings and everything like that because you're almost a full-time nurse, basically."
Developing a Plan
Now in his third year in the nursing program, Minick will finish a bachelor's of science degree in the spring of 2025. Then, he will take the NCLEX exam, which is given by The National Council of State Boards of Nursing (NCSBN).
After that, Minick knows the path he wants to take to start his career.
"I want to work in acute care settings because I love seeing something happen and people needing help and knowing what to do and how to help in extreme situations," Minick said. "I like knowing that when people go into cardiac arrest, what drugs you need to push into an IV to make sure they don't go back into cardiac arrest, or they don't start dying.
"I love that aspect, and I want to probably work ICU because it's a lower patient ratio because people, they're so extreme. Eventually, I want to go to nurse anesthesia school and work alongside an anesthesiologist after working for ICU for five years."
Setting the Standard
In pursuing the nursing major, Minick has become a trailblazer at Baldwin Wallace.
When Minick graduates, he will be the first four-year athlete to finish a degree in nursing, which Coach Laura Demaline sees as important for everyone in the athletic program. In fact, by Minick competing in swimming and studying to be a nurse, he already has shown others what can be done by determined, driven student-athletes.
"He must love swimming because to continue to have to take on what he's had to take on schedule-wise, why would you do it if you didn't love competing and love the process?" Demaline said. "He has said before, 'My best friends are on this team. This is where I want to be,' and so, I think that he gets a joy from the sport in different ways. I think he recognizes the family aspect that he has here, and that this is what keeps him sort of on track, gets his energy out.
"It sort of helps him focus in other areas. He's a starter for us on a couple of our relays, and so, he has been able to come in and make an impact, but I think what he's going to be able to do after his senior year is look back and he will be the first student-athlete to make it through four years of nursing and athletics. That is something that I think is really impressive.
"I just think it's super cool, and we have an incoming freshman that is majoring in nursing. We have an incoming freshman, current freshman and two sophomores that are coming up behind him knowing that is possible. He's had to pave that himself, so I think that's pretty cool."
Love For Swimming
Minick did not set out to be a trailblazer, but instead, looked specifically for a college that would allow him to pursue his goals in and out of the pool.
At first, Minick looked at other schools around the Ohio Athletic Conference. Then, he considered Kent State University, too. However, in the end, it was the opportunity to swim and major in nursing that brought Minick to BW.
Since arriving on campus, Minick has competed in eight different events of varying lengths. This year, he has focused on the 100-yard butterfly, as well as the 50- and 100-yard freestyle events. Heading into next week's Ohio Athletic Conference Swimming and Diving Championships at The University of Akron's Ocasek Natatorium, Minick wants to do what he does in his field of study, work to help others.
"My goals are just to drop time, provide for my teammates really and provide for the team in general," Minick said. "I might not be the fastest person in the pool, but I know whatever points I can put up can help our team compete, and that's what I want to do. I don't have any records set that I'm going to break, but time I want to drop and the team I want to help out, that are my goals."
