We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Madeleine Kelley. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Madeleine below.
Madeleine , thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We love heartwarming stories – do you have a heartwarming story from your career to share?
Working in mental health and serving the psychiatric population, there are NUMEROUS stories I could touch on that would leave you laughing, scratching your head, and even tearing up in to a tissue. To choose just one story that gave me the internal gratification of knowing I am in the right field would be talking about my experience with first responders. I was called upon to help with a critical incident debriefing, or rather a continuation of debriefing, for a group of first responders that had experienced a horrific and traumatic call involving a pediatric death. The team members were having symptoms spilling over in to their personal and professional lives. After speaking with all team members individually and allowing them the time to decompress, they all reported decreases in symptoms. I was beyond excited to help them get through the difficulties of their job and even more honored that they continue to see me and refer me new clients today.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
I am a Board-Certified Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner. What this means is that I can perform psychiatric evaluations and assessments, create holistic treatment plans, prescribe necessary medication management, order labs, etc. One unique thing about being a PMHNP is that we can also do counseling/talk therapy. Something that is entirely unique to my practice is that I am mobile! I provide house calls to clients who may be unwilling or unable to leave their home for an office visit.
I have been in the mental health field for over 10 years-even before I was a nurse! Mental health clients are my passion! I am proud to bring a holistic (body, soul, mind) approach to the treatment of psychiatric conditions throughout the lifespan. I pride myself on being a clinician who readily and willingly works with the underserved and under-treated clients in rural Florida. Having the ability to “meet my clients where they are at” is an honor and privilege. Another area I am specifically passionate about is first responders. I am dutifully committed to expanding my knowledge to better help this demographic.
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
When I think of resilience, I think of never giving up, persevering, and persisting until the job or goal is met. I fastened the quote “Nevertheless she persisted” to my MSN graduation mortarboard with resilience in mind. You see, my journey to becoming a Nurse Practitioner was not easy, and came with many roadblocks.
The journey of resilience began when I was in my undergraduate program. I was struggling in one of my nursing’s specialty classes (OB to be exact!) and ended up failing the course by a point. I was devastated as this was my life’s passion-to be a nurse! Now, I was being held back and on top of that, was told by a professor that I “should probably choose another career”. I ended up graduating with my Sociology degree and spent the summer wondering if the school I was supposed to return to was right for me. Before picking back up in the nursing program, my Nana was diagnosed with incurable and untreatable cancer. I dropped everything to be by her side and she passed 3 weeks from her midnight emergency room visit diagnosis. This devastated me as she was my role model (a nurse herself!) and I loved her dearly. Around the same time, my mother’s parents had extreme declinations in health that sent me gladly to their home to care for them until their passings . I pushed myself to get back in nursing school and ended up graduating Magna Cum Laude, something I was extremely proud of.
Fast forward to working a few years, accepting a position at one of the psychiatric state hospitals, and creating a home life. I knew I was ready to begin my MSN. I began the program the same month I got married and was even doing schoolwork the night before the wedding! During my MSN program I was also facing several big issues-COVID, my Papa’s declining health and subsequent death, my spouse having an unexplained medical emergency, trying to conceive, and multiple job changes due to a very demanding school/clinical schedule. My 3 year program stretched to 5, but nevertheless I PERSISTED!
I write all of this in short form to inspire someone else to keep pushing, stay resilient and persistent in their goals and dreams. I look back at the last 5 years and the struggle melts away from my present life and career. Stay with it, work at it, you can and will achieve amazing things!
Putting training and knowledge aside, what else do you think really matters in terms of succeeding in your field?
Training and knowledge are essential for success in any career field. In addition to those, there are several other traits I have identified that make individuals successful. One of these traits that I have spoken about previously is resilience. Being able to stand tall and strong and keep pushing towards goals is imperative to have while navigating success. Another trait is being flexible. You must be able to roll with the punches because there will definitely be some thrown! Probably the most important traits to me are humility and being teachable. You definitely do not know everything, so don’t even pretend to. Be a sponge and soak up knowledge around you from successful people. Be able to accept when you are wrong or misguided on something and correct it without causing a big stink. Surround yourself with successful people or people you strive to emulate and ask questions! There is always room at the top for others, it is all about collaboration, not competition.
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