With a background that includes more than 30 years in nursing and leadership, Dr. Henderson understands how critical strong foundational training is for anyone entering the healthcare field. Today, she brings that knowledge and passion into the classroom at Caregiver Training Institute to help prepare the next generation of Certified Nursing Assistants (CNAs) and Certified Medication Aides (CMAs) in Portland.
When she transitioned into teaching over five years ago, she noticed that students were missing foundational nursing knowledge. It inspired her to teach CNAs, where she believes every nursing career should begin.
“It gives them a little experience, like a glimpse into the world of healthcare without being a nurse, and without having the responsibility of taking care of patients.”
A phone call with a nurse is what ultimately led Dr. Henderson to pursue her decades-long career. Her grandmother started wandering away from home, and the family didn’t realize at the time that she was showing the signs and symptoms of Alzheimer’s. Dr. Henderson started to research the symptoms, and she got in contact with a nurse who explained the signs and eased the family’s fears, which made it possible for them to change the environment to make it safer.
“It was enough to make me go to nursing school to say, you know what, I want to be just like that nurse,” she said.
As healthcare systems across the country continue to face staffing shortages, CNA training programs are becoming more important than ever. Programs like CTI’s are designed to give students hands-on training and real-world preparation while also meeting them where they are, with hybrid learning and accelerated, day, evening, and weekend class options.
“Nursing is not typically a Monday through Friday job. Nursing is 24 hours a day. So, we reflect that in our course offerings,” she said.
Dr. Henderson loves working in such a collaborative environment. “If I run into a problem, I have many people that I could ask: Can we figure this out?” she said. “I really like that there’s collaboration. It’s a very helpful environment.”
Nursing Assistant students should expect the unexpected, Dr. Henderson said, because that’s what nursing is.
“Nursing is all about trying to take care of people and then trying to control what you can’t control,” she said. “Somebody may fall. Somebody may have a heart attack. Somebody may have a stroke, and you still have 10 people. But this one person is having an emergency. You have to try to control that emergency. Do the best you can for that resident while still providing care for the other nine.”
Dr. Henderson said seeing the passion of the students is what keeps her motivated, whether it’s when they’re enthusiastically playing Jeopardy in class or when they call her to say they passed their exam.
“When they’re happy, I’m happy. I love to be the first person that they call and say I did it! I passed!” she said. “It’s an exhilarating feeling, and I love having it. I feel when they win, the school wins. I win. The teachers win. We all win together.”
Outside of work, Dr. Henderson loves to cook and read. She and her husband also love to ride their Harleys when the weather is nice.
Her best piece of advice is to never give up. “There’s always a light at the end of the tunnel, and just because we have one bad day doesn’t mean that tomorrow is going to be a bad day. Every day that you wake up is a fresh start, so don’t give up.”