Sarah Silvernail

Apparently, Sarah Silvernail isn’t one of those people who likes to ease into things.

The summer after high school, when she thought she might want to become a nurse and realized she’d never been exposed to the medical world, Sarah signed on to be a medic in the New York Air National Guard. 

Now, after receiving her B.S. in Nursing at Sage, she’s starting out her career on the trauma floor at Albany Medical Center. 

That’s just how she rolls.

But Sarah’s certainly not someone who goes into things with eyes closed. She expected to love nursing, because she’d always wanted to help people. And, she’d never been afraid of hard work.

Sarah fully expects to like the Albany Med job, because she worked on the trauma floor during her senior year, as part of her capstone project. Plus, she says her time at Sage taught her how to handle stress, how to prioritize, and how to think critically.

“When you’re in the Nursing program,” she says. “It’s not just about what’s in the textbook. There are all the case studies you learn about, the class discussions, and the mock run-throughs. You’re very well prepared.”

That’s a very good thing, especially in Sarah’s case, because she has stayed on as a member of the Air National Guard, and recently she’s been working at a COVID testing site at Jones Beach. In early April her site was conducting up to 1000 swabs a day.

She describes the experience as rewarding.

“Sure, it’s a scary time right now,” she says. “But I’m having an impact. I’m helping people. And this makes you forget any problems of your own that you might have.”

What helped her get through the nursing program, while also holding down a part-time job, were her professors. “They basically have an open door policy,” Sarah says. “They’re there for you. They really care.”

So now she’s out there providing care, and doing what she knows she was meant to do.