Eric Hodges

I came into nursing via an indirect route. I was finishing my undergraduate degree in International Studies at UNC-Chapel Hill and it occurred to me that I did not know what I was going to do. I considered many paths (environmental educator/activist, chef, outdoor leadership instructor, forest ranger) but none seemed quite right. During several months of contemplation and asking myself what I was meant to do, I had a conversation with my mother that opened a door for me that I had not previously considered. My mother is the Dean of the College of Nursing at University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. She asked me if I knew about nurse practitioners. I do not recall that I had ever heard of them, but she told me about the profession. I was intrigued with romantic thoughts of moving up into the Appalachian mountains of North Carolina and providing health care to a small community. I had had several experiences throughout my childhood and adolescence in which I felt calm and relaxed in helping people who were injured or ill and I thought, 'maybe this is what I'm supposed to do.' I went back to school to get my prerequisites and I attended an accelerated BSN program at UT-Memphis. It was there, during my various clinical rotations, that I discovered that I truly loved working with children. After graduation, I worked for about a year in a pediatric intensive care unit in Memphis before returning to graduate school to complete my original goal of becoming a nurse practitioner. I went to George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia and I graduated as a Family Nurse Practitioner in 1999. My love of working with children and their parents led me to take the certification exam to become a Pediatric Nurse Practitioner, as well. I had considered heading out West to see if I might like living in a little mountain town out there for awhile before eventually coming back to North Carolina of Virginia, but after my first year of graduate school I met Celena, whom I married in 1999. We looked out West initially, but decided to stay in Northern Virginia for awhile and I worked for about 2 years as a FNP. After awhile though, to my surprise, I felt the pull to go further in my education. My experience taking care of young families and young children had sparked a keen interest in parenting and child health and in my Masters program I had seen the importance and the power of research. So, I applied to the doctoral program at the School of Nursing at Oregon Heath & Science University and was accepted. We finally got to move to the West and we've found that we love it here. My dissertation is focusing on early childhood feeding interactions between parent and child. I hope to sit for my candidacy exam in late January and defend my dissertation proposal in February. The goal is to defend my dissertation in December of next year. I hope that over the course of my career my work will provide deeper insights into the ways that the relationship between parent and child affects child health outcomes and I hope that my research and teaching will inspire other nurses to pursue careers in pediatric health care. I also dream that my work will empower parents and children to support one another's healthy growth and development.