Welcome to Milkweed and Monarchs. I’m Dawn Klem, and today, I take you back to the beginning of my journey in healthcare—the rigorous training that shaped me into the nurse I would become.

At 19, fresh out of boot camp, I arrived at Great Lakes, Illinois, for hospital corpsman training. I had never cared for a patient before, never set foot in a hospital beyond my own childhood surgeries. But over the next ten weeks, I learned the fundamentals—how to make a bed with tight corners, how to lift and ambulate patients, and how to measure intake and output.

The training was hands-on, sometimes uncomfortably so. We practiced on each other—giving injections, learning to draw blood, and even performing procedures that pushed the boundaries of what I thought I could handle. It was a trial by fire, but it prepared me for the real world of patient care.

This episode is about those early lessons, the challenges of learning on the job, and the moments that made me question everything—only to emerge stronger. Join me as I recount the experiences that shaped my path in nursing.