Every step matters

“Your career, what you do every day outside of your home, should fuel you. You’re going to have bad times, but at the end of the day, what you’re doing as a career should bring you happiness.”

Erica Divine, RN, has been an IU Health nurse for almost 10 years, and she’s continually found joy in her work with the Bloomington Labor and Delivery team. In fact, she recently returned to school to become a Certified Nurse Midwife (CNM) to expand her ability to care for patients.

From her earliest memories, Divine recalls that she has always wanted to be a nurse and has found herself drawn to maternal health. There was no specific situation that inspired her, but everything clicked into place when she was supporting a friend’s birth while in school to become a Licensed Practical Nurse (LPN).

“Seeing her deliver a baby and everything that went into it, including the support people around, made me realize that that’s what I wanted to do with my life,” says Divine. “I decided that was all I wanted to do.”

She has continued to pursue her goal, working as an LPN before becoming a registered nurse, and she started thinking about becoming a CNM about eight years ago.

“One day, Dr. Manley came in and told me they were starting a midwifery program here in Bloomington when we moved over here to the current building. That day, I went home and told my husband, ‘I’m going back to school. That’s what I have to do. That’s what I meant to do.’”

The next morning, she emailed the university where she earned her other degrees to get started. Graduation is on the horizon in September 2025, and then she’ll need to take her boards and wait for credentialing, but she eagerly anticipates what awaits her.

“As a midwife, I’ll be able to make diagnosis, prescribe medications, come up with a plan of care for the patient, and impact that labor and that birth differently than I can as a labor and delivery nurse. I’ll be able to make decisions with the patient using shared decision-making. As a bedside nurse, I make suggestions, but the provider is the one that provides diagnoses and makes the decisions with the patient.”

It’s taken a while for her to reach this point, and she can’t thank her husband, team, leaders and loved ones enough for their support as she’s juggled working in Bloomington, attending school and having a busy family back home in Loogootee.

“The biggest thing I’ve realized is every step has been crucial to who I am as a person and as a nurse. At the time, I may have wished I could move faster, but now that I’m where I’m at, I’m so glad it’s been drawn out for so many years. It has helped create who I am as well as who I will be as a provider. Every step of the way has been crucial to who I am.”