Jenna Hernandez

Biography

Jenna Hernandez can’t fix everything. That won’t stop her from trying.

In fact, Hernandez hopes to become “that person.” A student in the Doctor of Nursing Practice (Psychiatric Mental Health NP) program, she finds herself regularly assigned to problem-solving teams at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. Success and a sense of fulfillment there bred a desire for more.

“They’re pointing at you,” she says from LA, where Hernandez lives and works toward such leadership status. “They’re looking to you for the answers.”

To hear her bosses, she’s getting closer. “My manager is like, ‘Hey, Jenna, I want you to do this quality improvement [QI] project with me.’ I’m like, ‘Me?’ ”

Any such hesitancy is easing as her own confidence and knowledge build. “They kind of go hand in hand. I’ll learn stuff in school, and then I’m better equipped to apply it to my job, where it just makes me a better nurse.”

Learn more about Jenna Hernandez’s journey to the DNP program.