Nurse Practitioner Steven Barlow: Serving Rural Populations Far Apart

When Steven Barlow began his nursing career, he would have been very surprised to learn what his day-to-day life looks like now. A certified family nurse practitioner, Barlow splits his time between North Dakota and the Northern Mariana Islands - both locations he brought his family to with the help of 3RNET. 
 

“I wound up in healthcare serendipitously,” Barlow said. “I realized that what I thought I wanted to do for a living wasn’t what I actually wanted to do for a living.” At the time of his realization, the places with the greatest opportunity for employment were hospitals. Beginning his career as an orderly in the radiology department, he realized a career in the medical field suited him. “Along the way I got married and had a child and realized I should really have a higher paying job, so I went to nursing school and worked as an RN for a number of years.” 
 

Steven Barlow and his wife, pictured above.

After working in various settings as a registered nurse, he decided that he wanted to go back and become a nurse practitioner - specifically to work in rural health.

He came across 3RNET at the perfect time, right as his last semester of nursing school was finishing up. Knowing that 3RNET had direct access to communities like the one he hoped to serve, he uploaded his resume and opened himself up to anywhere where his expertise would fill a need. “I was looking for opportunities when I came across 3RNET, and it was everything I was looking for - job opportunities in the parts of the country where I wanted to be. It really opened up a breadth of opportunities that unless you know an area, you may never come across.” 

Not only was there a wide array of opportunities open to him through 3RNET’s website, but many employers reached out to him before he even searched for opportunities himself.

“I say this tongue in cheek, but I really felt like the prettiest girl at the prom. Everyone was so enthusiastic and had the same mindset that I did - here is an opportunity to make an impact,” Barlow said. After speaking with 3RNET Network Coordinators and employers all over the country, including Tennessee, West Virginia, and Virginia to name a few, North Dakota caught his attention. 

Stay tuned for the next installment of Barlow’s story - how 3RNET, specifically North Dakota 3RNET Network Coordinator Stacy Kusler, helped facilitate his smooth transition into an opportunity that has been too good to leave behind.