Purdue alumna’s nursing career, cool side job provides ‘treat-ment’ as needed

Tesha Hardy is a registered nurse during the week and on those hot summer weekends, she helps out with her family’s ice cream truck business, Mr. Ice Cream. (Tim Brouk)

Written by: Tim Brouk, tbrouk@purdue.edu

Sometimes the only medicine for a blistering hot summer afternoon is an icy Bomb Pop. Or an old school Push-Up Pop. Or even a SpongeBob SquarePants popsicle. Or all three.

Such are the instruments Tesha Hardy uses on summer weekends when she tag teams with her husband, Gene Hardy, in their ice cream truck business, Mr. Ice Cream.

Tesha Hardy

But during the week, Hardy’s instruments change to stethoscopes, blood pressure monitors and saline flushes. The Purdue University School of Nursing alumna (MS ’17) is a registered nurse where she works with pain management for mostly older adults in Lafayette. She also works at Lightstone Education Center, where she trains nursing assistants in CPR and conducts physicals.

Hardy’s passion for brightening people’s days — either through health care or a Powerpuff Girls ice cream bar — has motivated her throughout her career.

“I love taking care of folks,” she explained. “Any nurse that I’m training, I tell them that you never know what impact you’re making on someone’s day,”

You can find at least one of two Mr. Ice Cream trucks around Greater Lafayette, but the sweetest part of Hardy’s work is her patient care.

Why did you become a nurse?

Funny story. My mom can vouch for it. Ever since I was a little girl, maybe second grade, teachers would ask, ‘What do you want to be when you grow up?’ My mom kept this piece of little brown paper that said, ‘I want to be a nurse.’

My grandmother had diabetes as I was growing up, and I would be back and forth to doctor’s visits and appointments and things with her. I just really took a liking to that. I also kind of thought I was diabetic. So, everything they told her, it was same for me. … So, at an early age, I started embodying and having that empathy for others.

It’s always stuck with me. Science is my thing. I love science; I love learning; and I love telling people how they should take care of themselves.

As someone who has worked in the nursing field for 15 years, what advice would you give Purdue nursing students?

Keep learning. There’s always something to learn, and then there’s always a niche for your type of nurse. So, I knew very early on I was not going into pediatrics or women’s health, but I have found so many different things that nurses can do in all other different facets and not just in a hospital setting or nursing home setting. They need nurses on basketball teams and in factories and things like that. So just keep learning. Figure out what you like and how you can bring nursing into that.

What was it like working during the COVID-19 pandemic for you?

That was an adjustment. When the pandemic hit, I was moved to an office setting because I was working in long-term care, going to the nursing homes and things like that. So obviously those were the most vulnerable people. They were not letting folks in and out. So that turned into telephone visits or video health visits, which are very difficult to do with an 80-year-old woman with dementia.

It took a lot of adjustments and learning on the fly and ways to still be able to care for them. Communication had to ramp way up because I couldn’t get my eyes and hands on the patients. We had to rely on the nurses in the nursing home. There was some teaching involved. There was some learning involved and a whole lot of adjustment. But that’s nursing — you walk in at the beginning of your shift and you’re like, “OK, these are the patients that I have to take. These are the tasks that I have to get done, and I’m ready for my day.” And then 30 minutes later, all that changes. You’ve got to be able to roll with the challenges because nothing’s guaranteed.

What keeps you in nursing?

It really just prepares me for the rest of life. You know what I mean? You’ve got to roll with the punches. I figured if everybody was in nursing school, we’d all be better multitaskers. … It just gives you tools for actual life — being able to multitask, to prioritize, to work efficiently. I just feel like I use that everywhere.

What’s been selling the best this summer for Mr. Ice Cream?

Believe it or not, we can’t keep these Sonics (Sonic the Hedgehog ice cream bars). Can’t keep enough.

It really just depends on the demographic. The kids are all over the Sonics. Their parents are wanting the old school Strawberry Shortcake (Bar) and Orange Dream (Bar) and things like that. And then you have some people who absolutely just want an ice cream sandwich.