Blake Reddick
Blake Reddick was inspired to become a nurse after a life-changing event.
“I came into nursing as a second career. I went back to school to earn my bachelor’s degree in nursing after I was diagnosed with colon cancer when I was in my 20s,” he says. “Having experienced first-hand the impact that nurses have on patients, I knew I was uniquely equipped to do the same.”
Now he is in the second year of the doctor of nursing practice program pursuing the adult-gerontology primary care nurse practitioner track.
Before coming to Purdue, Reddick was a nurse in the cardiac intensive care unit at Advocate Christ Medical Center in Chicago.
“After researching several graduate nursing programs, I was impressed by the faculty I met at Purdue,” he says. “Purdue is unique because it encompasses the elements of both a large nationally recognized research institution with personal, invested professors and courses. My advisor, Cheryl Erler (clinical associate professor of nursing and director of the doctor of nursing program), consistently remains supportive of my graduate work.”
The program offers instruction and classes in a hybrid online and in-class format.
When he graduates from the program, Reddick plans to apply for the Johns Hopkins Nurse Practitioner Gastroenterology and Hepatology Fellowship to fulfill his original goal when he went into nursing.
“This will enable me to perform colonoscopy screenings for colon cancer for many people who, due to the rising costs of health care and the shortage of health care providers, would otherwise not seek screening,” he says.