Coahoma Community College nursing graduate Ykenna Burton (’10), who recently reached the achievement of becoming a nurse practitioner, believes keeping the faith, prayer, and faithful service to God is paramount in the realm of success.
“Once God helps you achieve your goals, give back, and help others with their dreams or goals,” Burton advises. “Be a mentor and help them get where they need to be in life.”
Burton inched into nursing with Coahoma’s Emergency Medical Technician program (’00). She then attained her degree in practical nursing (’02) and an associate degree in nursing in 2010.
Born and raised in Clarksdale, Burton was forced to take on her brother and his friends' toughness after her two older sisters, who are now deceased, migrated north. She was labeled a tomboy for climbing trees, playing Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter, and fleeing dogs.
Nursing her brother’s abrasions, she would predict a future career in health care. Her mom kept Band-Aids, alcohol, and peroxide in their household.
“I used to tell my brother I was his nurse, and I wanted to be a nurse when I grew up,” she recalls.
Having completed study at Mississippi University for Women and Walden University, Burton urges aspirants to never give up. To those who are eager to make it to the finish line but have encountered a crippling circumstance causing a delay, she says, "it is just that, a delay."
“Keep striving, and you will succeed because it is all in God’s timing, not ours,” she says.
Burton accepted a position as a soda jerk at Tunica's Grand Casino right out of high school. The easy pay soon went downhill when Roxy’s, the restaurant in which she worked, closed. After merging with a buffet restaurant that was also owned by the casino, working became burdensome.
“The company permitted us to keep our pay and transfer to another department in their Celebration Buffet. Here, I became a food runner, and this is where the work was hard, and the pay was not worth working for. My hours changed. I started asking for early outs or EOs. EOs enabled you to leave and go home early when business was slow. Every day, I would come in the door asking to go home early,” Burton detailed.
“My job was not fun and exciting anymore. I did not like it, and this is when I knew I had to leave and go back to school. Consequently, I started pre-nursing at CCC in Spring 1997.”
The 42-year-old has one loving son, DeMarcus Bryant, 27, and is the proud grandmother of Kamilah Bryant, 8. Currently, she serves CoreCivic’s Tallahatchie County Correctional Facility as a charge nurse.
Burton is excited about entering her new role as an Advanced Practice Registered Nurse (APRN) and plans to serve in her specialty area as an Adult-Gerontology Acute Care Nurse Practitioner. She hopes that her patients' families are confident she will care for their loved ones as if they were her own family. When educating patients on the different disease processes, Burton enjoys offering information that will eliminate frequent visits to the hospital and minimize complications.
A goal-oriented person, she practices looking over her goals, evaluating them, and setting new goals to ensure the steps stay on repeat.
Making sure that she would graduate with her peers, she took on the maximum amount of courses each semester while at Coahoma.
It was scary and challenging, Burton recollects. Boating almost seven straight hours of classes three days a week, hanging out in the student union was hardly an option. “It was hard to get hours for work-study and get a decent monthly check because of my class load. In between classes, I prepared for my next class and made sure my assignments were done,” she recalled.
“In addition to my classes, I was a single parent with a small child in Head Start. My son was on the first round for drop off at home. I told his bus driver that I got out of school late, so she allowed him to ride on the bus during her second route and dropped him off last to give me a chance to finish my classes and get home.”
Burton faced an obstacle that threatened her career dream while attending Walden and completing clinicals. A disastrous blaze to her house forced her to lodge at a hotel for a few months.
Fast-forwarding to a rewarding present, Burton takes pleasure in nurturing patients, especially the critically ill, back to health and preventing them from deteriorating into demise.
"I tell others all the time, I love my job and the profession I chose. I love everything about it," she expressed. She embraces change as technology and other aspects of her profession are continually switching up.
Coahoma Community College unquestionably remains one of her first loves. “Coahoma can be a starting point for great things to come. Coahoma offers classes that are transferrable to universities that can help you achieve your overall goal. I am an example,” she stated, adding the close relationships with the instructors and their one-on-one advice to its outstanding qualities.
Burton advises maintaining a prayer life and always having a plan A, B, and C. She cites Mark Twain in providing compelling words she holds dear—The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why.
Decompressing for her involves inviting friends over for a hearty meal and entertainment. Attending NBA games, concerts, and comedy shows are also a few of her favorites.
Though the COVID-19 outbreak has made her nervous, gearing up with the appropriate personal protective equipment offers a sense of security.
Burton says it's one thing to protect yourself from someone you know has contracted the disease, but taking caution when around unknown cases is another. “Because I work in the prison, I was not in contact with many symptomatic patients, but there were so many who tested positive but had no symptoms at all,” she informed.
The lifelong learner says CCC science instructor Patricia Furdge left a lasting impression. Although Furdge came off as stern, she found her most inspiring. “Ms. Furdge, she was the instructor that everybody said did not play, but she was a sweetheart and did not intimidate me. She saw my potential and pushed me in her classes,” she fondly remembers. Getting singled out to answer questions wasn’t exactly an enjoyment, but the moments benefitted her in the long run.
“With God, anything is possible,” Burton stresses. “Sometimes it takes you succeeding in life to let others see that they can succeed, too.”