Kaszar, then a first grader, had two reconstructive surgeries since there was not much left of her original nose. She spent almost the entire summer before second grade in and out of hospitals.
But during her time in the hospital, Kaszar met nurses who inspired her, even as a young child. This put her on a trajectory that would lead her eventually to Dayton, as a travel nurse working at Dayton Children’s prior to and during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“When I was in the hospital, I asked a million questions, and I got interested in nursing.” Kaszar said. “By third grade I knew I what I wanted.”
Kaszar’s mom, Anne Katherine, set her daughter up with some shadowing programs as she grew older. One nurse even allowed Kaszar to scrub in with her for surgery and she was hooked. She set her sights on a nursing degree and applied to Marquette University in Milwaukee and was accepted.
“My mom encouraged me to learn to play the violin after my accident since she considered playing sports to be too rough,” Kaszar said. “Marquette had an orchestra so I could take my violin, and I wanted to go to a Jesuit school.”
In May of 2010, Kaszar graduated with a nursing degree. After college she moved home to northeast Ohio and her parents divorced. Then her mom had a heart attack at 54 years old. Though she had never planned to move back to the Cleveland area, she decided she needed to help care for her mom. And in 2011, she started her first nursing job in Mariemont.
“I stayed in Cleveland for 3-and-a-half years and my mom was doing better,” Kaszar said. “I was researching jobs and found out about travel nursing.”
Travel nurses are registered or licensed practical nurses who work on a temporary basis in different locations across the nation and the world. Hospitals contract with agencies to bring professional nurses in as needed to fill in during vacations and other leaves.
“It’s a really big world out there,” Kaszar said. “I already had a specialty as an emergency room (ER) nurse, so I qualified.”
Kaszar started with AYA Healthcare 11 years ago and since then, she has lived in Colorado, Pennsylvania, New York, California and in Ohio in Cincinnati, Columbus, and of course, Dayton.
Credit: contributed
Credit: contributed
In January of 2020, before the pandemic changed the world, Kaszar came to Dayton. Since her grandmother lives in Cincinnati, Kaszar was happy to be closer, especially since she lost her dad to ALS (or Lou Gehrig’s disease) in 2015. Her mother passed away in 2017.
“I had never worked in a children’s hospital before,” Kaszar said. “But I did have significant pediatric experience working in large hospitals. It was a great learning opportunity.”
Kaszar learned that children with chronic illnesses need specialist care like they can get through children’s hospitals. Though she had visited area attractions before over the years —such as the Dayton Art Institute, this was her first time living in the local area.
“The agency helps find us places to live and I always have a choice to take a housing stipend and find my own place or let them find it for me,” Kaszar said. “By the time I came to Dayton, I knew what I was doing.”
Kaszar lived south of Dayton, close enough to commute to Dayton Children’s and also to Cincinnati so she could regularly visit her grandmother.
“I remember really enjoying everything Dayton has to offer and everyone at Dayton Children’s was so welcoming,” Kaszar said. “I made a bunch of friends, and it was by far the most community-oriented hospital I’ve ever worked for.”
Kaszar also praises the professionals and the hospital, especially as the COVID-19 pandemic caused a total lockdown in March of 2020.
“You can always tell how good a team is based on how they act in an emergency,” Kaszar said. “Covid was a stressful time to be a nurse, but everyone did their jobs flawlessly.”
As the pandemic wore on and hospitals struggled, Kaszar wasn’t sure when her contract might end. But by the end of March, she was notified that she was not needed because the census had gotten so low.
“I headed to Brooklyn after Dayton and the pandemic was so much worse there,” Kaszar said. “But because of Dayton Children’s, I felt more comfortable jumping in and helping kids.”
Kaszar and her fiancé, Eric Persaud, are getting married on Dec. 20 and moving to North Carolina, where she will look for more travel nursing opportunities. But the region has left an indelible mark on her heart.
“Dayton is such an underrated city,” Kaszar said. “I think it has a lot to offer but people forget about it because of being so close to larger cities like Columbus and Cincinnati. I really loved my time in Dayton.”
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