A Northwest Indiana Life in the Spotlight: Taylor Minter

Taylor Minter has always known that she wants to serve her community. After graduating from Calumet New Tech High School, Minter began attending Purdue University in West Lafayette on a pre-med track, but she realized that being a surgeon didn’t quite fit her dreams.

“After my first semester of college, I came home and was just like ‘I’m not sure about this anymore,’” Minter said. “It was my mom who asked me if I’d ever thought about being a nurse. I hadn’t, but I had the opportunity to shadow a nurse, and that was that. I knew that was where I needed to be.”

Minter had previous experience working in caregiving positions, so her transition from pre-med to nursing felt natural. She appreciated the chance to get to know her patients on a more personal level. 

“You get more hands-on interaction with your patients, and you get to advocate for them,” Minter said. “That’s a big thing – having someone to advocate for you – because there are times when things go wrong or can be missed.”

Minter went back to school with a new purpose, transferring to Indiana University Northwest’s College of Nursing. She currently works at Methodist Hospitals’ Northlake campus as a nurse extern in the ICU, getting practical experience as she finishes her schooling.

“I get to do pretty much everything a nurse does while under supervision: take care of the patients, talk to the doctors and families, things like that,” Minter said. “It can be a little terrifying at times, especially in the ICU, but all of the doctors are very nice and helpful.”

Now that she has made the transition into nursing, Minter has been able to be a voice of comfort to her patients in addition to being their advocate. She wants to ensure that everyone feels comfortable coming to the doctor or hospital when they need to, especially people belonging to underrepresented and minority populations.

“You get to be a voice for your patients,” Minter said. “I specifically wanted to work in underprivileged and underrepresented communities because things that are caught in one population might get missed in another. It’s important for me to be there to say, ‘Hey, this might look different for this patient.’”

The work Minter is doing doesn’t go unnoticed. She’s had several patients thank her for just being in the room with them, helping them overcome their fear or nervousness with a smile and a laugh.

“I’ve seen so many patients come in who are super nervous in a hospital setting. Seeing a familiar face or someone who looks like them helps them feel calmer,” Minter said. “I just had a patient approach me who said, ‘I was here three years ago, and it was just nice seeing someone who looks like me.’”

While Minter’s path hasn’t been the most direct, she’s grateful for the journey and everyone who has supported her along the way, including her mom, her mentors, and her friends. She firmly believes that everyone ends up where they need to be, no matter how long that takes.

“Did it take me a while to get to where I am now? Yes. Time would have passed either way, though. If you don’t finish when you think you’re supposed to, keep going,” Minter said. “I couldn’t have done it without my mom, who gave me the push I needed to seriously try nursing.”

In the free time she gets between work and school, Minter likes to read and spend time in her community. She credits her upbringing in Northwest Indiana for making her a tenacious, well-rounded person able to roll with life’s punches. It also helped her build a sense of community.

“The Region itself is so interconnected. Everywhere you go, you’ll know somebody,” Minter said. “That opens a lot of doors with things like job opportunities, but it also creates that sense of community. It helps to keep you well-rounded.”