Susan "Susie" Kochevar
Excerpts from Her Homecoming 2014 Address
Kochevar started her nursing career as a nurse’s aide for the Doxey Hatch Medical Center in Salt Lake City. From this foundational job, she acquired morning/evening routine-care techniques, time management skills, and a love of the elderly.
Nursing school helped her develop a foundation for healing others, she said. “My time at BYU taught me how to learn and that I could do scary stuff. The things that made me most afraid had to be dealt with before the end of the semester as we moved on to other procedures that seemed even more intimidating.
Later in her career, she was among 20 nurses called to serve a welfare service mission in South America for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. She developed a self-reliance program and helped members of the Church learn to solve problems with their resources. During this time, she gained a love for Latin people, learned the Spanish language, and met her future husband.
Throughout her career, Kochevar has taught nursing skills and procedures to many, including at Utah Valley Community College (now Utah Valley University), a paramedic school, and other emergency medical services teams. While living in Henderson, Nevada, just outside Las Vegas, Kochevar has taught paramedic renewal education to Special Operations military medics. “I find this group quite humble and a teachable population,” she said. “They appreciate this type of education and have use for it on actual military missions.” She has also had the opportunity to help soldiers with “mommy medicine,” like stomach aches and muscle cramps. “Be open to the many career opportunities that will come to you,” Kochevar concluded. “This brings new challenges, skills, and enjoyment if you let it. Therefore the job I loved the most was all of them—for different reasons.”