My professional background is in nursing.  I came to WA as a Registered Nurse with a background in acute care, long-term care (LTC) and hospice services.  I have worked as a Medical/Surgical, Intensive Care and ER nurse during my time in acute care and served as a Director of Nursing for two nursing facilities in LTC and a Hospice Agency before moving to WA.  I also worked with special needs children as a direct care registered nurse for the Louisiana State School in Alexandria, LA.  Once in WA, I started my career as a Charge Nurse returning to the LTC field. After demonstrating my leadership skills, I was soon recruited to serve as the Assistant Director of Nursing Services (DNS) for Tacoma Lutheran Retirement Community.  After two years, once our director retired, I was promoted to Director of Nursing for this facility, which is now called Eliseo.  I served as the DNS and then Clinical Services Supervisor for the residents and staff at this facility for 19 years.  It was hard work, but very rewarding.  During my tenure as the DNS, my team and I were deficiency-free for 4 years straight during our annual State inspections, which earned me a scholarship to obtain my master’s degree in Nursing Leadership and Management in 2013.  While serving as the DNS there, I also served as a community leader who represented the nursing perspective for a not-for-profit organization called Leading Age.  I assisted other DNS’s who were new to the role or needed help with team development by providing training at various facilities in Pierce, Thurston, and King County.  I served on the Board of Directors of Leading Age for about 5 years.  Because I saw a need in the LTC industry for dedicated Provider services, I went back to school and obtained my Post-Master’s Certificate as an Adult-Gerontology Nurse Practitioner in 2017. Along the way, I have also received a certificate as a Legal Nursing Consultant from North Seattle University and have run my own legal nurse consulting business.  I currently hold a position with United Healthcare’s Optum Care Services working as a Clinical Services Manager, supervising Nurse Practitioners in western WA counties from Lewis County to Whatcom County and the eastern counties of Yakima, Benton and Franklin Counties.   

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As the owner of A Child’s Place Learning Center, Inc, I have hope to provide affordable childcare for families, using my medical skills to ensure that we not only have a fun-filled learning environment for our kids, but one that is safe. secure, and held to the highest standards of infection control practices.  A Child’s Place Learning Center is a mid-size childcare facility that will serve children from one (1) year to twelve (12) years of age. Services will include teaching tools to prepare the children for the public or private school systems. The goals of the center will be to promote high quality, developmentally appropriate childcare for preschool children with a focus on the child’s age and ability to stimulate social, cognitive, physical, and emotional growth.  We will aim to provide a safe, nurturing, and recreational environment for school age children, as well.   

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We plan to be innovative in our approach to meeting the needs of families as we work through the pandemic by offering support with virtual educational needs.  Also, we plan to incorporate the use of technology into our lesson plans as well as re-focus on the importance of outside play to do our part in combating childhood obesity.  Lastly, our center will offer wholesome and nutritious hot meals, not just snacks as another way in which we will be a desired option for working parents.  For example, most of the childcare centers do not provide meals (breakfast or lunch). They only serve snacks, and the parents are required to provide their lunch. We hope that this will be one of the defining differences from surrounding childcare centers. These are just a few of our many ideas that will set our center above the rest.    

 

Respectfully Submitted, 

 Sharon Christor, MSN, RN, A-GNP-C