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My name is Tyler Gaedecke. I'm a recent graduate of the PhD program at the School of Nursing at Columbia University in New York City, New York. I was lucky enough to be a 2024 Small Grant recipient from the Sigma Foundation for Nursing for my dissertation work.

I became a nurse to find a career at the intersection of science and people, which is true. However, I think what I didn’t realize early on is that nursing is the profession of caring—and that’s the real thing I didn’t know I was looking for all along.

International Nurses Day is a great time to reflect on what I’m proud of and thankful for as a nurse. For me, during the early stages of my career as a nurse researcher, this grant more than funded my research; it empowered me to think of myself as someone who can get funding as a nurse, make a name for the nursing profession in all sorts of areas of research, and continue to push our profession forward. It's set off more than a project for me—it set off a career.

I also wanted to share something that's particularly special to me about receiving this grant. My research has focused on transgender and gender-diverse health. A lot of funding came into question in early 2025. That included, for several months, the termination of my fellowship from the National Institute of Nursing Research (NINR). There were many months when I was without the financial support I thought I had, the support I thought I had earned. 

But my Sigma grant was there. Not only did I know it was funded, I knew Sigma was an organization that would stand by me and its funding. 

My dissertation work was about access to care after gender affirming surgery. I aimed to increase our understanding of these life-changing, life-saving interventions whose evidence is only improving and to illustrate how important they are for people's lives and quality of life. I wanted to explore more about what life is like after surgery, answering the questions of how we understand healthcare experiences after, what kind of healthcare providers do people need access to, and what is most important during that time. Those are just some of the things that I was trying to focus on. 

Through this difficult time, I had the opportunity to really see Sigma's true colors. It’s an organization that I was going to have behind me every step of the way. 

I've now become more involved in my own Sigma chapter. I'm now serving as chapter president for the Alpha Zeta at-Large Chapter at Columbia and Montclair Universities, and I really feel like it's the least I can do to give back to an organization that is aligned with truth and science, and that pushes for real health and quality of life for all people. The way we, as nurses, believe it should be. 

Funding for Tyler’s grant was made possible through donations to the Sigma Foundation for Nursing. You can be part of the next story like Tyler’s by donating anytime at SigmaNursing.org/Donate.