When twins Brookanne and Morganne Pfaffle were considering college choices, neither seemed keen to join the other at the same school.

“I wanted to do my own thing,” Brookanne says.

“We needed to go our own ways,” Morganne agrees.

But the Pfaffle sisters eventually decided to stay together after all. The twins, who grew up just across the Iowa border in North Sioux City, South Dakota, enrolled at the University of Iowa, both majored in nursing, both will graduate with Bachelor of Science degrees in nursing in December, and both will apply to enter the graduate degree program in nursing practice in anesthesia at the UI.

“We’ve walked the same path and willingly so,” Morganne says.

“It definitely helps to know you have a friend,” Brookanne adds.

In high school, the Pfaffle sisters knew they wanted to be involved in patient care. They chose the UI in large part due to the College of Nursing’s national reputation. They also were attracted to the broad range of academic offerings at the UI and the presence of a major hospital affiliated with the university.

Their resolve was tested briefly when they visited campus for a pre-orientation tour on a particularly chilly day.

“My mom turned to us and said, ‘Are you sure you want to be going to school here?’” Brookanne recalls. “‘I said, Yeah sure.’ And, I wouldn’t it change it for the world.”

The sisters enrolled in fall 2014 and, after two years of pre-requisite classes, were admitted to the nursing program. One of the first classes they took was a pathology class taught by Anita Nicholson, the associate dean of undergraduate programs in the College of Nursing.

The twins stood out immediately.

“It was an incredibly difficult class, and they were always asking good questions,” Nicholson recalls. “They dialogued in the class, which many other students weren’t able to do. They were outstanding students who excelled.

“They’re just two amazing young women,” she adds.

The sisters say they enjoy nursing because it blends scientific principles with caring for people. 

“It’s a very people-focused profession, and it’s also very science-based,” Morganne says.

“And it’s also very versatile,” Brookanne adds. “There are so many different things you can do with a nursing degree. You can go into education and be a nurse educator. Or you could go into research. You can enroll in different graduate programs and be a family practitioner. There are just lots of options.”

The Pfaffle sisters hope to work as registered nurses in an intensive care unit at the UI Hospitals & Clinics to gain requisite experience before applying for the graduate program in nursing practice at the UI. 

They learned about anesthesia as a profession when their grandparents’ friend, a longtime anesthetist named Ronald Lenninger, told stories about his work.

“He would talk to us at Christmas about how neat his job is,” Morganne says. “He always told us to check it out.”

The Pfaffles did that when they shadowed Kathleen Fear, lead certified registered nurse anesthetist for the Ambulatory Surgery Clinic at UI Hospitals & Clinics.

“You just watch and learn. It’s really cool,” Morganne says. “And you get to do a lot of hands-on stuff too.”

“You kind of know if you would be able to do that for the rest of your life,” Brookanne adds.

Fear says she noticed during the job shadow experience that the sisters were bright, curious, and independent. She asked them to be tutors this fall in the pathology course she teaches —the one the twins took just a year before

“When they shadowed me, they looked up cases, they understood the pathological conditions, they knew about anesthesia, and they were able to communicate to me what they learned,” says Fear, who earned her master’s degree in nurse anesthesia at UI in 2000 and a doctorate of nursing practice from the UI in 2016. “So, that easily led them to teaching other students.” 

Another reason anesthesia—and nursing generally—stood out to the sisters is that it combines the rush of new and diverse situations with the foundational nursing goal of patient care.

“It’s so rewarding to see someone who’s really sick and scared and being there to help them improve their quality of life,” Morganne says. “I can’t really picture myself doing anything else.”

“I can’t either,” Brookanne adds. 

“In some jobs, you’re separated from the world,” Morganne says. “In health care, you’re very connected with the world and what’s going on in it.”

The Pfaffles credit their UI education for positioning them well in school and after graduation. So much so, they convinced their younger sister, UI sophomore Kaitlyn, to join the nursing program.

“I think it’s been really rewarding from an educational standpoint,” Brookanne says, as her sister nods in agreement. “I talk to friends who have gone to other nursing programs, and I feel very set up, very supported at the University of Iowa. And, I feel very confident to go into the real world. I feel like I’ll be ready for it. I’m well prepared.”