Which classes do you teach online?
NUR 413, NUR 301
What do you want students to take away from your classes? What do you want them to learn?
I would like students to realize the importance of their BSN education and the new skills they are learning. I would like students to realize their important role in making the world healthier through health promotion and disease prevention. Public health nursing is about assessing the community where people live and motivating them to make changes in order to take charge of their health.
Why did you start teaching?
I was inspired to be a teacher by my father, who taught high school. Due to my love of and my experiences in public health nursing, I wanted to spread my knowledge so that other student nurses would have a good experience in public health nursing.
What advice would you give to those considering the online RN to BSN program?
The RN to BSN online program gives you freedom to get the work done when you have the time to do it. Your first degree or diploma gave you technical skills, but now you will develop your critical thinking skills through the readings, discussions and assignments in our courses. I love working with the RNs in this program because they want to learn more so that their job opportunities open up.
Why are you interested in nursing? What drew you to this field?
My mother had a nurse friend who would visit our home in her white uniform and blue cape. I loved how she looked so I would get books out of the library and look at the pictures. I was particularly in love with the baby bath pictures and would wash my dolls like the nurses in the picture books.
What qualities make someone particularly successful in nursing?
I believe a nurse must be calm, patient-centered and thorough.
What do you think is the biggest challenge that nurses face today?
I think the biggest challenge that nurses face today is being heard and recognized for their important work with clients and in the community.
What is the one book you think everyone should read?
The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, about a Hmong family coming to the United States from Cambodia. It gives both sides of how culture affects health outcomes.
Tell us something interesting about yourself that your students may not know.
I love to raise guppies. I just got a 100 gallon tank that I call the guppyterium because it is planted. The babies are so small and the males come in such interesting mixes of color and tail shape.
