Our stories

Christina Wilson, RN, WHNP-BC (M.S.'13), realized she wanted to be a nurse while attending Nottoway High School in Crewe, Virginia after recalling a health scare she experienced at the age of nine. She spent about 14 hours in a hospital to have cyst removal surgery. "Doctors initially thought it was cancer," Wilson said, pointing to a scar just below her neck. "They had to remove it because it would have blocked my airway." The entire experience prompted the thought of nursing as a career. "I was thinking about the way the nurses treated me and my family," she said. "I wanted to make that kind of impact on patients as well." Since then, Wilson, a Ph.D. student at the VCU School of Nursing, has spent her nursing career trying to make a difference in the lives of women.

Indira Miller's interest in a nursing career dates back to when she broke her left fibula in two different places playing soccer at the age of five, while living on the island of Okinawa, Japan. Doctors told her she needed surgery and might not ever play soccer or any other sport again due to the severity of her injury. But a nurse made a suggestion that changed her outlook. "The nurse taking care of me heard of a new type of cast treatment plan in Hawaii that was a good alternative to surgery," she says. "She first opened my eyes to a future in nursing."

With the increasing complexity of health care and the nationwide demand for more doctoral-prepared nurses, the VCU School of Nursing is poised to increase the number of expert practitioners prepared to translate research into evidence-based practice and lead teams of health care professionals toward improving patient outcomes.

The VCU School of Nursing is leading a community-based care coordination program that has become an interdisciplinary training ground for future nurses and a national model for community engagement.

What do studies on fibromyalgia, sickle cell disease, low back pain and cardiovascular health have in common? These topics are being studied by four School of Nursing students selected for the 2014 VCU Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP) Summer Fellowship program. Susan Ghodrat, Jeff Petraco, Rebekah Roby, and Anna Young were among 33 students selected across the university to participate in the program.

Emily Dowell, an accelerated bachelor’s degree student, has already had the opportunity to make a difference in someone’s life.