Memorable walk for one nursing student
In early April, life changed when UNMC nursing student Madison Fitzgibbons walked across the Bob Kerrey Pedestrian Bridge with her boyfriend, Andrew.
"Once we got to the middle, we stopped to have my sister take a picture and at that moment he got down on one knee and asked me to marry him," she said. "Of course, I said yes."
Beaming, Fitzgibbons then learned that, with the help of her mother, her now fiancé had planned a surprise engagement party with their closest friends and family. "As if the day couldn’t get any better," she said.
An accelerated student on the Omaha campus, the Papillion, Nebraska, native will graduate this December, the same month her fiancé graduates from chiropractic school. They then plan to move to Norfolk, Nebraska.
The couple is planning a March 2024 wedding in Omaha.
Student plans summer externship in Arizona
For eight weeks this summer, nursing student Brianna Pierce will do an externship at the Mayo Clinic in Phoenix, Arizona.
"When we discovered this position, the application was opening five days later and I only had a week to apply," she said. "I ended up with three different interviews and MADE THE CUT!"
Pierce will work night shifts alongside a trained nurse on the med-surg/orthopedics/urology unit. "I am truly hoping this will open the door for me to have an opportunity to work there after my graduation in May of 2023," Pierce said.
The opportunity moves her closer to her fiancé, who relocated to Arizona for work during spring break of her second semester of nursing school. It also reunites their dogs for the summer, she said.
She’ll return to the UNMC campus mid-August to begin her last year of nursing school.
Nursing, military open doors for UNMC student
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| Shyanne Ballard |
My name is Shyanne Ballard. I am active-duty Air Force and have worked with munitions systems for the past 10 years of my military service. The Air Force has given me many opportunities to grow personally and professionally. But I’m most grateful for the opportunities to see so many different parts of the world I might never have been able to see and to have lived overseas for most of my time in the service.
In 2019 we moved back to the states and, in 2020, I received another life changing opportunity – a scholarship through the military to change career paths and join part of the Air Force Nurse Corps upon my graduation from UNMC this summer. My family and I relocated from South Dakota to Nebraska with just two weeks to spare before classes began. Moving through the middle of a pandemic through government channels was challenging. Our living arrangements fell through enroute, forcing us to live in a hotel for a couple of months. Since then, we have settled in the Millard area.
The past two years have been challenging juggling two small children, home renovations, classes, clinicals, studying, continued military obligations and, for a portion of the time, all while my husband was deployed. All that aside, it has been a rewarding experience and a time of growth and development. As my time in the BSN program is coming to an end, my family and I are preparing and excited for our next adventure in Florida.
BSN to DNP graduate: Teamwork is important
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| Katherine Wolverton |
This month, Katherine Wolverton graduates from the UNMC College of Nursing Bachelor of Science in Nursing to Doctor of Nursing Practice program. For the past seven years, Wolverton has gained nursing experience on medical, surgical and renal/urology floors as a bedside and charge nurse.
She loves taking care of people, "enjoys the challenge of working up multi-comorbidities" and remembers the teamwork among colleagues in her nursing unit during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Wolverton enjoys learning and wanted to "advance her degree into more of a provider role" to help patients prior to them ending up in the hospital. After graduation, she plans to work for a urology surgeon and see both clinic and hospitalized patients.
Wolverton tips or advice for upcoming nursing students:
- Teamwork is important.
- Always lend a helping hand.
- Do not be afraid to ask questions.
Student grateful for fiancé, family, future in nursing
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| Kayla Aruda, with her fiancé and dog |
Kayla Aruda, a nursing student in UNMC’s Northern Division, reflects on the future, in her own words:
I am grateful for all the joys I have experienced leading into this new season in my life. I got engaged to my college sweetheart, and it was the most magical moment of my life. I met my fiancé a few months after moving to Nebraska from my lifelong home in Maui, Hawaii. You might be asking why would you move to Nebraska from Hawaii? I moved here to pursue a degree while on a woman’s wrestling scholarship for a college in Nebraska. Going to college and crossing paths with my fiancé has changed my life in more ways than I can imagine, and I could not be more grateful.
Our engagement will forever be a special moment for us. Fall is my favorite time of year and with all the ups and downs that the pandemic had on my family and the world, it was the ray of sunshine I needed. My fiancé surprised me not only with a beautiful engagement but also by flying my family up from Maui to be there for me in my special moment. I am delighted to say that Nebraska is my new home, along with Maui.
With nursing as my career, I am so excited to see how I can be a change in the health care field. Being surrounded by a family filled with nurses, has been so empowering. It has pushed me to work for what is the best not only myself but for others around me. In this field we have not only the ability to give extraordinary care but be innovative in the process. To the future!
Student excited to take first nursing job after graduation
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| Kara (Seagren) Lawson |
Kara (Seagren) Lawson is living her dream as a nurse. She graduated May 5, after two years of hard work.
"Nursing school was hard. It was not what I expected – from clinicals, precepting and now doing it. All the hard work I had to put in…it’s all worth it in the end," Lawson said.
Growing up she saw how her mother loved working in health care and decided that’s what she wanted to do. The former emergency medical technician and medical aide found she loved to help people in any way she could.
While she was precepting at the Osmond Hospital about 30 or 40 miles north of Norfolk, Nebraska, someone in charge asked about her plans after graduation. That led to an interview at the critical care hospital, where she was quickly hired since they already knew, and were impressed by, her preceptorship work.
"When I was an EMT and would go to Osmond Hospital, I always found the nurses helpful – it seemed like they cared about what they were doing – like they were ready for anyone and anything. I absolutely loved it there. I’m so excited to go to Osmond. Their nurses are great."
Lawson is preparing to take her board exam for certification as a registered nurse in June.