Military academy prepares nursing grad for accelerated program

Top: Becky Peters with her three sons, Ian, Colin and Aidan, during the January 2009 Nightingale White Coat Ceremony, which signifies the beginning of a nursing career. Bottom: Peters in her graduation photo from West Point.

The rigorous training Becky Peters received at the U.S. Military Academy in West Point, N.Y., prepared her well for UNMC’s accelerated bachelor’s degree in nursing program.

The UNMC program requires students who already have a bachelor’s degree in another field to take classes in two semesters and during the summer without breaks. The traditional program is five semesters long.

“West Point gave me a lot of self-confidence that I could get through stressful times,” Peters said. “You have to focus and think critically, which carries into nursing.”

Peters, 36, graduated in 1995 with a degree in environmental engineering and was assigned as a military intelligence officer at Fort Carson in Colorado. After five years, she decided she didn’t like being away from home so she left the Army and went to work in environmental engineering for a Colorado Springs company.

In 2006, Peters, divorced with three children, decided to move closer to her parents in Chappell, Neb. She took a job as a nurse’s aide at Memorial Health Center in Sidney to see if her childhood dream to become a nurse was what she wanted.

Other graduates View a list of the 376 UNMC students who will graduate this week during commencement ceremonies in Omaha, Lincoln, Scottsbluff and Kearney.

Peters was accepted into the accelerated program at the UNMC College of Nursing West Nebraska Division in Scottsbluff — nearly 100 miles away — a commute that took her away from her children, ages 3, 5 and 8. Sometimes she would spend up to four nights a week in Scottsbluff studying while her children were with her parents in Chappell.

“The accelerated program was very intense,” she said. “You had to really look at the goal and stay focused. We were starting a new course every eight weeks. I knew my ultimate goal was to be a registered nurse. That’s what kept me going.”

The accelerated program puts one’s personal life on hold, said Peters, who will graduate Saturday at the top of her class.

Now she can spend all the time she wants with her family. She’s also been offered a job at Memorial Health Center.

“It’s exciting. I can have my life back again.”