1 8 • GCU TODAY
Transition to nursing
program, a first in Arizona,
gives students on-the-job
view of what’s ahead
B Y J A N I E M A G R U D E R
D
iana Puente Head barely had time to remove her coat
on her first day of work in the intensive care unit of a
west Phoenix hospital when she was called on to help
save a life.
A patient had coded 20 minutes into Head’s shift at Abrazo
Maryvale Campus where, as a student in Grand Canyon University’s
College of Nursing and Health Care Professions, she had begun a
residency in the Transition to Professional (TTP) Nursing Practice
program. The 1-year-old TTP is the only program of its kind among
Arizona universities and colleges offering nursing degrees.
“It was pure adrenaline,” the 34-year-old former medical assistant
said of that morning last January. “You see how the unit collaborates,
communicates, how it all comes together. We talk about medical
emergencies like this in lectures and simulations, but actually being
a part of it is amazing.
“It’s a sign that I was meant to do this.”
Head is among more than 130 GCU nursing students who have
gained practical knowledge and experience and made connections in
Preliminary
career diagnosis
