College of Nursing & Health Care Professions

GCU has partnered with Phoenix Rescue Mission in many ways over the years, from helping the nonprofit’s restaurant, Mission Possible Cafe, get off the ground, to the organization being a clinical rotation site for the University’s prelicensure nursing students, to GCU offering scholarships to those who have gone through the Rescue Mission’s Transformations Recovery Program. The latest partnership is the Lope Shop’s Give Back Get Back campaign, in which clothing, shoes and other items will be donated to the nonprofit. GCU’s work with Phoenix Rescue Mission was featured in the Community Relations Department’s latest Town Hall Informational.

GCU’s nursing students continued their successful run on a daunting national licensure examination despite the barriers that COVID presented. The University’s prelicensure nursing students ended the year strong, achieving an impressive 96.17% pass rate on the National Council Licensure Examination (NCLEX), the test all nursing students must pass before being able to practice as a registered nurse. Much of that academic success can be attributed to the nursing faculty and the changes they made to wrap their arms around their students.

Photos by Mathew McGraw GCU News Bureau Graduates of the Colangelo College of Business, College of Nursing and Health Care Professions, and College of Science, Engineering and Technology participated in the Saturday afternoon ceremony at Winter Commencement.  

Students Inspiring Students received a tremendous boost this year when The Bob & Renee Parsons Foundation pledged $500,000 to the full-tuition scholarship program over the next five years. (The first Parsons Scholars are scheduled to be named this month.) It was another important step for a program that isn’t just producing college graduates from GCU’s neighborhood — it’s turning out people who, like the Parsons grant, will make an impact for years to come. Reprinted from the November issue of GCU Magazine.

Jerry Perkins knows what it’s like for homeless teens. He was homeless and lived in foster care for a time when he was a teen. Now the College of Nursing and Health Care Professions faculty member has a passion for helping those youth. He recently delivered Thanksgiving meals and baskets filled with everything from school supplies to hygiene items to those teens as a volunteer with Homeless Youth Connection, whose mission is to help homeless youth graduate from high school and even move on to continue their education, possibly at GCU.

The pandemic put a damper on clinicals, internships and other real-life experiences for GCU’s pre-health students. But that didn’t stop pre-med/biology junior Alyssa Deyo from creating NERD Hours, which connects students virtually to physicians, medical students and others in the health fields.

Consider yourself forewarned if you’re visiting Frieda Cook’s house: Her family is a bunch of merry pranksters. Find out the ways they make life fun, and admire the ways the Lab and Simulation RN Instructor in the College of Nursing and Health Care Professions makes life interesting for her students.

Funny how being unable to attend classes in person for six months makes them that much more appealing. Whether they were returning to GCU or fresh out of high school, students were eager to resume the classroom experience this week. “It’s completely different being here as a student,” said one freshman. “It’s a big, amazing school, and there’s a completely different atmosphere than most colleges.”

Dr. Katherine Fetter, Doctor of Nursing Practice Program Lead for the College of Nursing and Health Care Professions, communicated with her learners so well, a colleague wanted to see it for herself. But that isn’t the only way that Fetter has bucked the trend — check out what happened when she rode a bull.

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, not everyone knew why communities need public health professionals. “As a result of the pandemic, more individuals, communities and organizations will be asking, ‘How can we improve? How can we be better prepared?’” said full-time Public Health faculty member Danielle Henderson. “Public health professionals will have the answer.” The College of Nursing and Health Care Professions has the answer, too, when it comes to educating the next generation in the field. It recently added its Bachelor of Science in Public Health to its degree offerings, which already included the Master of Public Health.