College of Nursing & Health Care Professions

Photos by Mathew McGraw and Elizabeth Tinajero GCU News Bureau The Friday evening ceremony of Winter Commencement at Grand Canyon University featured graduates of the Colangelo College of Business, College of Fine Arts and Production and College of Nursing and Health Care Professions.    

Pamela Hess, Lead Faculty for Health Informatics in the College of Nursing and Health Care Professions, is excited about the rapid changes in health care thanks to informatics and information management. She appreciates having the opportunity to work the Christian worldview into the classroom and is working toward earning a doctorate from GCU.

“Glorious Frequencies: Music, Physics and Engineering” “Lazy or Lupus? Is My Tiredness Pathological?” and “The Robots are Coming!” were just some of the topics high school juniors and seniors, as well as community college students, explored at the annual Health Sciences, Engineering and Technology Day on Thursday. More than 1,100 high school and community college students RSVP’d to attend HSET Day, when students not only toured DNA, engineering, cadaver and nursing labs but sat in on talks by professionals in the field and visited with GCU STEM students. The event was presented by the Marketing Department’s ground event planning team.

When students strolled through the Promenade on Tuesday at the Lopes Launch Senior Sendoff Event, they were likely to run into a graduate of GCU now working in the community who had come back to recruit them. One organization, Central Leadership Institute, has hired GCU grads for seven of its 23 residency posts in the past four years — and it sent a GCU alum to get more.

Three nursing students in the College of Nursing and Health Care Professions took time out of their busy schedules last week to speak with prenursing students in Dr. Mark Wireman’s pathophysiology class. Many of the students, who have just been accepted into nursing school, are excited about the next step in their academic careers but also are a little nervous, too, about the rigor that lies ahead. So Wireman asked the students to speak to the class, which also welcomed Dr. Maria Quimba, Associate Dean of the CONHCP, who told the class: “What we’re trying to get you to do is, that whole point of you being here today is refocusing your energy … it’s a mindset.”

Saturday was a day of celebration as Grand Canyon University’s Alpha Chi chapter inducted 1,212 new members into the prestigious honors society. Only students within the top 10% of their graduating class in each of their individual colleges are eligible. “GCU does attract a lot of exceptional learners,” Honors College Associate Dean Breanna Naegeli said.

What started as a preceptorship would eventually grow into an unbreakable friendship and an opportunity for both Dr. Viola Pierce and Dr. Brittany Bass to graduate with their Doctor of Nursing Practice degrees together at Grand Canyon University’s Fall Commencement ceremony. The pair started the program together and graduated together, surrounded by each of their families. “We went through the entire program together, so this is special for us and I love her dearly,” Pierce said.

The Association of Christian Schools International’s first international job fair at GCU brought representatives from 28 countries to campus Tuesday. “We have a variety of job fairs and career fairs, but mostly they’re local and national. This is opening up the door in a large way to the number of professions in that international sphere,” said Dr. Tacy Ashby, Senior Vice President of K12 Educational Development. “The College of Education is really excited about this because it affords incredible ministry opportunities while allowing their students the opportunity to serve in Christian schools abroad.”

Graduates of the College of Nursing and Health Care Professions online bachelor’s degree program, who filled the Friday afternoon Commencement ceremony, had a lot to say about what it takes to do what they do — both on the job and in earning their degree. It’s amazing how often they hesitated to sign up until something made them take the plunge.

In this version of My LopeLife, the GCU Today feature in which students, faculty, staff and alumni share enlightening experiences, we hear from two doctoral graduates with a lot to say about that journey. The 9 a.m. Friday ceremony also included master’s graduates from the College of Nursing and Health Care Professions, so their chance to reminisce and advise is here as well.