College of Nursing and Health Care Professions

Nursing faculty cloaked students in white coats on Friday as part of the University’s first White Coat Ceremony. The ceremony is a rite of passage for the students, all of whom are seeking their master’s degrees to be advanced practice registered nurses. After being cloaked in her coat, Gina Mercado said she truly felt her purpose and “the significance of what I will bring.”

Reading the news from Afghanistan in the past month was enough to bring GCU nursing alumna and former Air Force critical care nurse Christine Collins to tears. The children and women she helped were foremost on her mind. But reflecting on the positive and acknowledging her blessings has helped the mother of three cope. “I would always tell people that we’re just ordinary, plain people doing some extraordinary work on a daily basis,” she said.

When the state closed its test-taking sites for the National Council Licensure Examination during the COVID-19 lockdowns, GCU’s nursing students were worried. They were worried, too, that once those sites opened back up that they might not be as prepared as they could have been to take the test, which they must pass to begin working in the field. Still, GCU’s nursing students in the first quarter of 2021 scored a 100% first-time pass rate on the exam, thanks to the College of Nursing and Health Care Professions faculty who found answers when COVID presented roadblock after roadblock. Said Dean Dr. Lisa Smith, “We’re going to do everything we can to support our students until they cap.”

When Dignity Health needed help at the last minute at its East Valley COVID vaccine Point of Dispensing site, GCU’s nursing students stepped up in a big way. Thirty-one Level 3 and Level 4 nursing students immediately volunteered. Dignity and St. Joseph’s Hospital & Medical Center officials were so impressed with the students and so grateful for their help, the hospital gave them high-quality stethoscopes. Nursing instructor Kelly Schaefer wasn’t surprised at the students’ performance at the site. They always “resolutely serve with joy,” she said.

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.