James May June 2024 web - Flipbook - Page 48
working conditions of our healthcare system and took a heavy toll on
our front-line providers. New nurses
change jobs and leave the profession at disturbingly high rates.
Berry’s nursing program is built
on a foundation of academic rigor
and evidence-based care. It incorporates challenging, real-world medical
scenarios with advanced simulation
exercises. What sets Berry apart, however, is its emphasis on an education
of the heart in concert with the head
and the hands and the opportunity to
engage in a full college experience.
Last summer, 27 nursing students travelled with faculty members
to rural Kenya to experience firsthand the challenges of compassionate nursing in an unfamiliar context.
The experience was appropriately
disturbing as the team encountered a
scope of illness and suffering that left
them humbled and profoundly aware
of how much we take for granted.
As one student put it: “To make a
difference in people’s lives was an
incredible feeling, but the things Kenya did for us were just as valuable,
if not more.” The benefactor for this
trip noted simply, “It’s one of the best
investments I’ve ever made.”
Nursing students are immersed
in their major for their junior and
senior years. The sequence of
courses, simulation exercises and
clinical rotations is jam-packed. Yet,
somehow, Berry students do more.
Top athletes, for example, balance
the demands of the nursing program
with the equally daunting pressures
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JAMES
of championship athletics. It’s a
remarkable feat of focus and time
management made possible by the
collaboration and goodwill of the
nursing faculty and coaches.
Berry’s nursing program is also
producing a new generation of leaders, including new nursing faculty.
Programs across the country are hindered by a shortage of nursing faculty. Last year, two 2016 graduates
returned to Berry as faculty. Natalie
Tracy served as an emergency room
nurse at Hamilton Medical Center in
Dalton, Georgia. Gifted with a passion for information technology, simulation, and automation, she is currently completing her PhD in nursing
at Augusta University, investigating
traumatic stress in healthcare workers. McKenna Parker Evans worked
on a medical surgical floor for Athens
Regional Medical Center after Berry,
while also earning her master’s in
public health. She then served a critical role as the Infection Preventionist
for a large hospital system during
the Covid pandemic. At Berry, she
equips students with the resources
and resiliency needed to succeed in
this demanding profession.
GREAT SPACES INSPIRE
GREAT LEARNING EXPERIENCES
The addition of the PA program
and the continued growth of nursing required improved learning
spaces at Berry. We recently broke
ground on a major Health Sciences
building, named Morgan-Bailey Hall
in honor of a lead gift and generous
scholarship support from Atlanta
philanthropist Audrey Morgan and
the Bailey Family Foundation. Suffice it to say, Audrey Morgan shares
Martha Berry’s passion for an education of the head, heart and hands.
Dr. Stephen Briggs has been Berry College’s
president since 2006— the second longest tenure
of eight presidents who have served in the private
college’s 122-year history. He has decided to retire
in June 2025.
BRIGG S AT THE MO RG AN-BAILE Y HALL G RO UNDB REAK ING
M AY/ JU N E 2 02 4
