Hi-Line Living - Northern graduation celebrates nursing

Graduation at Montana State University-Northern last weekend marked the start for many students entering the professional field, but also marked the completion of the first year of Northern's College of Health Sciences.

The college was created in response to the demand for nurses on the Hi-Line. The state received a federal grant six years ago specifically to observe the current needs in the state's health care system. Northern was of the state's 15 colleges seen as playing a critical role in nursing.

Chancellor Greg Kegel said that the College of Health Sciences, which includes nursing, is one of the three colleges at Northern. The others are the College of Technical Sciences and the College of Arts, Science and Education.

"It needed to be done," Kegel said.

The College of Health Sciences broke nursing out of where it was before, he said. He added that by putting the program into a new college Northern was able to structure the program to be more conducive to do things that needed to be done and provide careful oversight of the program.

He said that the restructuring of the program will help move the program in the direction for teaching nurses on the Hi-Line.

Last Friday was the pinning ceremony for the graduates of the nursing program, where the graduating registered nurses recited the oath and spent time with their friends and family.

Professor and Master of Science in nursing Jaime Duke told the nurses being pinned that they will encounter many different experiences from college but no matter where they go they will not only be her students but her colleagues.

"I want you to know, at times, you will question your choices. You are going to feel like quitting," she said. "You are going to struggle, you're going to have days that you are going to wonder what it's all for. You'll have days where people try to break you down and challenge your intelligence, skill and right to be where you are. You will have moments where you'll question your own sanity, but you'll rise. You'll rise because your strength as a nurse is not determined by one day, one shift, one job. It's an ongoing journey acquiring our humility and a chance to make even make the smallest difference."

Duke said in an interview that this year's graduating RN class is the first out of the new College of Health Sciences. She added that the transition to the College of Health Sciences went well, and not many changes were needed because the program was set and ready to adapt.

Professor and Master of Science in nursing Kasthuri Udayakumar said that the biggest change was the the amount of time the students had to complete the curriculum. She said, in the past, the courses were more spread out throughout the semester but now are condensed to 15 weeks. She added that the program also had to change some of the textbooks because of the change.

Udayakumar said that the RN graduating class, which is a two-year program, was the first of the new college to graduate, adding that it feels like an great accomplishment.

"We'll miss them," she said.

Duke said that the graduating class did very well and it was great to see the students evolve within the last two years she was teaching them.

"Keep going for your dreams, you can do this, you have the skills to do this," she said.

She added that the students graduating from the two-year nursing program are not fully registered nurses until they take their board exams, and many of her students will go on to achieve their bachelor's degrees in nursing.

The university also received a donation to the Alumni Foundation for a scholarship, Duke said. The board selected three students to receive $1,500 scholarships each to continue their educations. The students who received the grants were Meagan Ahlers, Kyla Grymes and Laura Menard.

Duke said that all of her students worked tirelessly to be where they are and, moving forward, she is excited to see what the future has in store.

"It was great," she said. "They all were my children during the program. They all worked hard to get where they are right now."

Kegel said the group of students graduating from the program were fabulous, adding that the college had an excellent team who worked together to push nursing to a new level. He added that there is a large need for nurses across Montana as well as the country.

"These students fit that mold very well," he said.

He added that his wife, Sherry, who just retired after six years as director of Northern's Student Health Services, is a nurse of 44 years, and seeing everyone at the pinning ceremony reminded him of when she became a nurse and went through the same ceremony.

The nursing program is strenuous and difficult, he said, and it's a great feeling seeing the students graduate.

Northern Provost Neil Moisey said that his background is in forestry, but his mother was a nurse and he saw how the program changed her life, his life, and their family's lives.

Nursing Club President Ruby Christian said that that none of the students would have been able to accomplish the program without the love, encouragement and support that they received from their friends, families, classmates and instructors.

She said that nursing school for many of the students is difficult because they are non-traditional students who have other jobs or families, marriages, children to support while in the program. But they also pushed them to keep going and to stick with it.

She said during the pinning ceremony that being a nurse is about more than medical care.

"Perhaps the most important thing that we could have learned was about compassion," she said. "This is one of the values that is about the most important thing about being a nurse. We must have compassion for our patients. We as nurses will make an impact every single day in the lives of the people in our community. We are the voices of the voiceless and we are the advocates for those who cannot advocate for themselves."