Anderson University’s nursing department has a one hundred percent pass rate on the NCLEX licensure exam.
The nursing department equips its students in the best way they know how for the workforce.
Dr. Lynn Schmidt, dean of the School of Nursing and Kinesiology, has been in office since 2016. She has been teaching since 2008.
“I’ve always wanted to be a nurse. That is the only thing I have ever wanted to do,”
Schmidt said. “The most rewarding part of my job is the opportunity to interact with people and to learn about their lived experience, especially their faith experience.”
Schmidt began her career as a clinical nurse and received her master’s degree. She then focused on getting her nursing education degree and has loved teaching ever since.
“I graduated with my first nursing degree in 1986 and finished my PhD in 2015,” she said.
Schmidt, like most professors within the department, loves to teach future nurses.
“In nursing, we teach everything,” Schmidt said. “We have all the different systems, teaching different types of diseases and pharmacology. We have different areas of expertise like maternal health, mental health and geriatrics. We teach leadership skills and professional skills.”
The nursing department works in many other areas on campus and throughout the community.
“We are a good resource for other departments,” Schmidt said. “I know the Wellness Center works with
faculty members who want to develop a certain wellness regime. I know nursing students give flu shots and check blood pressure. We can give back to the community in that way.”
Schmidt believes that our human desire to impact others can be easily seen in the nursing field.
“If we can increase a diversity within our students, we can increase the diversity within the workforce,” she said. “Nurses want to help people become better physically or improve health. I believe we all have that desire, but I think that’s their main focus, to have a positive difference and impact in other’s lives.”
One of those students, Brian Kaufman, has found that being part of the nursing program extremely rewarding.
“I came to AU undecided of my major, but I was considering Christian ministries, so I took classes like introduction to religion and intro to Christian ministries,” Kaufman said. “Around midterms I realized it wasn’t for me. I knew I wanted to help people with my career, so I was considering pre-med, psychology for counseling and nursing.
“After some soul searching, I decided on nursing. My grandfathers had cancer, and that probably had some influence on my decision as well. I would visit them and see their health deteriorate, and I wanted to help in some way but didn’t know how. Being a nurse, I know I can help other family members and many other people.”
For many nursing students, the moment they receive their acceptance email is one that will never be forgotten.
“I was on vacation last summer, and I woke up to an email from the nursing department saying that I had been accepted into the nursing program,” Kaufman said. “I felt like I made a great achievement, and I was super proud of myself and so were my family and friends.”
The nursing department works with other departments around campus by helping their students gain some real-world work experience as well as giving back to their community.
One of the newer programs the department is proud to introduce is the accelerated nursing program. The accelerated nursing program is a second degree major designed to help graduates who want to become nurses.
Graduates wanting to pursue the second-degree major will take 16 credit hours during the summer and will continue doing clinicals and classes with the current nursing students. The goal of the program is to allow more people to become lifesavers and increase diversity within the field.