Through the receipt of additional state funding, Georgia College’s School of Nursing (SON) has added a third cohort to their Bachelors of Science in Nursing (BSN) degree. There are only 1,329 nurses per 100,000 residents in Georgia, according to the Georgia Board of Health Care Workforce (GBHCW) Nursing Workforce Data dashboard.  “It is estimated that an additional 175,900 registered nurses (RNs) will exit the workforce each year for personal reasons or through retirement, and the...

In July, Georgia College’s School of Nursing will complete a $803,000 grant awarded in October 2018 to train nurses in forensic medical exams and trauma-informed care. The nurses who complete this training receive a certificate to practice as a Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner (SANE)—registered nurses that are specially trained in caring for survivors of sexual assault or abuse. They fulfill an important role in Georgia, where there aren’t enough SANEs for the number of survivors in the...

Katey Jones, ’18, and Heather Laflam will be the first to graduate from Georgia College’s nurse-midwifery master’s program, the only state program in Georgia.  Still in its infancy, the midwifery program is first of its kind in Georgia. The university is using the degree to educate more nurse-midwives in Georgia, a state ranked 49th in maternal mortality nationally. The program is unique, because its training nurse-midwives are required to complete clinicals within the state. “Two...

Graduating nursing major Samantha Summerville has lived with Type 1 diabetes for the last 15 years of her life. By the time she was ready to go to college, she’d grown so accustomed to all the electronic alarms warning her about blood sugar fluctuations that they didn’t wake her up anymore. A family friend recommended a medical alert dog, and that was how Summerville met Mo, a goldendoodle trained to notice her medical needs before the technology does. He’s also trained in basic obedience,...

For many, college is about change. Students grow in more ways than one. Class of 2022 graduate Rosemary Macuch epitomizes that. She came to Georgia College with no clear plan or career path. Yet taking one course completely changed her trajectory. “What influenced me most was my anatomy class with Dr. Kwan Christenson,” Macuch said. “All of my friends told me not to take that class because it's really, hard, but I just loved it.” Until then Macuch says she’d never studied anything...

Darby Pinkard is lucky to start her nursing career in the field she hoped to specialize in—hematology/oncology pediatrics with Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta (CHOA) at Scottish Rite. She begins her new position in early January.  Pinkard not only studied nursing at Georgia College, she played outfield in softball, as well. Participating in sports taught her time management, when she juggled that and maintaining good grades through the nursing program. Although this wasn’t an easy...