From Beaufort County Community College

Forty-five students graduated from Beaufort County Community College’s associate degree in nursing program May 13. The families and supporters of the graduates packed First Church of Christ.

The graduates finished a five-semester program, including clinical experience in nursing homes, hospitals and other healthcare agencies. They are trained in general nursing, long-term care, home health, medical surgical nursing and intermediate and intensive care.

Kent Dickerson, director of the nursing program, asked for all the people in the audience who helped with paying bills, babysitting and emotional support to stand, and that included much of the crowd.

In his speech, Dickerson said, “Sure, you heard stories of the rigor and how nursing school consumes your life, but let’s be honest, you simply thought, ‘That ain’t gonna happen to me.’”

The reality of the difficulty of the nursing program sets in for students as they learn about bowels sounds, lung sounds and abnormal breathing patterns, pulses and heart rhythms, all in the first day.

Later in their classroom experience, the students are exposed to sim lab, where they interact with robot “patients” that breathe, have pulses, bleed, cry and can even die in scenarios that model real situations. Nurses must learn to interact as a team.

“We then proceeded to give you a real life patient scenario where all three of you had to perform those skills on one ‘patient,’” Dickerson continues. “If you remember, many of you were perplexed because it was the first time you had to critically think on the spot.

How am I supposed to work around these other nurses?”

He went on to enumerate some the follies of the students in sim labs. “Your class had effectively sat 18 people with hip fractures up in bed while they were screaming.”

The students met the adversity of the program head on and learned how to be the best advocates for their patients. “The biggest lesson is there is always someone going through more adversity than you,” Dickerson said.

Three students made all “A” averages throughout the program, an extremely rare occurrence. Sheena Bunch, Valerie Everett and Krista Silverthorne were recognized.

The nurses were pinned by instructor Molly Wells and instructor Melissa Peoples led the graduates in the Nurse’s Pledge.

Students graduating from the program must pass the nursing board exam before being employed. Two of the graduates were dual enrolled in the “Regionally Increasing Bachelor’s in Nursing” program to receive their bachelor’s degree in nursing one year after receiving their ADN. The RIBN program seeks to increase the number of nurses with four-year degrees across the state.

For more information about the nursing program, contact Kent Dickerson at 252-940-6205 or kent.dickerson@beaufortccc.edu.