Grant-powered nursing success at Edson College
Edson College students in the ASU at Lake Havasu accelerated BSN clinical nursing program listen to Instructor Dawn Bedwell during an immersion day at the Health Futures Center simulation lab.
At first glance, Ainsley Pape and Samantha Gaughan don’t seem to have much in common. Pape grew up in the East Valley, and Gaughan moved to Lake Havasu City before high school. Pape is Gen Z while Gaughan is a millennial mother of two and a Navy veteran.
Their backgrounds and life experiences couldn’t be more different, but their immediate futures look fairly similar thanks in part to an Arizona Department of Health Services $5.5 million grant.
The pair's paths first crossed when they entered the accelerated BSN clinical nursing program at the ASU at Lake Havasu campus last summer.
Gaughan was revisiting her old stomping grounds, having earned a biology degree from ASU at Lake Havasu years earlier. Pape was leaving her hometown for the first time and breaking new ground in her family as a first-generation university student.
“It’s exciting. I had a lot of support from my family and they've been kind of bragging to everybody who will listen, saying, ‘she's going to be a nurse!’” Pape said.
Family support was also in large supply for Gaughan as she juggled motherhood and work with her full-time class schedule.
Helping make things much easier for both students was the state-funded support they received. They were among the more than 100 Edson College students who received money through the AZDHS grant to cover nursing program-related costs.
“One of the things that I was really worried about was taking out loans. So when I started the accelerated program at the Lake Havasu campus, they told me about this grant opportunity, and the way it was explained, I was like, this is phenomenal,” Gaughan said.
“I found out about the funding through one of my advisors. It was really, really helpful in paying for books and scrubs and things like that. Not having to worry about costs allowed me to just focus on school and studying,” said Pape.
ASU committed to preparing an additional 104 graduates with the funding, but is on track to surpass that by at least a dozen by the end of 2024.
A primary goal of the grant funding is to help address the nursing shortage in Arizona. The National Center for Health Workforce Analysis estimated Arizona will have 28,100 fewer registered nurses than are needed in the state by 2025.
To that end, one of the conditions of accepting the money is that new graduates would stay in the state and work for at least four years once they get their nursing licenses.
That requirement was not an issue for Pape or Gaughan. They both happily agreed to those terms for a couple of reasons.
“I didn't feel any hesitancy because I knew I wanted to stay in Arizona. I’m excited that I get to be able to go into the field and help people in my community while also helping with the nursing shortage,” Pape said.
“I thought it was a wonderful program to get people to stay and work in the state,” Gaughan said, adding, “I wanted to make an impact and I wanted a good place for my kids to grow up.”
This August, the two celebrated earning their Bachelor of Science in nursing with the rest of their cohort at ASU at Lake Havasu. Seven of their classmates also received the state grant funding and committed to staying and practicing in Arizona.
Gaughan has already accepted a job at Havasu Regional Medical Center through their New Graduate Nurse Residency program. Pape, meanwhile, has returned home to the East Valley and is applying for jobs in Maricopa County.
So while they are once again in different places, they will always be linked through their nursing school experience in Lake Havasu City and the relief they felt in having it paid for.
“I had a wonderful experience my entire time here. The staff is absolutely incredible. I always had support around me. I feel like it really helped me to come out here,” said Pape.
“The grant was extremely beneficial because it not only covered tuition, but it also helped cover other expenses along the way, which was a huge weight off my shoulders,” Gaughan said, adding, “This a really good asset to have in our community, not just that it’s a BSN program, but an accelerated one. You have nurses in our community that can get their BSN and be able to stay in the community, making health care here in Lake Havasu just grow.”
To learn more about the grant click here.
To learn more about the ASU at Lake Havasu program click here.