Ashley Austria says she has experienced more growth and confidence in herself while studying in the Accelerated Bachelor of Science in Nursing Program in the College of Nursing.
Now, she graduates with peace of mind knowing her tuition has been covered and she will begin working at Baptist Memorial Health Care after graduating, through the Baptist Scholars Program, one of the work agreements in the College of Nursing.
Austria and 17 fellow Baptist Scholars in the accelerated BSN program are among the 56 College of Nursing students graduating in the summer commencement. The College of Graduate Health Sciences will graduate 41 students. The ceremony will be held on Monday, August 19, at 10 a.m. at the Cannon Center for the Performing Arts.
“The Baptist scholarship program is awesome,” Austria said. “It’s nice to have peace of mind that I already have a job after graduation. I also just finished my internship at Baptist. It was a great opportunity to get your foot in the door with the people there and how things run.”
Austria, from Memphis, studied chemistry at Rhodes College and was inspired to become a nurse after scribing at a cardiology clinic. “I learned more through that program about what holistic patient care looks like, and how nurses are involved in providing more direct patient engagement and hands-on patient care,” she said. “It seemed better aligned with what I wanted to do long-term.”
Austria says her clinical training in the accelerated BSN program is one of her favorite experiences and it elevated her confidence.
“The clinical experience is the best way for me to implement what I’m learning in the classroom. I’ve had great clinical groups, and especially, this internship was the most important for me,” she said. “I still have a lot to learn, but I feel more confident than I did. That’s the area I have grown in the most through this program; the confidence I have in myself to interact with people and stay calm under pressure.”
Another impactful experience for her was being a part of the rural health program through the College of Nursing’s Mobile Health Unit. The unit increases access to health care in rural areas and provides rural health education for nursing students in its undergraduate and graduate programs.
“You go to more rural areas, Lake and Lauderdale counties, which are distressed areas in Tennessee, and participate in public health events and volunteer on the Mobile Health Unit. It has been a really great experience because I’m from Memphis, I am not familiar with rural communities,” she said. “That was an eye-opening experience for me, to see how different things are; seeing the differences in resources that are available and the role that you can have in those areas.”
Austria will practice as a nurse at Baptist for one year. Students in the accelerated BSN program who are selected for a work agreement, commit to work for the hospital system for an agreed-upon time frame after graduation, and the hospital covers tuition and a portion of fees.
Austria noted the great impact of her classmates and professors in the college.
“It was a challenging experience, but it was nothing that I ever felt like I couldn’t do, because I had a really good peer group around me. My classmates were some of the most impactful people for me. Just to know you’re not alone going through it,” she said. “I also had really wonderful professors who are really great nurses, have a lot of knowledge to share, and were great to work with in the clinical environment.”
Chancellor Peter Buckley, MD will confer the degrees at commencement. The ceremony’s alumni speaker is Cindy Brasher, PharmD, manager of compounding at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and 2014 graduate of the UT Health Science Center College of Pharmacy. The student speaker will be Briar Bell, graduating PhD student in the College of Graduate Health Sciences.
The commencement ceremony will be streamed live on the UT Health Science Center commencement webpage.