MORGANTOWN — It’s no secret there’s a shortage of nurses in West Virginia and across the nation.
Thankfully, the 2022 graduates of West Virginia University’s School of Nursing are ready to enter the workforce and lead.
“They’re WVU nursing grads. So they’re going to be ready, they’re going to be expected to lead fast. They’re going to be leaders,” said Dean Tara Hulsey. “They’re going to be the people who are your charge nurses or your administrators or even if they stay bedside, which we need them to, still they’re going to be the leaders.”
Years of hard work resulted in 135 students earning their Bachelor of Science in Nursing; 36 students earned their Master of Science in Nursing; four were recognized for earning a post-master’s certificate; one earned the doctor of nursing practice degree; and one completed their Ph.D. in nursing.
Sydney Hall was one of those who walked across the stage and received her BSN.
The New Cumberland native said she accepted a job at J.W. Ruby Memorial Hospital in the cardiac step-down unit.
The emergence of COVID-19 during her education to be a nurse didn’t deter Hall.
“If anything I just wanted, I wanted to be more involved in nursing. As soon as COVID hit I got a job at Ruby Hospital as a nursing assistant,” Hall said. “So I guess I just wanted to help in any way that I could.”
Gillian Thomas, of Parkersburg, also received her BSN on Saturday. She is also staying in Morgantown and will work in Ruby’s operating room.
“I mean, it kind of scared me a little bit. Not gonna lie,” Thomas said of COVID. “But it also made me feel like I was making more of a difference. So it was exciting at the same time.”
The majority of graduates stay in the state, which is something the school takes pride in, Hulsey said.
“It’s not really surprising to me that a lot of our grads want to go to Ruby just because they’re familiar with it, if they’re going to stay in Morgantown, that’s the top hospital in the state,” Hulsey said.
Ruby is also the only magnet hospital — a designation of the top hospitals in the country — in West Virginia, she said.
“So it’s really, really a good thing for a new grad to be going right into a magnet hospital,” Hulsey said. “And we have the need.”
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