Workforce Solutions Capital Area partners with many local healthcare employers to train and hire the workforce for this key local industry. One of our partners is Fairfield University.
Fairfield University’s nationally ranked nursing school expanded into Austin in 2023 with its accelerated second degree nursing program. Gabby Kearney is among the first graduates of the 15-month program at the state-of-the-art campus on Shoal Creek Boulevard.
Gabby is currently an RN Resident in the Intermediate Care Unit at Dell Children’s Medical Center. She was offered the position after completing Ascension’s Student Nurse Intern Program there in her final semester at Fairfield.
She is delighted to share her experiences below.
How did your intern experience prepare you for your current position?
The Student Nurse Intern Program was an invaluable experience! I am so much farther ahead than other members of my cohort who didn’t have the same opportunity, and it has given me so much more confidence as a newly graduated nurse.
I have been able to take over full patient loads in my first 6 weeks of my orientation with minimal intervention from my preceptors because I have already had five months of experience on the unit and with my coworkers. The extra time on the unit has allowed me to build relationships with my coworkers and demonstrate my competencies that I have learned in nursing school and while on the unit during the SNI experience.
Building these relationships has allowed my coworkers to have more trust in me taking over care for their patients. By having a head start, I have been scheduled for more shifts in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit and received exposure to higher acuity patients coming to our floor once they have stabilized. I would not have felt comfortable being in the PICU if I didn’t have the extra experience from SNI.
What aspects of your Fairfield education were most valuable?
I appreciate the diligence of my professors at Fairfield. They prepared me to be successful by regularly testing my critical thinking skills, which are the hardest skills to become proficient in as a new nurse. They also taught me how comorbidities of real life patients intertwine and complicate the basic pathophysiology taught in the textbook cases.
Most importantly, my professors taught me to always ask questions when something is not clear or doesn’t make sense, to advocate for my patients, and to never stop learning new information.
Fairfield University is a member of the Central Texas Healthcare Partnership. The partnership was founded in early 2018 under the leadership of three Central Texas healthcare industry leaders: Baylor Scott & White Health, Ascension Seton, and St. David’s HealthCare. Learn more about how the CTHP is leading workforce development in the Central Texas healthcare industry.