Category: Blog

Originally published on Vital Record on Feb. 25, 2025.

Ali Moballegh, PharmD, BSN, RN, is a pharmacist and an Aggie nurse.

Currently enrolled in the Texas A&M University College of Nursing’s Master of Science in Nursing-Family Nurse Practitioner program, Moballegh is not changing his career—far from it. He currently works as a pharmacist for Baylor Scott & White’s outpatient pharmacy and hopes to enhance his practice with his nursing master’s degree.

“I felt that I was underutilizing my pharmacy degree as a pharmacist only,” Moballegh said. “I want to use my knowledge as a pharmacist to be able to diagnose and prescribe. I want to expand and utilize my pharmacy degree and knowledge to the maximum.”

After earning his Doctor of Pharmacy degree from the University of Houston in 2021, Moballegh returned to complete a Bachelor of Science in Nursing via its accelerated nursing program. He then moved to Georgetown, Texas, where he briefly worked as a medical-surgical nurse at Baylor Scott & White in Round Rock and discovered an interest in primary care. This inspired him to pursue the family nurse practitioner program at Texas A&M. Having only worked as a pharmacist up until that point, Moballegh also gained a newfound respect for the strenuous requirements of nurses.

“You have to be completely selfless and sacrifice a lot for your patients,” Moballegh said. “While pharmacy is very stressful sometimes, it’s easier to have a balance between your life and your work. As a pharmacist, you need to memorize a lot of things. But as a nurse, you need to develop a lot of hands-on skills. I greatly appreciate what nurses do. They are angels, and not everybody can do the job.”

Moballegh said that going through the MSN-Family Nurse Practitioner program—which is delivered online with some in-person clinical requirements—as a working pharmacist has been challenging. But it also comes with its advantages. While many nursing students find pharmacology to be one of the toughest courses, for Moballegh, it was simply the work does every day.

Moballegh is still considering how his nursing journey will develop, but he has a vision for what his career might look like after he graduates in spring 2026. He plans to continue working as a pharmacist in the Austin area and begin working as a family nurse practitioner. He could even see himself returning to school to get his Doctor of Nursing Practice degree.

A little further down the line, Moballegh hopes to use his nursing and pharmacy degrees under one roof in a practice of his own serving rural areas.

“I’d love to start a local clinic that makes health care easily accessible for people who are underserved,” Moballegh said. “I’d include pharmacy services and provide treatment for non-serious issues like a sore throat. If people don’t have access or insurance and they cannot afford a copay, they just ignore things, and it can cause complications. if they have something affordable and accessible, we can prevent these complications.”

Whatever is in the cards for Moballegh after graduation, he’s eager to expand his reach with MSN credentials in hand and believes becoming an Aggie nurse was the right choice.

“I have enjoyed being a Texas A&M student,” Moballegh said. “It’s been the perfect fit and has made it possible for me to continue working full time while getting my master’s. I’ve loved the curriculum and the faculty. I’ve experienced many universities, but I think I can say Texas A&M is the best I’ve had.”

Texas State 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.

This month, over 110 nursing and radiation therapy students at Texas State University participated in a Poverty Simulation—an immersive experience designed to deepen empathy, understanding, and compassion for individuals facing economic hardship. Through the support of our incredible community volunteers and faculty, students stepped into the shoes of those navigating the challenges of poverty.

This experience helps future healthcare professionals recognize the social determinants of health and reinforces the importance of delivering equitable, patient-centered care.

“This opened my eyes to what many families face every day. I will carry this perspective into every patient interaction,” said one student participant.

Texas State 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.

This article originally appeared in Fairfield University Magazine, the alumni magazine of Fairfield University.

Bryan Rivera ’25 was not born in Texas. But as the saying goes, he got here as fast as he could. It was a circuitous route, to be sure, as Rivera was born in Spain, raised in the Philippines, and schooled in Alaska. Today, he resides in Austin, Texas, and is a nursing major in Fairfield University’s Accelerated Second Degree Nursing (ASDNU) program.

More than halfway through his bachelor of science in nursing (BSN) degree studies in the Marion Peckham Egan School of Nursing and Health Studies, Rivera takes classes at Fairfield Egan’s state-of-the-art Austin, Texas campus. With graduation on the horizon, he looks forward to improving the lives of his fellow Texans.

“I enrolled in nursing school because I want to have an impact on my community,” said Rivera. “Fairfield’s nursing program, with its emphasis on compassionate care, will help me achieve that goal and become a competent and caring nurse who makes a difference.”

Fairfield Egan opened its Austin campus and launched its ASDNU program there in the summer of 2023. The 15-month program is designed for non-nursing baccalaureate degree holders who wish to pursue a second bachelor’s degree in nursing. The University led with that program because it provides the quickest means of sending BSN-prepared nurses into the workforce.

The ASDNU program was perfect for Rivera, who holds a bachelor of business administration degree in marketing and worked as an advocate for higher education for nearly a decade. After completing a few additional science prerequisites, he entered the program as a junior.

“The program is a great opportunity for people like me who are interested in nursing but pursued a different path with their initial degree,” he said. “It also fills an important gap in nursing education in the area.”

Austin is one of the fastest-growing cities in one of the fastest-growing states in the nation. Its unprecedented growth has transformed the once laid-back college town into a major metropolis. As with any city, population growth can strain resources. Such has been the case in Austin and the state of Texas, where the impact of domestic migration on the healthcare system has become especially obvious in recent years.

The demand for nurses in Texas is driven largely by the same factors as in other areas — aging populations, educational bottlenecks, occupational burnout, and workforce retirement — but is further amplified by regional growth. The year-over-year increase in new residents has caused and continues to cause a Texas-sized shortage of nurses. In fact, the Texas Center for Nursing Workforce Studies projects a statewide deficit of more than 56,000 registered nurses by 2036.

For Connecticut-based Fairfield, the nursing shortage in Texas provided the impetus for an Austin campus. There was an urgent need for qualified nurses in the state, and the Egan School is nationally recognized for its expertise in nursing education. Geographical expansion into the Southwest offered an extraordinary opportunity for the mission-driven Jesuit university to reach a wider audience and to impact the health of a community and its residents.

Christopher Mangram ’25, a classmate of Rivera’s, is a native of Houston who traveled the world as a Navy corpsman. His experiences in the military compelled him to pursue a career in nursing. He discovered Fairfield Egan’s ASDNU program upon his return to Texas and immediately enrolled.

“I realized my calling during a Navy deployment to Southeast Asia, where I was sent for humanitarian purposes,” Mangram said. “I mostly conducted health screenings but also delivered a baby in Timor-Leste and taught neonatal resuscitation to midwives in Malaysia.”

Neither Mangram nor Rivera are typical nursing students. Both are male and have considerable life experience — two points that are not unrelated in nursing school. Greater life experience often means increased exposure to medical situations and awareness of the value of care providers. It can also make people less susceptible to stereotypical thinking about nurses and nursing.

It is therefore not surprising that Mangram, Rivera, and their fellow male nursing students represent 19 percent of their Austin cohort. That impressive figure well exceeds the national average of 12.8 percent for men in undergraduate nursing programs.

Because the ASDNU program is designed for non-traditional students, it tends to attract more diverse populations than traditional BSN programs. As such, it was the right program with which to launch the new Austin campus and to extend the University’s reach and impact.

Fairfield University was not founded in Texas, but it got here as fast as it could.

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.

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.

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 Concordia University. Here is a summary of Concordia’s recent activities with their nursing program… Senior level nursing students participated in a disaster simulation recently on Concordia’s main campus. The nursing program partnership with United Way is continuing with the nursing students completing hearing and vision screening for 214 preschool children so far this year. Nursing students participated in a medical mission trip to Alaska this summer. On the mission trip, the nursing students participated in:

• Assisting with mulching a community garden that serves as a program for refugees in the Anchorage area as a way to grow produce and sell at local farmer’s markets for income.
• Conducting a foot care clinic at a long-term homeless shelter for elderly and medically fragile individuals where we washed feet, did basic wound care, and checked vital signs.
• Worked in a food bank to pack shelf-stable food boxes for underserved families in the community. Students also went out and assisted with a drive-thru food pantry.
• Cooked dinner for residents at an at-risk youth homeless shelter and then provided education to the group on basic hygiene to maintain health.

Concordia 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 Central Texas Healthcare Partnership is leading workforce development in the Central Texas healthcare industry.

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 South University, Austin. Here is a summary of South University’s recent activities with their nursing program…

South 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 Central Texas Healthcare Partnership is leading workforce development in the Central Texas healthcare industry.

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 St. David’s HealthCare. Brady Snowden is a newly licensed Registered Nurse at St. David’s who recently graduated from the Advanced Student Experience program with Austin Community College. Here is Brady’s story:

You don’t have to know how it will all play out; you just have to trust your heart which never commands any doubt.

I chose to become a nurse because my family, friends, and health mean more to me than any riches or material success. When I made this decision, the odds were against me, and time was slipping away. Yet, I felt a significant fire burning in my heart. This fire illuminated a deep sense of happiness and certainty, instilling in me an unshakeable belief that by going to school, becoming a student, and committing myself to this goal through the desire to be of service, everything would fall into place.

Nursing school wasn’t easy, as anyone who has been through it or known someone who has will tell you. But what was easy was getting up every day, attending class, and then opening the books to learn and understand.

The obstacles I faced felt like pictures in an art gallery, passing by me. The only time I faltered was due to my own anxiety, but these setbacks were few, and my journey always moved forward.

Early in nursing school, I met someone who would become my best friend. He was a nurse extern at St. David’s HealthCare. I was immediately fascinated by the prospect of working in healthcare while still in school. Following his example, I became a nurse extern and experienced the gift of working in the medical field while learning how to become a nurse. This role exposed me to a variety of practices and specialties, helping me discover the direction I wanted to take when choosing my specialty.

As I approached my final semester, I learned about the Advanced Student Experience (ASE) program offered by St. David’s HealthCare. ASE allowed me to interview, get hired, and complete my last semester’s clinical hours on the job. I was ecstatic.

After writing an essay and interviewing with the team, I was offered the opportunity to work alongside one of the most driven and supportive teams I have ever known. I can’t imagine what my career would look like without this opportunity. The clinical experience provided by my school, or any school, couldn’t compare to the quality and autonomy I gained as a fully integrated team member, thanks to ASE. The skills I practiced, the support and direction I received from the team, were unparalleled compared to my previous experiences in nursing school.
Without nursing school, my commitment, and my burning desire, none of this would have been possible. However, without the Advanced Student Experience, I wouldn’t carry the excitement, enthusiasm, and confidence I now possess from my ability.

As I approach the end of St. David’s HealthCare Transition to Practice/New Grad Orientation, as an officially licensed RN, I can honestly say that today I feel what it is like to stand on my own feet. If it were not for the Advanced Student Experience, even with my desire and dedication, I cannot imagine feeling as confident and ready to begin the rest of my career as today I am being a new RN.

St. David’s HealthCare 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.

Healthcare is a growing industry in Central Texas and many young people here are interested in a healthcare career. They may not know exactly what they want to do, however. So, to help inspire the next generation of skilled healthcare workers, we joined the Central Texas Healthcare Partnership to host the annual Nursing Academy on Sept. 27 at Galen College of Nursing in Austin! Driving the news: Students from 18 different high schools from Austin, Del Valle, Dripping Springs, Elgin, Georgetown, Hays, Leander, Lockhart, Pflugerville and Round Rock ISDs, as well as local charter schools and American YouthWorks, attended this daylong event. What happened: The students explored nursing career paths and received hands-on opportunities in simulation labs to experience wound care, injections and IV lines.

• Galen nursing students spoke with the high schoolers to provide their perspectives on what a future in nursing can look like.

Zoom out: The Central Texas Healthcare 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. The Partnership’s mission is to sustain and grow the Central Texas healthcare industry while expanding pathways to good jobs for local residents. WFS Capital Area provides staff support to assist with the coordination of the partnership.

WFS Capital Area participates in multiple industry sector partnerships. These are a proven and employer-led workforce development strategy. With employers leading the conversation, companies across the U.S. have seen positive impacts on company growth and retention. Industry-specific executives within the Austin labor market work together to influence alignment around common solutions with awareness, training, hiring, and upskilling. Learn more about our industry sector partnerships.