The Frontier community is proud to have students and alumni serving on the frontlines of the COVID-19 pandemic. We are committed to sharing their stories in order to provide insight, hope, and encouragement. Thank you to all the health care workers who are risking their own well-being daily to serve our nation. Click here to read more stories of courage and dedication.
There’s no doubt that the COVID-19 pandemic has changed life as we know it, but for many Frontier Nursing University (FNU) graduates and faculty, their call to serve has remained the same. This especially rings true for Greta Cohn Gill MSN, CNEP Class 25.
Gill is a nurse-midwife and service director at El Rio Health, the largest and oldest midwifery service in Southern Arizona. She has had the privilege of caring for a wide range of patients – from Air force pilots, engineers, and professors to refugees, unaccompanied minors, people suffering from substance use disorder, and homelessness. Her midwifery team places a high priority on education, honoring patient preferences and role modeling health to influence long term outcomes for families.
Baseline community health needs have remained constant during the pandemic. Responding to the crisis and meeting baseline needs has required flexibility and creativity in the delivery of services.
“We were part of a relatively well-coordinated public health response initially,” said Gill. “Unfortunately, location mitigation orders were lifted without safeguards in place. Now we are experiencing a surge and remain in the first wave of the pandemic.”
As this first wave continues, Gill’s diligence has as well. Her clinical team, consisting of seven FNU alumni, two FNU faculty, and three FNU students, was able to leverage existing innovations and rapidly adapt.
“We have nurse-midwives on our team with health vulnerabilities. We needed to deploy our resources in a conservative and thoughtful manner. We have altered our on-call staffing to meet the needs of our mothers while lowering unnecessary exposure for the workforce. Our Centering program continues on Zoom. All of our nurse-midwives are able to meet with a client virtually. We were already offering early discharge in our alongside midwifery unit and we are pleased that more families are choosing this. And of course, there is an endless effort towards COVID testing and supporting those who are sick.”
She would never wish for a pandemic, but she is choosing to look at the bright side of how it’s transformed care.
The pandemic has required our team to examine institutionalized patterns, habits, and workflows. We laser-focused on the truly necessary components of maternity care. The pandemic has been a challenge but also an opportunity to remodel maternity care. We have become more honest about what mothers really need to have good outcomes.”, she said.
In 2020, El Rio Health celebrates its 50th birthday. The health center’s mission to care for the vulnerable in Tucson has never been more urgent. Currently, 25% of the clients at the health center test positive for the virus. In response, Gill and her team have rapidly adjusted to the changes in clinical practice.
“Nurse midwives are calm under pressure. I would bet our resilience is higher than in other professions. We find joy in being with families and this brings balance the constant clinical pressures that came with COVID 19,” Gill said.
Adaptations have made their way into the lives and rituals of the midwives. They even threw a drive-by baby shower to celebrate a CNM colleague who recently gave birth in their CABC accredited Alongside Midwifery Unit.
The crisis has also brought hope to the El Rio Midwives. They plan to leverage the great changes that happened as a result of COVID-19 and transform maternity care delivery.
“Generally innovative change is slow and incremental. COVID 19 has proven that we can and must do better without delay,” Gill said.
Beyond changes to maternity care delivery, Gill is also an advocate for growing the midwifery workforce locally. She has a vision of mentoring young people of color through nursing and midwifery education so that the midwifery workforce better reflects the community at large.
Thank you, Greta, for serving and being an advocate for your community of Tucson, Ariz. Most importantly, thank you for answering the call amidst this global pandemic.
Justin C. Daily, BSN, RN, has ten years of experience in nursing. At the start of his nursing career, Justin worked as a floor nurse on the oncology floor at St. Francis. He then spent two years as the Director of Nursing in a small rural Kansas hospital before returning to St. Francis and the oncology unit. He has been in his current position as the Chemo Nurse Educator for the past four years. He earned an Associate in Nurse from Hutchinson Community College and a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Bethel College.
Brandy Jackson serves as the Director of Undergraduate Nursing Programs and Assistant Educator at Wichita State University and Co-Director of Access in Nursing. Brandy is a seasoned educator with over 15 years of experience. Before entering academia, Brandy served in Hospital-based leadership and Critical Care Staff nurse roles. Brandy is passionate about equity in nursing education with a focus on individuals with disabilities. Her current research interests include accommodations of nursing students with disabilities in clinical learning environments and breaking down barriers for historically unrepresented individuals to enter the nursing profession. Brandy is also actively engaged in Interprofessional Education development, creating IPE opportunities for faculty and students at Wichita State. Brandy is an active member of Wichita Women for Good and Soroptimist, with the goal to empower women and girls. Brandy is a TeamSTEPPS master trainer. She received the DASIY Award for Extraordinary Nursing Faculty in 2019 at Wichita State University. 
Dr. Sabrina Ali Jamal-Eddine is an Arab-disabled queer woman of color with a PhD in Nursing and an interdisciplinary certificate in Disability Ethics from the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC). Dr. Jamal-Eddine’s doctoral research explored spoken word poetry as a form of critical narrative pedagogy to educate nursing students about disability, ableism, and disability justice. Dr. Jamal-Eddine now serves as a Postdoctoral Research Associate in UIC’s Department of Disability and Human Development and serves on the Board of Directors of the National Organization of Nurses with Disabilities (NOND). During her doctoral program, Sabrina served as a Summer Fellow at a residential National Endowment of the Humanities (NEH) Summer Institute at Arizona State University (2023), a summer fellow at Andrew W. Mellon’s National Humanities Without Walls program at University of Michigan (2022), a Summer Research Fellow at UC Berkeley’s Othering & Belonging Institute (2021), and an Illinois Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental and related Disabilities (LEND) trainee (2019-2020).
Vanessa Cameron works for Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nursing Education & Professional Development. She is also attending George Washington University and progressing towards a PhD in Nursing with an emphasis on ableism in nursing. After becoming disabled in April 2021, Vanessa’s worldview and perspective changed, and a recognition of the ableism present within healthcare and within the culture of nursing was apparent. She has been working since that time to provide educational foundations for nurses about disability and ableism, provide support for fellow disabled nursing colleagues, and advocate for the disabled community within healthcare settings to reduce disparities.
Dr. Lucinda Canty is a certified nurse-midwife, Associate Professor of Nursing, and Director of the Seedworks Health Equity in Nursing Program at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She earned a bachelor’s degree in nursing from Columbia University, a master’s degree from Yale University, specializing in nurse-midwifery, and a PhD from the University of Connecticut. Dr. Canty has provided reproductive health care for over 29 years. Her research interests include the prevention of maternal mortality and severe maternal morbidity, reducing racial and ethnic health disparities in reproductive health, promoting diversity in nursing, and eliminating racism in nursing and midwifery.
Dr. Lisa Meeks is a distinguished scholar and leader whose unwavering commitment to inclusivity and excellence has significantly influenced the landscape of health professions education and accessibility. She is the founder and executive director of the DocsWithDisabilities Initiative and holds appointments as an Associate Professor in the Departments of Learning Health Sciences and Family Medicine at the University of Michigan.
Dr. Nikia Grayson, DNP, MSN, MPH, MA, CNM, FNP-C, FACNM (she/her) is a trailblazing force in reproductive justice, blending her expertise as a public health activist, anthropologist, and family nurse-midwife to champion the rights and health of underserved communities. Graduating with distinction from Howard University, Nikia holds a bachelor’s degree in communications and a master’s degree in public health. Her academic journey also led her to the University of Memphis, where she earned a master’s in medical anthropology, and the University of Tennessee, where she achieved both a master’s in nursing and a doctorate in nursing practice. Complementing her extensive education, she completed a post-master’s certificate in midwifery at Frontier Nursing University.
Dr. Tia Brown McNair is the Vice President in the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Student Success and Executive Director for the Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation (TRHT) Campus Centers at the American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) in Washington, DC. She oversees both funded projects and AAC&U’s continuing programs on equity, inclusive excellence, high-impact practices, and student success. McNair directs AAC&U’s Summer Institutes on High-Impact Practices and Student Success, and TRHT Campus Centers and serves as the project director for several AAC&U initiatives, including the development of a TRHT-focused campus climate toolkit. She is the lead author of From Equity Talk to Equity Walk: Expanding Practitioner Knowledge for Racial Justice in Higher Education (January 2020) and Becoming a Student-Ready College: A New Culture of Leadership for Student Success (July 2016 and August 2022 Second edition).
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