Bridge Traditions
With roots tracing back to the early 1900s, Frontier Nursing University (FNU) is a school rich in history. The “FNU Traditions” blog series will give the friends and family of FNU a greater understanding of our many traditions, several of which date back to the days of our founder, Mary Breckinridge.
Our last two blogs in this series have explored 
our faculty-led and student-led traditions on campus and around Wendover dinners during Bound sessions. But did you know that our Bridge students participate in their own set of traditions?
The FNU Bridge Entry Option is created for the registered nurse who has the desire to become a certified nurse-midwife or family nurse practitioner and has an associate’s degree as the highest degree earned. The Bridge Entry Option coursework is completed in one year in an intensive, accelerated format that bridges the gap from the associate’s degree content to meet the requirements of The Essentials of Baccalaureate Education for Professional Nursing Practice. Upon completion of the Bridge year, the student is prepared for the rigors of the graduate program. For more information about the Bridge Entry Option, please visit our webpage.
Students complete the Bridge coursework as a cohort. As a result, many traditions have become part of the Bridge year. Here are just a few traditions specific to our Bridge students:
Structured Mentoring Program: The most unique feature of the Bridge program is its structured mentoring program. When students come to Bridge Bound, the initial welcome into the FNU community prior to classes beginning, they are matched with a mentor. Mentors are Bridge students on campus for Crossing the Bridge, the final intensive, on-campus session before students move on to their clinical speciality coursework in the graduate program.
As Crossing students are completing their Bridge year, they are able to begin walking with Bridge Bound students as they take their first steps into the Bridge journey. Some mentoring groups bring goody bags for their mentees, with small items symbolizing aspects of their journey that provide encouragement, humor, and even tears. Mentors remain connected with their mentees after Bridge Bound in a variety of ways, whether by phone, email, or Facebook groups. Whenever Bridge students have questions or need advice, they know they have someone to lean on who has been through the process.
Class Mascot: Over the years, the mentoring program has evolved into a very personal and vital part of the Bridge experience. Another tradition that is important to Bridge students is the class mascot. The mascots are chosen because of the symbolism they represent for the students. For example, one group chose an elephant as their mascot to symbolize the old proverb when things begin to feel overwhelming: “How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.”
A number of Bridge classes use their mascot to create a Facebook group that allows students to stay connected to their mentors. The mascot helps create a team bond as the students go through their courses, remembering they have others to lean on. This structure has encouraged many students to stay connected, often long after their time at FNU is over.
Crossing the Bridge: When students return to campus for Crossing the Bridge, they can expect to take part in a long-time tradition involving the old swinging bridge at Wendover. Years ago, students would actually cross the bridge as a symbol of their next step into their clinical specialty coursework. For safety reasons, students now line up in front of the bridge for a photo, followed by circle-up time and a final reflection. During the circle-up, students are reminded of the symbolism of the bridge and the history of the bridges that were once used for Frontier Nursing Service nurse-midwives to reach women in the mountains and hollers.
Stay tuned for a blog featuring our student’s take on FNU traditions!
Related Content:
FNU Traditions: Building a Community, Part 1
Carrie Belin is an experienced board-certified Family Nurse Practitioner and a graduate of the Johns Hopkins DNP program, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Georgetown University School of Nursing, and Johns Hopkins School of Nursing. She has also completed fellowships at Georgetown and the University of California Irvine.
Angie has been a full-scope midwife since 2009. She has experience in various birth settings including home, hospital, and birth centers. She is committed to integrating the midwifery model of care in the US. She completed her master’s degree in nurse-midwifery at Frontier Nursing University (FNU) and her Doctorate at Johns Hopkins University. She currently serves as the midwifery clinical faculty at FNU. Angie is motivated by the desire to improve the quality of healthcare and has led quality improvement projects on skin-to-skin implementation, labor induction, and improving transfer of care practices between hospital and community midwives. In 2017, she created a short film on skin-to-skin called 
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).