Searching for a preceptor, Frontier Nursing University (FNU) 2017 graduate Roxanne LaPointe didn’t expect to find a mentor and friend through just a sweatshirt, yet that’s exactly what happened.
During her first days as an FNU student, Roxanne purchased a university sweatshirt, thinking of nothing more than supporting the school at which she’d recently enrolled. A few months later in Myrtle Beach, S.C., Roxanne took her daughter to a day surgery center to have tubes put in, wearing her sweatshirt. There, she met a woman who not only worked at the center, but who was also an FNU alumna and ended up connecting her to the local chapter of nurse practitioners.
A loyal member to the chapter, Roxanne attended meetings and paid dues, meeting fellow nurse practitioners in her area. When it came time to find a preceptor, she noticed a fellow member with a street address that matched her own. One of her neighbors was a member of the same chapter!
Roxanne consulted her husband, asking whether she should introduce herself. They decided to make the connection; Roxanne made banana bread and bravely knocked on her neighbor’s door, asking Beverly Wilson to become her preceptor.
Despite being nervous she would be turned away, Roxanne instead found that Beverly had also graduated from FNU. After working through details, Beverly became Roxanne’s preceptor and eventually one of her greatest mentors and influencers.
“I learned so much,” said Roxanne. “Beverly was kind, patient and so encouraging. She is absolutely amazing with a wealth of knowledge.”
According to Roxanne, even though FNU is an online program, it maintains a strong community dispersed all over the country.
“Frontier has a community,” she said. “You may have to dig a little to find it, but once you do, you fall in and you’re embraced wholly. I’ve never had that with any other school.”
What began with a simple sweatshirt ended in a great friendship and a rewarding preceptor-student relationship. Although FNU students, faculty, alumni and friends are spread throughout the globe, Roxanne and Beverly remind us that it truly is a tight-knit community – one that wouldn’t be the same without our extraordinary preceptors.
We’d like to take this opportunity to say thank you to all of our past and present preceptors who play an integral role in molding and inspiring tomorrow’s nurse practitioners and nurse-midwives.
Are you a health care professional with a desire to give back to students as they begin their journey? FNU is always looking for new preceptors to be teachers and role models to our students. Please visit our preceptors page for more information.
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).