COVID-19 | Frontier Nursing University

Frontier Nursing University Named Gold “COVID Stops Here” Workplace

October 18, 2021 By Frontier Nursing University

Frontier Nursing University (FNU) in Versailles, Kentucky, has been recognized as a Gold COVID Stops Here workplace for achieving over a 90% vaccination rate.

The COVID Stops Here campaign recognizes Kentucky workplaces that have achieved widespread vaccination against COVID-19. Organizations that have achieved at least a 70% vaccination rate are eligible to receive a designation.

“I am very pleased to report that currently 92% of our 88 Kentucky-based employees have been vaccinated against COVID,” FNU President Dr. Susan Stone said. “We are very proud of the leadership that our faculty, staff, students, and alumni have displayed in their communities all across the country during the pandemic. Locally, we were honored to partner with the Woodford County Health Department and serve as a vaccination site last spring. We hope that our example inspires others in the community to get vaccinated as well.”

The Kentucky Chamber of Commerce developed the COVID Stops Here campaign as a way to celebrate workplaces that are leading the fight to stop COVID-19 — and to encourage more organizations to join their ranks.

“The COVID-19 vaccine is Kentucky’s pathway to recovery. Frontier Nursing University is helping set the bar for vaccination in Kentucky by achieving Gold COVID Stops Here status — meaning at least 90% of their employees are now vaccinated against COVID-19. This is a great achievement and we thank them for helping our state stop this dangerous virus,” said Kentucky Chamber President and CEO Ashli Watts. “Employers are playing a very important role as we work to encourage vaccination in Kentucky. In order to finally put this virus behind us, we need Kentuckians to get vaccinated as soon as possible. Together we can stop this virus, let’s make sure that COVID stops here!”

Learn more at kychamber.com/CovidStopsHere

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About Frontier Nursing University:

The mission of FNU is to provide accessible nurse-midwifery and nurse practitioner education to prepare competent, entrepreneurial, ethical, and compassionate leaders in primary care to serve all individuals with an emphasis on women and families in diverse, rural, and underserved populations. FNU offers graduate Nurse-Midwifery and Nurse-Practitioner distance education programs that can be pursued full- or part-time with the student’s home community serving as the classroom. Degrees and options offered include Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP), Master of Science in Nursing (MSN), or Post-Graduate Certificates. In 2021, Frontier was named a “Great College to Work For” by the Great Colleges to Work For® program. To learn more about FNU and the programs and degrees offered, please visit Frontier.edu.

FNU Mentoring Programs Seek to Improve Retention and Encourage Lifelong Learning – PART 2

October 4, 2021 By Frontier Nursing University

The Benefits of Being a Mentor

“Being a mentor allows me to experience the brilliance and determination of our students in new ways,” said course faculty Lauren Arrington, DNP, CNM, “My mentee and I have discovered new approaches to navigate the challenging balance of work, life, and school. My mentee has already made valuable contributions to the field of nursing and community health, and I find myself inspired and motivated to ensure her success. She embodies the innovation and love for humanity that our healthcare system needs. It's an honor to be a mentor.”

“I am fortunate to be involved in the FNU mentoring program and to be partnered with mentees who come with varied knowledge, skill, and experience,” said Dr. Diane John, FNU Course Faculty (2021) and Mentor. “Mentoring extends far beyond the traditional one-way model where the mentor predominantly serves as a role model, with the sole purpose to serve as the expert. It is my goal to meet mentees where they are, to listen, to collaborate, to guide, and to learn. This has certainly been the case with the FNU mentoring program that allows the mentor and the mentee to engage in an experience designed to meet individual goals and objectives.”

The Benefits of Being Mentored

“I started the Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner (PMHNP) Program in Summer 2020,” said Dorcas Adeniyi, BSN, RN, PMHNP Class 196. “The day that I started the Frontier Bound orientation, I was full of excitement with a promising future ahead. All of the professors that did orientation for us on those three wonderful days were excellent, but there was a fear of survival. My heart was full of fear of the unknown, and how I will survive the program and be able to achieve my goals. To my surprise, I got an email from the University inviting me to join the mentoring programs. Having a mentor has given me assurance, served as a resource, exposed me to what I need to know about the program, and showed me the way to the future. Since I have been assigned to Dr. John, I have never regretted having a mentor. Dr. John has met with me several times to see how I am doing and to check if I have any difficulty with my courses. Dr. John has introduced me to the National Rural Health Association (NRHA) because I love serving the underserved such as the people who lack access to care and insurance and live in rural and remote areas. I was fortunate to attend the NRHA webinar and learn how to serve these people and how to establish my own private clinic in the future because these are my future goals.

As a PMHNP student, I have been taught that PMHNPs are role models, educators, and leaders in the curriculum. Therefore, I have been exposed to preparing a poster for teaching and educating purposes by Dr. John. Dr. John and I are looking forward to presenting our poster titled “Traumatic Stress Prevention” in 2022. I am thankful for the privilege to have a mentor at Frontier Nursing University. I did not take the mentoring program for granted.”

"For years, I've advocated for mentoring programs wherever I go and have mentored others, but I've never had my own mentor," Kimether Redmon said. "It’s very exciting!"

Be sure check out Part 1 of this blog which highlights the details of the mentoring programs!

Benefits of being a Mentee

Gain practical advice, encouragement, and support
Learn from the experiences of others
Increase your social and academic confidence
Become more empowered to make decisions
Develop your communication, study, and personal skills
Develop strategies for dealing with both personal and academic issues
Identify goals and establish a sense of direction
Gain valuable insight into the next stage of your university career

Benefits of being a Mentor

Improve communication and personal skills
Develop leadership and management qualities
Reinforce your own study skills and knowledge of your subject(s)
Increase your confidence and motivation
Engage in a volunteering opportunity, valued by employers
Enhance your CV
Increase your circle of friends
Gain recognition for your skills and experience
Benefit from a sense of fulfillment and personal growth

FNU Mentoring Programs Seek to Improve Retention and Encourage Lifelong Learning – PART 1

September 30, 2021 By Frontier Nursing University

The community at Frontier Nursing University (FNU) understands and appreciates the positive role mentorship plays in preparing competent, entrepreneurial, ethical and compassionate leaders in primary care. The University has launched two programs to support underrepresented students, including FNU’s Professional Organization Mentoring Program (POMP) and the Comprehensive Mentoring Program. This blog highlights the details of the programs, and part two will share the experiences of both mentors and mentees.

In an effort to create even stronger interaction and connection between students and faculty, FNU’s Professional Organization Mentoring Program (POMP) was created in 2018. POMP matches FNU faculty with underrepresented nurse practitioner and nurse-midwifery students to provide support and mentorship. The program allows students to join a professional organization in their field, as well as gives them the opportunity to attend a professional conference with their mentors, with conference registration and professional membership fees covered. During the COVID-19 Pandemic, POMP has been redesigned to allow participating students to attend conferences virtually with faculty mentor guidance.

Frontier has also launched the Comprehensive Mentoring Program, a pilot program initiated via funds from the Nursing Workforce Diversity (NWD) grant. This program is designed to support and retain students from underrepresented groups, by meeting their specific professional and academic needs The goal of the program is to form an ongoing relationship between mentor and mentee and expose the mentee to other means of mentoring to continue support and lifelong learning.

While the program is a pilot, it is expected to be fully implemented beyond the NWD grant period.

Expectations for both the mentors and mentees are well-defined and presented to all program participants.

Student mentees are expected to:

Create an essay to explicate their need for a mentor (no more than 500 words)
List at least 3 individualized professional and/or program-specific goals
Meet with the mentor at least once a month for 1 hour for 1 year
Complete an evaluation of the FNU Comprehensive Mentoring Program every 3 months

Mentors will be expected to:

Attend one mandatory professional mentor education and training session offered by FNU
Participate in the mentoring program for at least 1 year
Mentor at least 2 students
Meet with mentees at least once a month for at least 1 hour for 1 year
Document meetings and activities with mentees
Expose mentees to internal and external professional activities
Assist mentees with programmatic needs
Complete an evaluation of the FNU Comprehensive Mentoring Program every 3 months

The implementation of mentoring programs at FNU has positively impacted the retention rate for students of color which is currently 84 percent, exceeding our goal of 80 percent.

Many students like Kimether Redmon have benefitted from the mentoring program.

"For years, I've advocated for mentoring programs wherever I go and have mentored others, but I've never had my own mentor," Redmon said. "It’s very exciting!"

Check out Part 2 of this series which will share more detailed stories of students and mentors.

Benefits of being a Mentee

Gain practical advice, encouragement, and support
Learn from the experiences of others
Increase your social and academic confidence
Become more empowered to make decisions
Develop your communication, study, and personal skills
Develop strategies for dealing with both personal and academic issues
Identify goals and establish a sense of direction
Gain valuable insight into the next stage of your university career

Benefits of being a Mentor

Improve communication and personal skills
Develop leadership and management qualities
Reinforce your own study skills and knowledge of your subject(s)
Increase your confidence and motivation
Engage in a volunteering opportunity, valued by employers
Enhance your CV
Increase your circle of friends
Gain recognition for your skills and experience
Benefit from a sense of fulfillment and personal growth

FNU President Dr. Susan Stone’s Annual Address to the FNU Community

August 2, 2021 By Frontier Nursing University

As everyone knows, 2020 was an incredibly eventful and often stressful year. With the pandemic, social justice and reform, and a volatile political climate, it was a year unlike any in recent memory.

It was an extremely eventful year at Frontier Nursing University (FNU) as well. FNU was impacted by each of these events as the university continued to strive to achieve its mission and accomplish the year’s strategic plan goals. Many Frontier students faced challenges that threatened to interrupt their academic progress. FNU alumni continued to serve their communities, many of them serving on the front lines during the pandemic. Frontier faculty found new and innovative ways to help students stay on track, and Frontier staff continued to provide support to both students and alumni while preparing for the move to the Versailles, Ky., campus.

In the video below, FNU President Dr. Susan Stone reviews the events of 2020 and provides an update on how the university performed during this challenging year. This 33-minute address also provides detailed data and updates on FNU’s strategic plan goals. We hope you will take the time to view this important message.

Thank you for joining us on this journey and for your impactful presence in the FNU community.

Alumni Spotlight: Monica Heltz Helps Build a Health System Amidst a National Crisis

July 26, 2021 By Frontier Nursing University

Frontier Nursing University (FNU) alumni and former Peace Corps member Monica Heltz has long fostered a passion for public health, working in the field for over two decades. Last year, Heltz decided to further her passion by earning her Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) from FNU.

“At the time, I wasn’t sure where it would take me. I just wanted to do more,” Heltz said. “It’s been a wild ride, but somehow, my dream job popped up right in my backyard.”

Shortly after finishing her degree, Heltz’s home city announced that it would be building a health department. In the face of COVID-19, Fishers, Ind., was choosing to branch off from the county-regulated system in order to expand services to their community.

When Heltz heard the news, she reached out, hoping for a shot at a leadership role within the department. That call paid off. In May of 2020, Heltz became Fishers’ Public Health Director.

“When I came out of the Peace Corps, I worked at a job that dealt with environmental and public health issues. As I began to learn more about public health, my eyes were opened to a whole world of new jobs that fascinated me,” Heltz said. “Since that time, local public health has been my passion, and I am so fortunate that this opportunity found me.”

Starting a health department takes an enormous amount of resources and moving parts. Starting one during a pandemic only increased those needs. Since COVID-19 spurred the decision to create the health department, when Heltz onboarded, the city was already doing a great job of hosting and regulating testing sites. Heltz’s first job in her new role was to look at non-pandemic health concerns, establish priorities and start knocking out necessary projects.

Now, a year into the program, Heltz has completed most “have-to-do” items and can focus on other things, like rolling out a childhood vaccine clinic. She is incredibly excited for next year when the department is developed enough to focus on even more significant initiatives.

“We want to further integrate the health department into all of our city programs as a way to give our citizens the best opportunities to take proactive health measures,” Heltz said.

According to Heltz, Fishers’ department is already better integrated with the community than many health departments.

“For example, one of our major vaccination sites is an old warehouse. To get it running, we needed to team with public works, the fire department and local health care workers. In many cities, the health department feels like it’s on an island – in Fishers though, we are already able to work well with the greater community,” Heltz said.

“The great thing about starting a health department during a pandemic is that it’s easy for the public to understand who we are and why we’re here,” Heltz said. “However, it’s also been extremely disheartening that public health has become a political issue. My team and I have been pouring our hearts into making our community as safe and healthy as possible. Yet, we have often been criticized for making educated, scientific choices.”

However, Heltz said on the more difficult days, she and her team remind themselves that most of their community does agree with their choices, that it is only a small number of passionate people choosing to be vocal.

The numbers show that Heltz’s community, and the rest of the state, do stand with her. Fishers’ early action on COVID-19 ended up leading the state in policy and statistics, including holding the state’s highest vaccination rate as of late May.

Heltz’s health department was one of the first to have an online dashboard accessible to the public, providing up-to-date data on case rates, vaccinations and local policies. They could do this because Heltz pushed for one of the department’s first hires to be an epidemiologist.

“I knew if we wanted to show our credibility and make the best decisions for our community, we needed someone like this on our team,” Heltz said.

Due to the knowledge and experience within the Fishers health department, they were also the first in Indiana to offer school guidelines, which ended up paving the way for state guidelines.

“It was so cool to find solutions that fit our community and see those choices validated on a larger scale,” Heltz said. “It helped us to stay on track and build confidence in our mission.”

According to Heltz, the year has been one of the most exciting and challenging years of her life, but she couldn’t be happier with her role.

“This isn’t a job that comes around every day, and it’s one that many people probably wouldn’t want, but it is the perfect role for me,” Heltz said. “I chose to earn my DNP at FNU because I loved FNU’s dedication to making a difference and caring for underserved populations. I find a very similar mission within public health. We look for the best outcomes and try our hardest to bring positive change to our communities. I am proud of my roles as both Fisher County Public Health Director and FNU alumni.”

The 2020 FNU President’s Annual Report: The Challenges and Triumphs of 2020

July 8, 2021 By Frontier Nursing University

With the COVID-19 Pandemic, social justice and reform, political turmoil, and the completion of the move to the Versailles campus, 2020 was unlike any other year in the history of FNU. Still, the university maintained its course, relying on our strategic plan to guide our actions and measure our progress.

The 2020 President’s Annual Report takes a close look at each of the university’s six strategic plan goals and our progress toward achieving them. The Report includes feature stories on the people, events, and initiatives that impacted each of these strategic plan goals. For instance, read about the remarkable task of creating DNP quality improvement projects that students could complete virtually during the pandemic and hear first-hand from the students themselves.

This report also details the strategic goal to increase diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) at FNU and how the national movement for social justice and reform impacted that progress. Also included is a comprehensive list of the new and ongoing DEI initiatives and the purpose behind them.

In addition to the virtual DNP projects and coursework implemented due to COVID, the pandemic also brought about a national reliance on telehealth and other virtual technologies. Read in the Report about how telehealth impacted FNU’s Psychiatric-Mental Health Nurse Practitioner students and see how technology helped students find creative ways to connect with preceptors.

By being innovative and flexible, FNU worked hard in 2020 to ensure that students’ progress was not interrupted. However, some students were inevitably impacted by the pandemic and faced a variety of hardships. Read all about the unprecedented number of requests for aid and for the amazing number of students who were helped by our generous supporters via FNU’s Student Emergency Fund.

Learn all about the Versailles, Kentucky campus, which is now ready to host on-campus activities as soon as it is safe to do so. Read about FNU’s impressive data-collection and analysis capabilities and how this serves the university’s data-driven decision-making.

Data is also featured in an at-a-glance look at the university, including the latest numbers on enrollment, retention, graduates, diversity, and more. As always, the President’s Report features a photo-filled, comprehensive recap of the year’s major events, awards, and accomplishments.

Click here to read or download the 2020 President’s Annual Report today!

Sybilla Myers’ DNP Project Focuses on Overall Wellness During the Pandemic

June 17, 2021 By Frontier Nursing University

As the COVID-19 Pandemic took hold of the country last spring, the protocols — particularly in the first several months — were to stay inside. Gyms were closed. Many parks had limited access or no parking available. Finding ways to exercise regularly became a challenge. Additionally, as businesses closed or reduced hours, more and more time was spent at home and, for many, a sedentary lifestyle became the norm.

It didn’t take long for the jokes and memes to begin and soon the “COVID-15” became the term for 15 pounds of weight gain due to the pandemic. Helping people find ways to alter their lifestyle during COVID and develop or renew healthy habits became the centerpiece of then-DNP student Sybilla Myers’ quality improvement project.

Students in FNU’s DNP program must complete a quality improvement project. This project, which is generally conducted with their patient population at their place of work, involves one term dedicated to identifying the project, collecting data, and recruiting participants. After the term break, the students then begin implementing the project, tracking the data and results which are included in a final paper.

Like others in her class, Myers, DNP Class 33, APRN, FNP-C, had planned to do a completely different quality improvement project than the one she ended up doing. Myers was born in Germany and moved to the United States when she was three. Now an American citizen, she lives in Virginia but works in Washington, D.C., as an International Health Coordinator for a federal organization. She is also an adjunct professor of nursing at Stratford University and a mother of three children ranging in age from 9 to 15.

Myers had intended to do a quality improvement project to implement a case management system at the federal organization for which she works. The arrival of COVID, however, meant all of the organization’s volunteers were evacuated home and she would have no new medivacs to implement her project.

“I talked to my advisor, Dr. Chris Kennedy, who served as an incredible faculty mentor,” Myers said. “His recommendation was to do something that might be able to live past this project. Then I started thinking about it and decided on a virtual wellness project which could live past the pandemic and be implemented in primary care environments.”

Responding quickly to the pandemic and its impact on FNU’s DNP students, the FNU faculty had developed four quality improvement projects which could be conducted virtually. Since many clinics and organizations were closed, this offered a chance for the students to continue without delaying their academic progress.

“I didn’t want to take a hiatus,” Myers said. “My entire experience with FNU had been organized and thoughtful and I didn’t know what, but I knew something would fall into place that would allow me to continue on my DNP journey. I sat back and waited between term breaks. As expected, it didn’t take long for the FNU faculty to make an announcement that we would be given the option of implementing an IRB-approved virtual project..”

The project that drew her interest was a wellness project. The project involved ways for the participants to increase their physical activity, their hydration, and their mental well-being in ways that are attainable during the pandemic. To solicit the necessary volunteer participants, Myers took to social media. Once her group of approximately 30 participants was assembled, she created a closed group in which she released information and guidance about the project. She also met with each participant individually to work with them on their goals and overall progress. She provided tools and suggested resources, including apps for yoga, running, walking, hydration, and mental health. For some of her older participants who were less familiar with apps, Myers offered other ways to monitor their progress.

“My project was tailored to the individual needs of the participant,” Myers said. “Early on in the pandemic just going anywhere was difficult, so it was all about meeting their needs and learning how they could alter their exercise and lifestyle pattern to maintain wellness.”

Participants recorded their daily activity and progress on a Google form. The reporting was less about measurables such as weight loss and more about how they were feeling in each of the categories. A validated questionnaire was utilized at the beginning and end of the project to determine if there was an overall increase in wellness.

“They were doing so well on the apps, but when you asked them how they were feeling overall it was midline. It didn’t improve,” Myers said. “So, even though they were at their highest level of app use and goal attainment, you had to consider the outside force of being four months into social distancing and the pandemic. Even when people were exercising to their goal or higher, hydrating, eating well, using the mental health apps, they still were not feeling great.”

Despite the overall progress being hindered by the strain of the pandemic, Myers was encouraged by the overall results and her participants’ continued progress beyond the project.

“In following up with them after the project, they still continue to use the apps that they were implementing during my project to continue their wellness journey. I feel like it definitely helped them.”

Myers’ poster board for the project was presented at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement and her quality improvement Squire paper, Improving the Perception of Wellness in a Virtual Population During the COVID-19 Pandemic, has been accepted for publication in the Journal of Doctoral Nursing Practice Volume 14, Number 2. She also was able to finally implement her original case management plan within her place of work, completing, in a sense, two quality improvement projects instead of one.

“I feel like I’m the biggest cheerleader for FNU,” Myers said. “Many of my classmates and I were elated when they came up with the virtual project possibilities for us. The faculty went out of their way to be available to us and help guide us through our many questions. We were at a loss, but the DNP faculty were so positive and supportive. These virtual projects were hard, but they were supposed to be hard. Throughout this abrupt transition from on-the-ground to virtual implementation, I always felt completely supported by the FNU DNP faculty. I’m so grateful that I didn’t have to take a hiatus. This is a once in a 100-year pandemic and the silver lining for me was the opportunity to continue a rigorous DNP program on my original timeline.”

Delivering the Vaccine to the Last Frontier

March 4, 2021 By Frontier Nursing University

Julie Drude, FNP Class 136, CNEP Class 81, DNP Class 26, doesn’t “do boats. I don’t like them. I hate boats.” Even though she was born and raised in Hollywood, Florida, and resides in Chattahoochee, Florida, she said “my extent of the beach and the waves is laying on the beach and sunbathing. I don’t do boats.”

Why, then, was she pictured in front of a boat in Alaska as part of a widely circulated news story in January? The answer as to why she’s in Alaska is that Drude is a travel nurse, currently working as a locum tenens in Homer, Alaska. The answer to why there’s a boat in the picture is because Drude, fellow FNU graduate Kourtney Holder, DNP, Companion, DNP 2, and two other medical personnel were delivering the COVID-19 vaccines to Seldovia, a small town located on Alaska’s Kachemak Bay, about 25 miles from Homer. There are no roads to Seldovia — the only ways to get there are across the bay via bush plane or, unfortunately for Drude, by boat.

Drude began working as a travel nurse in 2012, with her first assignment being the rural town of Bethel, Alaska. She worked there again in 2015 and 2017, and in Valdez, Alaska in the summer of 2020. This is her first trip to Homer, however, with her assignment scheduled from December through March. So, despite her familiarity with rural Alaska, she was not prepared for her assignment on her fourth day in Homer.

“It was my fourth day here and they were like, ‘Oh, by the way, you’re going to Seldovia today to vaccinate’,” she said. “That’s where the picture came from. That was the first day that we got the Pfizer vaccine. Now, this Florida girl who doesn’t do much flying or boating has to get on a boat or a bush plane every Monday and Tuesday and fly over to the village of Seldovia.”

That day, like many in Alaska, the weather was too rough for the bush planes to make the trip over the bay. The only way was by boat. Make no mistake, this is no pleasure cruise across a tranquil bay. It’s a rough trip.

“Because it was the Pfizer vaccine and there is that window that you have to use the vaccine, we had to take a boat,” Drude said. “It was my first boat ride in Alaska. We braved six-foot waves and rough water and delivered COVID vaccines. I had total faith in the captain of the boat, but it was like nothing I had ever experienced in my life. It was even rougher on the way back.”

As scary and unpleasant as the trip was, Drude said it was well worth it.

“It was such an amazing moment to be one of the first people here in this community to deliver some vaccines to Alaskans,” she said. “Mondays and Tuesdays are a little stressful waiting to know how we are going to get across the bay. But it’s been great. There are a lot of Alaska natives here and it’s rural, so it’s a great community to serve.”

The site in Homer is a Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC). In addition to Seldovia, and the main clinic in Homer, there is another satellite clinic in Anchor Point, about 20 miles from Homer. The clinic has been providing vaccines at the Homer and Seldovia sites, with the first round going to first responders and Alaska natives over the age of 65.

“The majority of people are very eager to get the vaccine,” Drude said. “I think they see this as a ray of hope because, in places like Alaska, being outdoors and being with family and people, that’s such a huge part of life here. So many of these folks have been in isolation since March and April. Alaska was one of the very last states to be affected, but when the winter months came, COVID started hitting harder here.”

Drude was hit hard by COVID herself. From 2017 to 2020, she worked full time in school-based health in Florida. But when the pandemic began, found working from home to be an unproductive and poor use of her time.

“I saw an ad for staffing in New York for the COVID crisis in April,” she said. “I did a three-week assignment in New York for COVID.”

By the end of her time in New York, she was experiencing shortness of breath. Thinking it was probably anxiety or the result of wearing an N95 mask for 12-hour shifts almost 21 days straight, she nonetheless wore a double-mask on the flight home.

“I went to the ER and my COVID test was negative but I had pneumonia with ground-glass opacities, which is a common finding in COVID pneumonia,” she said. “Over the course of three weeks, I had very random symptoms. Fever, body aches, chills with no fever, body aches with no fever, very odd muscle cramps from my hips all the way to my toes, shortness of breath continued, severe dizziness, headaches. It took me about three weeks to almost fully recover. I am 9 months out and I still suffer from tachycardia, dizzy spells, and brain fog. My case was not as severe as most. I was not hospitalized. I never even got a positive COVID test, but I did have antibodies six weeks after I was ill. Both my pulmonologist and my cardiologist said it was highly likely that it was COVID. I still have what they are calling long-haul symptoms.”

Along those lines, Drude said she intends to be a travel nurse for the long haul.

“My goal is to continue doing locum tenens as a nurse practitioner,” she said. Drude and her husband John have five children, ages 21, 19, 17, 8, and 6. “I like the idea of working in a big clump, then having some time off and being home with them. The beauty is most jobs I take, my husband and two younger children can travel with me.”

Despite treacherous boat rides, COVID, and the other hazards of being a travel nurse, Drude is drawn to the opportunity to provide care in areas where little is available.

“Even though I have a little anxiety about lots of things, I have found that this trip has gotten me way out of my comfort zone,” Drude said. “These residents have to depend on a boat or a plane to get out if they are sick or injured. It’s just nice to be part of something where I can be over there twice a week to provide the care that they need without them having to spend the extra money to go to Homer to get care.”

Fellow FNU graduate Kourtney Holder accompanies Drude on many of these trips. Holder was contacted for this story, but unavailable for an interview. “I enjoyed my time at FNU and appreciate the great education I received there,” Holder said via text.

Drude echoed that comment, crediting FNU for readying her for the risks and rigors of travel nursing.

“I felt very well prepared as a Frontier graduate to do any job,” Drude said. “I love the emphasis on rural health and getting outside of your comfort zone and going where no one has gone before to serve. Frontier ingrains that in you. Get out in the world and serve.”

Even if you have to do it by boat.