Dr. Susan Stone
This article was written by Frontier Nursing University (FNU) President, Dr. Susan Stone, DNSc, CNM, FACNM, FAAN and was originally published in the Woodford Neighbors magazine, February 2022 issue.
In December, Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear declared the state’s chronic nursing shortage an emergency and announced executive actions aimed at boosting enrollment in nursing programs. This was in response to projections that Kentucky will need over 16,000 additional nurses by 2024 to fill the gaps left by those who retire or leave the profession.
With more than 3.8 million registered nurses in the U.S., nurses comprise the largest component of the nation’s healthcare workforce. Kentucky is not alone in its need for more nurses. The shortage extends to every state and well beyond our borders. According to the World Health Organization, the world needs 9 million more nurses and midwives if it is to achieve universal health coverage by 2030.
Nurses focus on promoting optimal health. They care not only for the sick but also provide guidance to improve long-term health. This forms a partnership between nurse and patient that promotes ongoing health. This partnership results in a high level of trust between patients and nurses. In an annual Gallup poll, nursing has been ranked number one as the most honest and ethical profession for 19 consecutive years, with 89% of Americans rating nurses’ honesty and ethical standards as “high” or “very high”.
Nurses focus on promoting optimal health. They care not only for the sick but also provide guidance to improve long-term health.”
The expertise and versatility of nurses have been brought into focus during the pandemic. Nurses have been called upon to assume additional responsibilities and leadership roles. They have organized testing and vaccination sites, such as the one conducted jointly by the Woodford County Health Department and FNU last year, and taken on the task of directing hospitals and clinics and providing guidance on healthcare systems and programs.
The pandemic has stressed our healthcare system, but the nursing shortage existed before the pandemic and will persist after it. At FNU, we are proud to be a leader in the changes needed to address shortages. Our mission 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.” The nurse practitioners and nurse-midwives who graduate from FNU are prepared to meet the challenges and needs of their communities.
Nurse practitioners, who are trained with a blend of medical and nursing education, are qualified to provide the level of care necessary to help fulfill our nation’s primary care needs. Similarly, further integration of nurse-midwives in communities across the country is essential to improving our nation’s maternal care. A recent study found that states that have done the most to integrate midwives into their healthcare systems “have better outcomes for mothers and babies”, including fewer interventions and significantly lower rates of cesarean sections.
With more than 2,500 students located in every state in the United States on course to join our more than 8,000 alumni, FNU is preparing these much-needed advanced practice nurses and nurse-midwives to be part of the solution to the shortage of healthcare providers in their communities across Kentucky and the nation. The work we are doing has never been more important.
We are so thankful to call Woodford County, Ky. our home and for the opportunities our students and graduates have here. We hope our community shares our pride in the important roles our graduates play in reducing our nation’s healthcare shortages.
Learn more about FNU and the graduate nursing degrees and specialties we offer.
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).