The KU School of Nursing's community college nursing partnership program has been
a benefit to this student.

By Susan Loyacano

Aubrey Dealy grew up in Sylvia, Kansas, population 215. The total area of Sylvia is .29 square miles. But that is where she decided to pursue a big dream when she set her sights on becoming a nurse.

“I grew up in a low-income area,” Dealy said, “and I knew that I would have to get a job and start working early.”

From a young age, she knew she wanted to become a nurse, so while still a junior in high school, she earned her certification and became a Certified Nursing Assistant through Hutchinson Community College.

“They didn’t offer it where I lived, but it’s pretty common for students at Hutch High to take those classes which they offer right there on the high school campus,” she said. “I wanted to be in health care, so it aligned perfectly.”

Aubrey may have been attracted to health care because of her experience nurturing animals. She grew up on her grandfather’s water buffalo farm. She was also a 4-H kid from age 7 to 18 and was a club secretary, which provided leadership and public speaking opportunities.

After high school graduation, Dealy started work on her nursing pre-requisites. Then COVID-19 hit. She finished up her classes online while working at a local clinic.

It was a chaotic time where there were not always specific guidelines for dealing with the virus in a very stressful environment.

“Quarantine rules seemed to change every week. We were seeing 180 patients a day in a small clinic with only three people working 12-hour shifts.”

After that stressful experience, Dealy decided to take a few years off.

“If it weren’t for the nurses and doctors I had worked with, I might never have switched back to nursing.”

With her focus back on earning her Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) degree, there were new challenges to face.

“Moving to Lawrence and paying full tuition was never really an option for me,” she said.

That’s when she began to explore the Community College Nursing Partnership program at the KU School of Nursing.

With her pre-requisites complete Dealy was eligible to enroll in courses and attend class at Hutchinson Community College, one of eight locations where the program is offered. (The other campuses are Butler, Cloud County, Fort Scott, Johnson County, Kansas City Kansas, Labette and Neosho Community Colleges.) She could live at home and save the expense of living on campus.

Today Dealy is enrolled concurrently in the Associates Degree Nursing (ADN) and the BSN programs.

“The two programs are perfectly aligned,” Dealy said. “We have the same breaks in the schedule except for summer when we focus only on six credit hours in the KU program. Those are the heavier, more intense courses.”

She will graduate in May 2025 with both degrees.

Dealy said she appreciated the partnership program because she was able to stay in her hometown, attend school nearby at a reduced cost while receiving the full benefits of a fully accredited program at KU.

“They did a great job setting up the partnership and making it doable,” she said. “It’s a lot of work, but there was never a time when I felt like the workload was unmanageable.”

Having a degree from KU School of Nursing is worth more than just the prestige of a university curriculum under her belt.

“I personally feel like being in the KU program gives me a step up, because I am being taught leadership skills and other important aspects of nursing care that you don’t get just from the ADN program.

Through the partnership program, BSN students don’t have clinicals until their final semester. Dealy will complete 20 clinical hours through the Wichita campus of Ascension Via Christi St. Francis. 

“We get to develop a quality improvement project,” she said. “We are assigned to a facility, and we identify a gap in care. Then we apply interventions, monitor those and track the outcomes.”

Dealy is considering a project focusing on patient privacy or reducing the rate of falls. After graduation, she wants to work as a labor and delivery nurse.

“There is something special about the process of welcoming life into the world.”

One of her favorite days was working in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at Ascension, where she was assigned to care for an infant with neonatal abstinence syndrome. As the baby was in withdrawal from an addictive substance, she got to snuggle the child for two hours during each shift.

During the pediatrics rotation in her ADN program, Dealy got to experience something rare for most
nursing students.

“I showed up for my shift ready to see a baby be born, and the woman in labor was having a C-section,” she said. “I was so excited to experience that, and right away I was hoping, but not expecting to see a vaginal birth. Then almost immediately another mom was ready to deliver, and I got to experience that, too. I’m pretty sure I was even more excited than both sets of parents, I was jumping up and down!”

Having grown up in areas where there can be health care shortages, Dealy appreciates her experiences in rural medicine.

“In rural settings, you don’t get to see the more complex cases,” she said. “I want to get more experience with high-risk patients. Then maybe someday I can come back to a rural area when I am a better nurse with more knowledge under my belt.”