Risepoint Healthcare Center of Excellence colleagues reflect on the power of nurses

National Nurses Week, celebrated between May 6 and May 12 this year, focuses on honoring and celebrating the impact nurses have on our lives, healthcare systems, and communities. This year’s theme, “The Power of Nurses,” recognizes the strength, compassion, and dedication nurses bring to their work daily.  

Risepoint is proud to support programs that educate and empower nurses. Just last year, our university partners supported more than 26,000 students on their journeys to grow in their healthcare careers, mostly in nursing. This work is especially important in underserved areas where nursing shortages are most noticeable. For example, Risepoint is partnering with the University of Jamestown to help them expand access to nursing education in North Dakota.

Meet the Risepoint Healthcare Center of Excellence

To commemorate this week, we spoke with members of the Risepoint Healthcare Center of Excellence (COE). These colleagues are dedicated to launching and supporting our partners’ nursing programs, promote health system partnerships, and provide clinical operations guidance.  The teammates who are featured here all started their careers in nursing. They not only understand the journey of nursing students, but they also can empathize with the sacrifice and dedication that members of their field experience every day.

The Power of Nurses – how experiences in nursing have shaped our team’s dedication to partners    

Read as these teammates share how their experiences in nursing continue to inspire their work today. In their current roles, they apply the same dedication that they felt for patients to university partners, their students, and the communities that those students will impact.  

What does “The Power of Nurses” mean to you personally, and how do you carry that with you in your everyday work? 

Shelly Cummings: The power of nursing is more than clinical skills—it includes continuous holistic assessment, robust communication skills, cross-functional collaboration, and genuine compassion. Our Healthcare Center of Excellence (HCOE) team uses this collective “power” as we work with our Risepoint colleagues to support our university partners and their students.  Awareness of regulatory and accreditation requirements, healthcare workforce shifts, nursing education trends, and program-specific delivery challenges help us promote the best program outcomes and student experiences.  

Kezia Lily: Nursing is the largest healthcare profession in the United States. Nurses are advocates, educators, and leaders. Nursing is not just a profession, it is a force of courage, empathy, and resilience that transforms lives every single day. Nursing is not just a career; it is a calling, a promise, and a purpose. This week, and every week, I honor that power—and all who carry it with pride and compassion. 

Nursing is not just a career; it is a calling, a promise, and a purpose. This week, and every week, I honor that power—and all who carry it with pride and compassion. 

Kezia Lily

Michelle Garrison: To me, “The Power of Nurses” lies in our unique ability to provide compassionate, evidence-based care across the lifespan—from newborns to the elderly—while using critical thinking to advocate for the best possible outcomes. This power is rooted in knowledge, experience, and the ability to influence change through evidence-based research and practice. I carry that strength into my everyday work by applying the same clinical reasoning and problem-solving skills in my communication and decision-making with university nursing leadership. Whether I’m collaborating on curriculum design, mentoring faculty, or strategizing on program development, I draw on the core strengths of nursing—analytical thinking, empathy, and a commitment to excellence—to help shape and sustain nursing education that empowers the next generation of nurses. 

Dana Hunt: My nursing and nursing education background empowers me to bring forth expertise and best practices to our Risepoint partners and nursing leaders. I’ve been a nurse for 30 years, receiving my first nursing certificate in 1995 as an LPN, and I’ve taught in nursing higher education for 20 years. The variety of roles I’ve served as a nurse, nursing professor, and nursing administrator have shaped who I am today in my role with Risepoint.

Do you have any examples of times you’ve used your nursing instincts or experiences in the field to help you in your current role? 

Shelly Cummings: Bedside nurses provide direct patient care, diligently assess for subtle changes that may indicate early signs of distress, and communicate these changes. Similarly, as we work with university partners, we assess opportunities for program improvements, identify possible barriers to program growth, share recommendations, and communicate findings with our Risepoint colleagues.

Kezia Lily: I have been a nurse for nearly 25 years and a higher education administrator for 11. Nursing education is a highly specialized field. My background and firsthand experience allow me to provide quality recommendations, best practices, and resources to our partners to deliver excellence in nursing education. 

Michelle Garrison: Absolutely. As a former Dean of a nursing program, I’ve developed a strong instinct for understanding what today’s nursing students need to succeed—both academically and technologically. My experience in the field allows me to stay attuned to how nursing education is evolving.  

Do you have a favorite memory from your time as a nurse or nurse educator that still inspires you? 

Shelly Cummings: There are so many! I am most inspired and humbled by the opportunities I have had to support nursing students as they transition to the role of a professional nurse, help experienced nurses navigate their nursing career and advance nursing education pathways, and mentor new nurse educators in clinical and academic roles.  Witnessing someone transform from uncertainty to mastery—whether a student, faculty member, or nurse leader—is incredible!  Our ability to impact nursing education through our collaboration, partnership, and leadership is so fulfilling. 

Kezia Lily: One of the most impactful experiences I had was as a nursing education administrator. I allowed several students who have previously failed out of other nursing programs—another chance, another opportunity to succeed. We recognize that a single failure does not define a person’s ability to become a compassionate, competent nurse. Life circumstances, lack of support, or even just one bad semester can derail a student’s path. Experiencing this myself, this allowed students to emphasize growth, resilience, and the belief in second chances. To this day I am still an intentional mentor to these nurses and provide the tools they need to thrive academically and professionally. Every success story from these students is a testament to what’s possible when people are given the opportunity to rise again. 

Michelle Garrison: One of my most meaningful memories as a nurse educator involves a student who had just failed out of a nursing program at a large public university where I was on faculty. She came to my office in tears, devastated and questioning her future. I reminded her that failing out of one program didn’t mean she had failed overall—that her dream of becoming a nurse was still very much possible. I encouraged her to apply elsewhere and wrote her a recommendation letter. She was accepted into another program, became a registered nurse, and later wrote me a touching letter thanking me for believing in her. Today, she’s a family nurse practitioner. Her story continues to inspire me because it reflects the resilience of students—and the impact educators can have by offering support, perspective, and a second chance. 

Dana Hunt: Some of my favorite memories as a nurse educator are the moments when new nursing students gain confidence in a clinical setting to care for a patient. Many new nursing students start their clinicals with a lack of confidence and knowledge to fulfill their role. My favorite moments are the rich discussions the students shared with me in post-clinical conferences of their successes for the day, their confidence improving, and those first feelings they gain of, “I am meant to be a nurse.”

What is the most rewarding part of your job? 

Our partnership with schools of nursing does not just affect a specific school or program but ultimately influences hundreds of future nurses who will touch countless patients’ lives. The multiplier effect—improving healthcare through education—connects directly back to my earliest days as a bedside nurse. The knowledge that our work at Risepoint is providing access to excellent, high quality nursing programs and thus impacting the nursing workforce and our national healthcare delivery system, creates purpose in every partner interaction we have.  

Shelly Cummings: The most rewarding aspect of my role is witnessing the ripple effect of our HCOE consultation efforts as we work with university partners and program leadership to identify program design improvement opportunities, provide program delivery recommendations, promote curriculum enhancements, and share clinical operations best practices. Having a frontline seat to program transition and enrollment growth is exciting.  

Kezia Lily: The most rewarding part of my job is collaborating with a dedicated and innovative team within HCOE and our valued partners. Together, we create impactful educational initiatives and work toward improving healthcare outcomes through education and professional development.    

Michelle Garrison: The most rewarding part of my job is building strong relationships with nursing and campus leadership who truly value my experience and trust me to help them develop and grow their pre-licensure nursing programs. It’s incredibly fulfilling to know that my knowledge is making a difference at a strategic level. I also deeply enjoy campus visits—they bring me back to my roots as on-campus faculty. There’s something special about walking the halls, seeing students engaged in learning, and feeling the energy of a brick-and-mortar campus. It reminds me of why I started this journey. And when I think back even further to my bedside career in labor and delivery, I’m reminded of the honor I felt helping bring so many babies into the world, each birth a moment of trust, strength, and connection. That sense of purpose and impact continues to inspire everything I do today. 

Dana Hunt: Working with nursing education leaders all around the country and serving in a customer-centric consultative role for the successful launching and growth of nursing education and healthcare programs.

---

Thank you to all nurses—including those who are training, practicing nurses, and former nurses, like our Healthcare COE teammates, who are applying their strengths to help support the education of the nurses of tomorrow.