{"id":1926,"date":"2017-03-01T20:31:32","date_gmt":"2017-03-01T20:31:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.obumagazine.com\/?p=1926"},"modified":"2017-04-28T23:04:28","modified_gmt":"2017-04-28T23:04:28","slug":"bsn-msn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.okbu.edu\/obumagazine\/bsn-msn\/","title":{"rendered":"Spotlight: BSN \/ MSN"},"content":{"rendered":"

Taylor Dickinson, \u201911 and \u201914, shares his perspective about the impact his OBU education\u00a0had on his career and what led him to choose the\u00a0OBU College of Nursing \u2026 twice.<\/em><\/p>\n

T<\/span>aylor Dickinson<\/span> is a busy man. He works 12-hour shifts as a house resource nurse at Oklahoma Heart Hospital South in Oklahoma City. He also serves as an adjunct professor of nursing for OBU, managing undergraduate students in clinical rotations at the hospital. He\u2019s married to an elementary music school teacher, Ashlynn Streck Dickinson, \u201913, and he\u2019s earned not one but two nursing degrees, with plans to pursue a third.<\/p>\n

Less than five years into his nursing career, Dickinson understands the benefits and impact his OBU education has made on his career. He wants others to experience the OBU difference as well and is helping to spread the word.<\/p>\n

Dickinson was born in Fort Worth, Texas, and spent time growing up in Amarillo, Oklahoma City, and Moore, before settling in Enid, Oklahoma, where he graduated high school. He journeyed to OBU and earned a Bachelor of Science in Nursing and a Master of Science in Nursing Education. He worked at St. John Medical Center in Tulsa, then in the Critical Care Unit as a staff nurse at Oklahoma Heart Hospital South before transitioning in September 2015 to his current role as a house resource nurse.<\/p>\n

\u201cNursing is a challenging but also very rewarding field,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy experience at OBU helped teach me how to care for the patient holistically.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve had the opportunity to work in step-down and critical care units, treating patients with skills and techniques that are constantly changing and improving, while also teaching patients about their condition and available treatments. I\u2019ve been involved with assisting patients to heal psychologically, spiritually and physically. Assisting them during a stressful point in their life is such a rewarding thing. It\u2019s a blessing to see them progress throughout their stay until they get to that point where it\u2019s time for them to go home.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dickinson reflects fondly on his undergraduate nursing education on Bison Hill, crediting it with making a profound impact on his career and his worldview.<\/p>\n

\u201cOBU allowed me to take the experience I gained from a liberal arts university and broaden my horizon as a young professional,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s given me the ability to take little pieces of the arts, history and science, and relate them to everyday life. It truly has helped me become a well-rounded person, in ways I may not have experienced at another university.\u201d<\/p>\n

He found success by plugging into study groups and collaborating with other nursing students.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of times we would meet at another student\u2019s apartment after everybody was assigned a different chapter of the book or a different subject to study. As we became masters of that subject, we began to teach others. Not only did we learn for ourselves but having to teach it to others helped us to better understand the concept as a whole. Not only did we study together, but we lived life together. You don\u2019t find that at most universities.\u201d<\/p>\n

He was drawn to Bison Hill by the reputation of the nursing program, the small student to faculty ratio, and the program\u2019s long history as the first baccalaureate program of nursing in the state of Oklahoma.<\/p>\n

Dickinson said potential nursing students only need to consider the facilities and faculty to know OBU is the best choice for their education.<\/p>\n

\u201cHaving Stavros Hall, a state-of-the-art nursing facility with some of the most up-to-date technology and simulation, will give you an opportunity you may not get elsewhere in Oklahoma,\u201d he said. \u201cThe faculty members are tremendous. With a low student to faculty ratio, your professors get to know you as a person and not just as a number.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe professors don\u2019t want you only to be
\nsuccessful while you\u2019re at OBU; they truly desire for you to succeed in your career and as a person, so they\u2019re going to challenge you.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Dickinson was ready to pursue a graduate degree, he knew immediately it would be through his alma mater and he knew it would be in nursing education.<\/p>\n

\u201cEducation has always been something that runs in my family,\u201d he said. \u201cMy wife, Ashlynn, is an elementary music teacher and my mom is a teacher, too. Being able to see that spark in a student when they fully understand the material is something that always interested me.\u201d<\/p>\n

He learned about the MSN through his instructors while completing his undergraduate degree and knew he wanted to continue studying his profession from a Christian worldview.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted to be with peers of like mind who truly desire to bring holistic care to the patient,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He found the OBU graduate program to be challenging, but also flexible enough to work around his busy schedule as a working professional.<\/p>\n

Just as he endorses the undergraduate program, Dickinson also strongly encourages fellow nurses to take advantage of the MSN degree at OBU.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe OBU program gives you the ability to take what you have learned and expand on it,\u201d he said. \u201cIf you\u2019re at that point where you\u2019re deciding whether you should pursue a master\u2019s degree in nursing education, I encourage you to earn your degree
\nat OBU.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Taylor Dickinson, \u201911 and \u201914, shares his perspective about the impact his OBU education\u00a0had on his career and what led him to choose the\u00a0OBU College of Nursing \u2026 twice. Taylor Dickinson is a busy man. He works 12-hour shifts as a house resource nurse at Oklahoma Heart Hospital South in Oklahoma City. He also serves […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2264,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":""},"categories":[113,73],"tags":[161],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.okbu.edu\/obumagazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/Taylor1.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7BMz3-v4","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.okbu.edu\/obumagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1926"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.okbu.edu\/obumagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.okbu.edu\/obumagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.okbu.edu\/obumagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.okbu.edu\/obumagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1926"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.okbu.edu\/obumagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1926\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2266,"href":"https:\/\/www.okbu.edu\/obumagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1926\/revisions\/2266"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.okbu.edu\/obumagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2264"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.okbu.edu\/obumagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1926"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.okbu.edu\/obumagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1926"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.okbu.edu\/obumagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1926"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}