Nadine Burton, formerly of Middletown, NY, and a current resident of Scranton, Pa., graduated from Marywood University in 2018 with a Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) degree. Presently, she is a travel nurse, working in a Step-Down Intensive Care Unit (ICU). Her job requires intense monitoring and care of patients, though not as intense as the ICU itself.
Nadine’s interest in Marywood began in her junior year during her high school’s college tour program, which led her right to campus. She met with an admissions counselor, heard about the programs that Marywood offers, and took a tour of the campus, which she thought was beautiful. Ultimately, what drew Nadine to Marywood was the opportunity to be involved in Campus Ministry and the smaller class sizes of the Nursing program; she didn’t want to be seen as just a number on a spreadsheet. She decided to major in nursing, because her mother was in healthcare, and she also loved the idea of serving people at their worst and trying to make them feel better.
Nadine was a campus resident for the first two years of her college career before finding off-campus housing. She got heavily involved at Marywood, thanks to the themed housing community, Christian Living, of which she was a resident, and through which she took on a variety of volunteer service projects. She eventually became the Vice President of Volunteers in Action and planned various community service opportunities in the local area, as well as traveling abroad on several occasions, most notably a freshman trip to Africa to volunteer at orphanages and high schools.
As a healthcare professional, Nadine considers the pandemic to be “the ultimate test,” as it makes every day an unpredictable day. In the midst of the pandemic panic, she actually decided to pursue her master’s degree in nursing education and is currently enrolled at the State University of New York at Delhi.
Whenever Nadine gets stressed and needs to decompress, she always calls her grandmother.
When anything crazy happened while she was at Marywood, such as a major test, talking with her grandma would calm her down. She believes that you should take breaks for a while to destress, and she is very thankful to her grandmother for always being available to her.
Nadine advises future nursing students to show dedication as they learn their profession. “I didn’t realize how dedicated you needed to be with nursing classes,” she says. “I took my education seriously, because I needed to learn what I was doing to serve patients accurately and well.”
She is grateful to Dr. Theresa Tulaney, Director of Nursing and Associate Professor of Practice, for her encouragement and advice and still keeps in touch with Dr. Tulaney and her other volunteer friends to this day. Nadine plans to stay in Scranton while she works on her master’s degree and nursing career.