Successful nurse sets up scholarship to help others pursue a caring career

Carrie Jeffery knew she wanted a career where she could help people, and she gained a solid foundation for her nursing career at Moraine Valley. She eventually went on to earn her bachelor’s and master’s degrees, and professional certifications in pediatric nursing and nursing professional development.

“I always thought Moraine Valley’s program was like a bachelor’s degree packed into two years because we learned so much,” she said.

While taking nursing classes, she worked as a nurse’s aide at Advocate Christ Hospital in the neonatal intensive care unit [NICU].

“It was meant to be that I landed there because later, after I got my degree, they had an opening for a nurse in the NICU unit.”

She stayed in the neonatal intensive care field until 2012.

“I branched out and tried different roles, such as being a charge nurse and working on the leadership side of things. I also was a preceptor to new nurses, which was an educator role,” Jeffery said.

She has spent most of her career at UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, where she currently serves as an advanced clinical education specialist and is responsible for coordinating the hospital’s nurse residency program, a support program for new nurses.

“It’s an ongoing support program for nurses in their first year with the goal of retaining them, making sure they’re supported and happy in their roles and learning everything they need to know,” she said.

Jeffery noted she had wonderful examples of nursing educators while at Moraine Valley.

“There was so much support from the instructors and all of them had the ability to relate things to the bigger picture and not just focus on the one thing we were learning in that class. Maybe that inspired me to become a nurse educator,” Jeffery said.

She recently started a scholarship to honor her father who passed away earlier this year. As a recipient of a Moraine Valley Foundation scholarship when she was a student, she knows how it can help pay for things like books and supplies such as uniforms and stethoscopes.

Jeffery worked with the Foundation to set up the scholarship for future nurses or first responders as a way to connect to her nursing background and her father, who had once served as a volunteer firefighter and EMT.

“I always thought that was cool, so I wanted to connect these two as a way of combining my and my dad’s experiences,” said Jeffery. “I’m looking for someone who has a passion for caring for other people and giving them a good experience in one of the worst times of their lives.”