Going back to school can be an exciting endeavor – and advancing your education can open new paths in a current career or offer a fresh start entirely.
For Dawn Gibson-Owens, a nurse practitioner in our Lorain market, starting her journey teaching after receiving her Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) is allowing her to take education and nursing to the next level within our ministry.
After working with Mercy Health for 10 years this September, Dawn decided to take advantage of the Guild Education program. We have proudly partnered with Guild Education to offer tuition assistance, allowing our team members to go back to school with full or part tuition assistance.
As a leading education and instruction platform, Guild Education provides clinical classes in nursing, medical assistant and laboratory programs. The partnership helps us offer tuition assistance for more than 100 academic programs including undergraduate, graduate and nursing degrees.
“I have always worked in family practice because one of the biggest rewards for me is seeing a variety of patients, from infants to geriatric,” Dawn shares. “About five years ago, I accepted the role of co-lead advanced practice clinicians (APC) for the Lorain region. I started with an associate degree in nursing at Lorain County Community College in 1995 and went on to get my bachelor’s from University of Akron, then my family nurse practitioner from Malone University. When hearing about this program offered to Mercy Health employees, I then decided to get my doctoral degree (DNP) at Chamberlain College.”
Dawn continues, “with these experiences and educational background, I knew I wanted to teach and take advantage of this program. I also currently precept several nurse practitioners a year, which allows me to work with nursing students during their clinical rotations. This makes me want to take education to the next level in my life even more.”
With the help of the tuition assistance through our Guild Education program, three-fourths of Dawn’s tuition was covered to receive her doctoral degree. With this degree, she plans on teaching at a university as adjunct faculty, hopefully for an online program. With her DNP, she will be able to continue to serve patients and better utilize evidence-based practices to improve patient outcomes.
“It was a challenge working full-time, completing the program and trying to balance family as well as kids, but my husband was extremely helpful picking up extra at home and with the kids,” Dawn says. “It was a commitment – the amount of work that is required to complete the program is intense. However, while it may have been a little challenging to balance everything, it is worth the journey.”
This collaboration with the Guild Program continues to open many doors for our team members, allowing them to realize their career aspirations and enhancing their ability to care for the communities around us as part of our mission.
Learn more about our team member benefits and to apply for a job with us today.
Also, read more stories about our team members.
