Saint Mary’s Celebrates Nurse Leaders’ Recent Achievements
January 29, 2025Categories: Awards and Recognition
Attaining an advanced degree in any field is no small feat. The academic demands, practice requirements, time commitment, not to mention balancing a family and maintaining a job are all hurdles some must overcome to successfully achieve a degree. Saint Mary’s Hospital is proud to congratulate five nurse leaders who recently earned their Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) degrees.
Nurse leaders Shawna Edwards, Zina Ruban, Karen Beebe, Lisa Roy and Roxanne Tapley all recently earned their Doctor of Nursing Practice degrees.
Congratulations to Shawna Edwards, DNP, MSN, RN, Chief Nursing Officer; Zina Ruban, DNP, MSN, RN-BC, ACM, Director of Operations, Patient Care Services; Lisa Roy, DNP, MSN, RN, NPD-BC, BCEN, Manager, Nursing Professional Practice and innovation; Roxanne Tapley, DNP, RN, Trauma Program Manager and Karen Beebe, DNP, RNC-OB, C-EFM, C-ONQS, Perinatal Nursing Professional Development Specialist, Women & Infants Center and NICU.
The key element to completing their studies, the leaders say, was doing it together. Four of the five nurse leaders matriculated together through the Executive Leadership DNP track at the University of Hartford, while Karen Beebe opted to pursue her DNP in Care of Populations at Quinnipiac University.
“There is no doubt that we just kept pushing and pulling each other through. And I encourage anybody who wants to go back to school, find that one person in your program that you can relate to and can help carry you through,” said Lisa. “Because it’s not just the education and learning, it’s the emotional support for each other.”
Shawna echoed that opinion, “It was really exciting to see the others working toward improving nursing practice. To have that ability to now contribute to nursing research and be a part of that practice build was phenomenal.”
“Having this support system was so important for me and all of us,” said Zina. “During this two-and-a-half-year period, we all went through significant personal issues. Knowing that we weren’t alone was huge.”
Though pursuing her degree at a different university, Karen expressed a similar sentiment. As far as selecting the Care of Populations track, her motivation was “working toward building the practice of nursing with the specific focus on the population that we serve at Saint Mary’s. It was very eye opening and very interesting.”
“It really was a great experience,” said Roxanne. “I earned my master’s at the University of Hartford and felt comfortable entering this program. The professors were fabulous and of course being on this journey with this cohort was a tremendous opportunity.”
“I think this is a great testament to our leaders,” said Kim Kalajainen, President, Saint Mary’s Hospital. “That each leader here is to continuing to learn and grow, they lead by example. We are very proud of our nursing leaders for their accomplishment.”