Tiffany Ford planned to earn her bachelor’s degree in nursing immediately after high school, but she says, “life happened, and it didn’t work out.”
Still determined, she moved forward with new plans.
She earned her LPN and then her associate degree while working in long-term acute care.
Eventually, Ford found her way to the University of Louisiana at Lafayette’s online RN to BSN degree program.
In earning her bachelor’s degree at long last, Ford gained a greater understanding of evidence-based practices and leadership principles that will propel her to her next goal — becoming a nurse practitioner.
Learning and Understanding
By the time she started online classes, Ford had earned three tiers of nursing credentials — CNA certification, and LPN and RN licenses — and worked her way into a leadership role at her full-time job as a clinical liaison.
Even equipped with so much experience, Ford says her classes were eye-opening in vital ways.
“The biggest thing for me was the evidence-based practice, and they hit on those facts a lot,” says Ford. “You hear about it as a nurse, but you just don’t really understand it or know where it comes from.”
Ford says she now better understands the decision-making process at different levels of health care.
“As a nurse or even a regular employee not in a leadership position, you don’t always see both sides of the coin,” she says. “With UL Lafayette, they have classes that focused on leadership and different financial things.”
Logging Into Class
Digging into her online classes, Ford found an engaging culture with instructors who are quick to communicate.
“I really liked the instructor interaction. I didn’t have that before in online classes,” says Ford.
“It was a lot easier at the University for people that are having to work and try to do this to have that hands-on, constant interaction with instructors. They were always emailing and very open to questions and assistance.”
And that community extended to her classmates and how they treated one another in Moodle, as well.
“When I would go on the forums, there would always be somebody on there thinking the same thing I was, asking the same question, or somebody would say, ‘You know, I was wondering the same thing!’” says Ford. “Nobody was ever negative.”
Bringing it all Home
Nursing is hard. Earning a bachelor’s degree in nursing is difficult. Balancing multiple jobs, school, and homelife is a challenge.
In addition to maintaining two to three jobs while in her program, Ford made the decision to delay completing her BSN program to help her son realize his college dreams.
“He graduated high school in 2019 and immediately started college, and so because I was working and paying out of pocket for my program, I put mine on hold to help him,” she says.
Once her son was well on his way toward his degree, Ford was able to continue her own journey. And as an LHC Group employee, she was able to take advantage of reduced tuition and additional resources to do so.
“By then, LHC Group had come up with the incentive program, so we got a little discount, which helped me to further afford it.”
Throughout her time as a student, Ford’s husband and parents were there to cheer her on, take chores off her plate, and let her vent her frustrations.
“Between my parents and my husband, they were the bulk of my support system,” she says. “There was never a minute of doubt, it was always ‘You can do it! You just stick with it! You see the light at the end of the tunnel. Just keep pushing.’”
Everyone in the family felt invested in the catharsis that graduation would bring.
“A lot of times, I think they were more excited than I was simply because they knew that it was something that I wanted for a really long time,” says Ford. “And they knew I had put my stuff on hold to support my son to reach his opportunities.”
Ford, her husband and parents all attended commencement to celebrate the culmination of her degree, but they will likely be back on duty as the support team soon.
“I’ve already reached out to UL Lafayette again about the MSN program,” says Ford. “I’m trying to decide when I want to start moving forward with that.”