College of Nursing grad doing it all, having it all
by Chris WestPublic Relations
Super student, super mom and now super grad, Rose Mary Spellman anticipates a new role as super nurse.
Originally from Canton, Mich., Spellman left the “safe and family oriented community” in chilly Michigan for the balmy dog days of Charleston in 1994 for the simplest of reasons-climate, admitting that “the weather was the reason behind my relocation.”
She entered the College of Charleston where she received her bachelor of science in biology degree in 1997. Bent on studying medicine but unsure what specific avenue to pursue, Spellman turned to the guidance of her friends and family.
Rose
Mary Spellman
“The first influence was that my grandmother was a nurse,” Spellman said. “Soon after relatives and others close to me began to make suggestions and I took them to heart. That’s when I decided to pursue nursing.”
Spellman entered the College of Nursing (CON) in the fall of 2000 armed only with her bachelor of science degree and the zeal to learn. Soon after she found herself in the midst of several community outreach projects that took her out of the traditional role of a student in class, to taking a hands-on approach in her own locality.
“I began working with Suzanne Doscher of the College of Nursing and Lutheran Social Services, on a grass roots effort to create a nurse clinic for impoverished and underserved patients in the North Charleston area,” Spellman said. “The main thrust is to pursue pharmaceutical assistance for patients unable to afford their medications.”
A second project with CON associate professor Marilyn King and Amy Corder, was time spent and work done at Quality Time, an adult day care program for people with memory impairing conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease.
“Quality Time was a good and fulfilling project,” Spellman said. “I love elderly people. They are my favorite clients.”
Spellman went on to push beyond the bare requirements of her degree and participated in the Presidential Scholars Program this past year. There, she and a small group of fellow students took on yet another project aimed at helping the community.
“The program was a year-long, interdisciplinary approach to address an aspect of health care disparity. Our group focused on hypertension and cardiovascular disease,” she said. “Through research and interviews we discovered a problem right in our own locality. We then began to look for organizations that were already in place that had the resources to address a problem like disparity among indigent patients.”
“More outcome research is needed,” Spellman admitted. “But efforts are being made and many facilities are already in place to close the gaps in disparity. And where we found a lot of them, the work we did seems to be making a difference.”
In recognition of the difference she has made, she was honored March 5 by Sigma Theta Tau, the International Honor Society for Nursing Scholars, when they presented her with a memorial award in honor of Paula Thielen, a former faculty member of the CON.
But for Spellman, the hits just keep on coming.
Unbeknownst to her, at convocation she was presented with the CON Alumni Association Outstanding Student award. Eligibility for the award consists of a 3.5 GPA or better, a commitment to the profession of nursing, leadership performance and the support of colleagues and peers. Spellman was nominated by a group of her peers and chosen by the CON faculty out of a group of 35 graduates.
And as a further testament to her uncanny ability of time management and the icing on the cake of what has been a busy year, Spellman gave birth to her first child, Matthew, in March during the final semester of her degree.
“Joe (husband) once told me ‘Your plate is never full, it’s overflowing.’ But surprisingly, the transition of having a child and finishing the requirements of a degree went smoothly,” she said. “But I have a supportive husband and a great group of fellow students and colleagues to thank for that. They really made finishing easier than it probably should have been.”
So what lies ahead on that overflowing plate that Spellman calls her own?
“I guess I am a terminal student,” Spellman said with a smile. “Soon I want to purse my master’s degree in adult or family nurse practitioner, after that we’ll start talking about a Ph.D. Beyond that, I would love to come back to MUSC and conduct further outcomes research and who knows, maybe I’ll even teach.
“But when the day is done and I do finally get that time to myself, I still give it away,” Spellman admitted. “I come home and prop up my feet, hold that baby and I don’t put him down. That’s what I do with Rose Mary’s time.”
Clearly time well earned and time well spent.