Words by Elizabeth Williams | Images by Blakeney Clouse
Frances Stephens graduated from Bevill State Community College with an associate degree in nursing in December 2020. Throughout her time at Bevill, she developed the idea that a former student could come back and tutor for the nursing program.
From this idea grew The Heartbeat of Nursing, a tutoring program for nursing students that provides supplemental curriculum information and teaches soft skills like time management.
“Nursing school is hard, and it needs to be hard. It is not graduating from difficult material into an easy profession. You are literally caring for people’s lives,” Frances says. “But there are ways to make the learning easier, and I want to provide that for students.”
Through the Heartbeat of Nursing, Frances strives to break down everything students are learning to make it easier for them and teach best practices for studying.
She offers tutoring for every semester of school, as well as National Council Licensure Examination (NCLEX) preparation. Students come to her from Bevill State campuses in Jasper, Sumiton, and Fayette, and she has even tutored some students from four-year nursing programs.
Since graduating, Frances has worked at Jasper’s Walker Baptist Medical Center in multiple areas, including Orthopedics/General Surgery, Postpartum, Well-baby Nursery, and Pediatric Home Health.
When she is not hard at work, she can be found spending time with her family, taking care of three horses, and enjoying fellowship at Farmstead Baptist Church.
With such a busy schedule, many would spend their free time for themselves, but not Frances. When asked why she dedicates herself to tutoring, Frances replied, “I love seeing the moments when someone doesn’t understand why we have a certain protocol, or why we treat this disease with that medication, and then you go about explaining it, and they have a lightbulb moment.”
Just as knowledge is for nurses, a heartbeat is crucial for all life. Frances is working to be The Heartbeat of Nursing. WL
