Preparing Tommorow's Nurses with Dr. Jessica Wood

Nursing is a calling. At Norwich, the faculty understand your desire to serve and make an impact for the greater good. Follow your passion and make a lasting impact in others’ lives through service.

“We are here as nurses because people need us,” says Dr. Jessica Wood, director of the School of Nursing and associate professor. “People need us to rise to the occasion, to put anything about ourselves aside, to take care of the person that’s in front of us — and I think that’s what Norwich is about, too. Focusing on being leaders everywhere in everything we do.”

Nursing is a profession that has stood the test of time and offered a pathway to serving society at large. Norwich’s focus on experiential learning offers future nurses an efficient and proven opportunity to become the nurses that society needs.

“We are here as nurses because people need us, whether that means teaching the next generation of nurses or working in the emergency room during the hardest moments of someone’s life,” says Dr. Jessica Wood, director of the School of Nursing and associate professor. “People need us to rise to the occasion, to put anything about ourselves aside, to take care of the person that’s in front of us — and I think that’s what Norwich is about, too. Focusing on being leaders everywhere in everything we do.”

Bonds Through Nursing

“We have a smaller program that gives us a faculty to student ratio that’s much different than other schools,” says Wood. “Our faculty are our academic advisors and they know those students really well. I think that really helps with our students’ ability to be successful in the program.”

That relationship with the student body comes to life on a daily basis. “They know that we have an open-door policy and they can just come hang out with us. They can come ask us questions if they’re struggling and we try to come together as a group to really support them throughout their time here at Norwich. The close relationship with the faculty that I think sets us apart from other places.” she says. “The other thing is, because of where we’re located and that we’re not tied to a specific hospital for clinical practice is that our students get a wide range of clinical rotations. That spans from community health and high schools to major tertiary care centers and smaller hospitals.”

“We have really high expectations for our students, and while that might be really difficult while they’re in the program, we want them to leave the program at the highest level they can be,” says Wood. “Our community of interest, where our nursing students go out to as students or graduates, they love our students. They talk about how they can tell it’s a Norwich student or grad, and that means a lot to us as faculty.”

A Norwich and Nursing Life

Norwich’s Guiding Values seep into every fabric of life on campus. Nursing is no exception. “The University’s mission, vision, and goals are who we are. It’s an important thing for us to talk to our students about on a regular basis so they know what they represent,” says Wood. “We talk about it all the time. We have a student handbook, we tell students, ‘I don’t care if you’re on the bus, people know who you are, so behave on the bus. You’re not just representing Norwich University, you’re representing nurses.’”

When students embrace the lifestyle of both Norwich and nursing, the sky is the limit. “Nursing is such an incredible profession to be a part of, and people become nurses for different reasons,” she says. “We’ve had discussions after we took students to Costa Rica. We weren’t there to experience gratitude, we were there because someone needed us to be there.